Auckland, although beaten by Northern Districts, will still host ND in Saturday's first preliminary final of the domestic one-day competition after the last round of games on Tuesday.
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| Photo: Getty |
Auckland, although beaten by Northern Districts, will still host ND in Saturday's first preliminary final of the domestic one-day competition after the last round of games on Tuesday.
Auckland had 24 points, ND 21 while Canterbury, which finished third on 19 points will host CD which CD had 17. Finishing out of the running were Otago on 13 and Wellington eight.
The loser of the preliminary final will play the winner of Canterbury and CD next Wednesday with the final on Saturday week.
Auckland was asked to bat first at Cobham Oval and while it made a sound start to 58 before Reece Young was dismissed for 32, it kept losing wickets at a constant rate with only Ravi Bopara, 89 from 92 balls, managing to hold the innings together. He was eventually eighth man dismissed with four balls of the innings remaining, and Auckland finished all out from the last ball on 239.
Andrew de Boorder contributed a handy 32 during an 85-run fifth wicket stand.
Brad Scott had good return with 3-43 from 10 overs while Joseph Yovich had 3-50 from nine overs. Brent Arnel was the most economic with 1-36 from his 10.
ND made a poor start to its reply with openers BJ Watling and Michael Parlane both back in the pavilion for only six runs. However, Kane Williamson again demonstrated his class, this time in partnership with Hamish Marshall.
They added 119 runs before Marshall was dismissed for 66 while Williamson carried ND within sight of the win to score 81. However, Yovich fell at the same score to leave the pressure on the lower-order to see the side home.
Scott was able to complete a good day's work for himself by finishing on 17 not out, with Graeme Aldridge on six not out, as ND got home by three wickets with 11 balls to spare. Pieter Erasmus took 3-45 from eight overs while Lance Shaw had 1-25 from seven.
Canterbury extended Wellington's misery at QEII Park. Ironically Wellington managed one of its better batting efforts to end with 299-7 with four of its batsmen making half-centuries.
Steve Rhodes hit 50 off 36 balls in an opening stand of 96 with Michael Pollard, who ended with 53 from 42 balls – both batsmen falling to Carl Frauenstein.
Neal Parlane provided a rock-like role in the middle-order with 57 from 78 balls while Chris Nevin's 36 from 33 balls and Luke Woodcock's 53 from 29 helped Wellington to a score of substance. Both Canterbury fast men, Shane Bond and Chris Martin, came in for some tap with Bond taking 1-63 from 10 and Martin 1-66 from nine.
Frauenstein ended with 3-44 from his eight overs.
Canterbury started shakily with two wickets down for 25 runs, but Rob Nicol and Johan Myburgh saw the score through to 100 before Myburgh was out for 29. Nicol went for 69 from 67 balls at 122-4 but at that stage Shanan Stewart and Dean Brownlie took over in a stand worth 169 runs.
Stewart's 101 from 78 balls was his fourth one-day century while Brownlie was playing only his second game and his 86 not out from 73 balls was his first runs at this level.
Stewart was out nine runs short of the target, but with 20 balls still left, Canterbury was never in any trouble to get home.
Jeetan Patel had 1-44 from his 10 overs while Mark Gillespie took 2-51 from his eight overs.
Central Districts batted first at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth against Otago and enjoyed some consistent, if not dominating scoring to reach 253-9 from its 50 overs.
Bevan Griggs hit 51 from 59 balls batting at No.3 while Mathew Sinclair scored 42 and Brendon Diamanti 56 from 48 while Ewen Thompson's 24 from 23 toward the end of the innings proved useful.
Anthony Bullick took 4-60, from nine overs, the best figures of his brief career while Nathan McCullum took 2-32 from 10 overs.
Otago lost its openers Shaun Haig and Aaron Redmond at 35 but Darren Broom, batting at No.4 hit 73 from 104 balls to keep his side's momentum going while and unbroken 54 run stand for the ninth wicket between Greg Todd (39 from 36 balls) and Bullick (33 from 20) regained the initiative for Otago and it won with two balls to spare.
George Worker took 2-49 from 10 overs, Graham Napier 2-50 from 10 and Michael Mason 2-52 from 10 overs.