Cricket: Brownlie classy knock helps Knights' to win

Dean Brownlie had a tidy innings for the Knights, scoring his half century off 75 balls after 102 minutes at the crease. Photo / John Stone

An early assault on the Central Stags top order, helped by a bit of movement in the wicket, put the Northern Knights in a perfect position in the early stages of their round six Ford Trophy encounter at Whangarei's Cobham Oval.

Bagging the wicket of Stags' opener George Worker in the first over, Jimmy Baker set the pace for the Knights' seam attack, and his teammates were quick to follow suit.

Snaring the wicket of dangerous slogger Jesse Ryder , Brett Hampton got in on the action to leave the Stags sitting in a precarious situation at 26/2.

Just when it seemed the Knights' onslaught couldn't get much better, Baker struck again, this time taking the wickets of Ben Smith and then captain Will Young in rapid succession.

In doing so, the Knights not only dismissed any further threat from the danger of the Stags imposing top order, they also reinforced their seam attack's ability to step up in the absence of their more experienced pace bowlers such as Trent Boult and Tim Southee.

However, the Stags found an unsuspecting hero in the form of Doug Bracewell who conjured up 80 runs and linked up well with Ben Wheeler to repair their first innings to a stand of 224, an innings which was initially in ruin at 29/4 and 91/6 earlier in the piece.

The arrival of Ish Sodhi, back from Black Caps duties, added further fuel to the dry conditions as he took the wickets of Bracewell and Wheeler with 34 balls left in the first innings.

Facing an interesting second innings run chase, questions hung over how the pitch would react for the Knights' openers.

And it didn't take long for the answer to come.

Dismissed for a duck, captain Daniel Flynn left the crease, and was greeted in the changing sheds by Joe Carter shortly after, who was dismissed for 11.

Despite the shaky start, a sterling 100 partnership between Anton Devcich and Dean Brownlie resurrected the innings as they strode toward victory off a remaining 96 balls.

Another solid milestone in the match was that of Baker's 3-30, whose previous best was 3-62.

The Knights claimed the win after reaching 227/2 in 42.4 overs, with Brownlie securing an impressive 107 and Devcich just one run shy of a century.