Cricket: Knights batsmen come up short

Northern Knights come out to field in front of the new pavilion at Bay Oval.

The Northern Knights will have to go back to the drawing board after falling well short in their second run chase in three days at Bay Oval.

The home side were beaten by the Wellington Firebirds by 21 runs on Saturday after succumbing by 11 runs to the Canterbury Wizards two days before.

Both times, impressive crowds were left with very little to get excited about as the top order failed to fire.

The Knights were reduced to 39/4 in their pursuit of the Firebirds' 145/6 and from there always looked likely to come up short.

Former Knights bowler Brent Arnel was responsible for removing Anton Devcich, while BJ Watling and Brad Wilson chipped out meekly to short cover before captain Daniel Flynn was run out by Michael Pollard for 10.

Scott Styris and Daryl Mitchell scored at a run a ball clip through the middle overs to make the result look more respectable, but with no Knights batsman able to put the ball over the fence the target was never really under threat.

In a near replica of Thursday's match, the Knights had earlier got off to a great start with the ball.

The visitors opted to bat, but Pollard, Michael Papps and Grant Elliot were all back in the hut inside six overs with the score at just 36.

That brought together Stephen Murdoch and James Franklin, who crafted the day's best partnership to tilt the contest into the Firebirds' favour.

Murdoch was run out for a brisk 57 thanks to some slick work from Anton Devcich and BJ Watling, but by the time Franklin departed in the final over, the Knights had a formidable total to chase.

Wellington Firebirds 145/6 (Murdoch 57, Franklin 46; Scott Kuggeleijn 2/25, Jono Boult 1/21) beat Northern Knights 124/9 (Daryl Mitchell 31, Scott Styris 29; Graham Napier 3/18, Brent Arnel 2/28).