Napier proving big hit for Stags

It'll be a few more days yet before the man who shares his surname with Hawke's Bay's art deco city arrives here.
However, English import Graham Napier left his calling card yesterday in Palmerston North when he bludgeoned an unbeaten 73 runs off 27 deliveries in the Central Districts' explosive three-wicket victory over the Northern Districts Knights.
While fireworks don't traditionally kick in until New Year's Eve, someone forgot to tell Napier, as he found the boundary rope seven times at Fitzherbert Park and sailed over it on five occasions to remind other teams of the threat he poses in the twenty20 HRV Cup starting on January 2.
Before that, Napier and the Stags play the Otago Volts in a one-day match at the University Oval, Dunedin, on Monday.
Yesterday, the CD allrounder shared an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 87 from 38 balls with George Worker, who was 27 not out as the hosts eclipsed ND's total of 300 with 15 balls to spare.
"Any innings where you win and give it your all is a valuable one so, yes, it's a sense of personal pride," Napier (pictured) told SportToday after smashing 50 off 20 balls, making it the second fastest domestic one-day half ton.
The gloved one standing behind him, Bay-born and former CD cricketer Peter McGlashan, holds the record of 19 balls to achieve that feat in the 2007-08 season against the Auckland Aces.
"I felt like I was owing the team some runs because I haven't been bowling as well as I should be," Napier said last night from Palmerston North before heading off to Auckland today to spend Christmas with relatives there.
The 29-year-old right-hander from Colchester County, Essex, overshadowed the efforts of ND teenager Kane Williamson, who scored an unbeaten 107 (his second ton) before taking three wickets for 48 runs with his offspinners.
Napier, who played for the Wellington Firebirds last season, was part of a failed experiment from CD coach Dermot Reeve and captain Jamie How to move him up the order to use their batting depth in previous games.
"Brendon Diamanti is injured [recurring shoulder injury] so we wanted to make the most of the powerplay."
As an allrounder, Napier said he had snared Wellington 49 wickets last season but had not yielded runs.
"I'm getting into the swing of it now but my bowling's not quite there. Unfortunately I've had four catches dropped from three games and it's become costly in the figures."
He saluted opener Peter Ingram's 59 runs and the short but sharp rap from Kieran Noema-Barnett's 45 off 31 balls to up the tempo in CD's innings.
While waiting with the boys to bat on the sideline, he and Black Caps allrounder Jacob Oram had worked out they needed 100 from 10 overs with powerplay to overhaul their target.
"In the end we required 93 off 10 overs and we got it. In an ideal situation we should have not have had two more wickets down," the ex-England A player explained.
Napier said he was fitting into the composite CD team well and enjoyed their warm welcome.
Skipper How said the ex-England Lions squad member had shown he was a match winner.
"It was definitely an important game and he played out of his skin," said How, claiming their familiarity gained on the pitch in their losing match against the Auckland Aces last Sunday helped.
"It [the pitch] held together and our previous record of chasing down totals also helped. It was a good team performance and that's the pleasing aspect of it all."