Northland started their campaign against a strong Hamilton side. Batting first, Northland offered little resistance, losing their first six wickets for 43 runs before wicketkeeper Rory Christopherson and No 8 Sam Sweeney stopped the rot, scoring 28 and 32 respectively to reach 114 all out.
Hamilton chased the total down in 13.3 overs with a score of 65 from recovering Black Caps allrounder Mitchell Santner. Young bowler Nathan Parkes showed some fight, dismissing both openers to earn Northland's only two wickets.
The second game against eventual-winners BOP was much the same with the opposition pouring on the runs to make 196 in their 20 overs and Northland managing only 113 in reply.
Northland got closer to their first win against Waikato Valley in their third game, losing by only 20 runs after failing to chase down their opponent's 186, running out of overs with three wickets remaining.
However, their luck turned against Counties Manukau, chasing down 123 with six wickets remaining.
Tom Herman, Ben Hyde and Chris Page all contributed with the ball, taking two wickets apiece.
Page and Hyde returned with the bat, scoring 48 and 38 respectively to chase down the total with two overs to spare.
The final game against Poverty Bay started well for Northland, who scored 170/9 off their 20 overs, Fletcher Coutts scoring a quick-fire 50 off 40 balls.
However, a 140-run partnership between a pair of South African imports took away any chance of a win for Northland who lost by nine wickets.
Cunis said his side could have easily won against Poverty Bay even though their opposition played well.
"There's no reason why we couldn't get their imports out. They were good players but if we bowled consistently and fielded well, we would've got them out, there's no doubt about it."
He said while his team showed potential in patches, they couldn't put a total performance together, and were missing key batting and bowling partnerships, which were essential to build pressure.
"As a coach, I knew if we were going to beat a team with good players, we needed to make some drastic improvements to push these players and we didn't."
The team was missing Northland cricket stalwart Neal Parlane, due to an Achilles injury, who had provided the team with much needed experience and game awareness.
Cunis said some key players in the team stood up to give inspired performances in spite of the losses.
"Nathan Parkes was a shining light, Tom Herman fronted up and bowled well, Rory Christopherson behind the stumps was absolutely unbelievable so there's certainly some diamonds in the rough so to speak."
He lauded the team over their unity and how they stuck together through some tough games.
"When you're not winning and you've got some younger boys in the team and you're getting beat up a little bit, it can be quite daunting.
"They stuck together, they were a team and that's what Northland is about: win, lose or draw, if we stick together as a team then you'll be fine."
