Northland woes as openers fail to fire

Northland started off their Brian Dunning tournament in Taupo with a comprehensive defeat at the hands of a handy, but inexperienced Bay of Plenty side.
The defeat was reminiscent of last season's first-up defeat at the hands of Waikato Valley, that set the tone for a less than memorable representative season in 2009-10.
Northland went into this year's tournament with a strong team packed with all-rounders but they were pushed into action too quickly as the top order went cheaply on a greenish wicket.
"The wicket was pretty fresh at the start of the day but that's the end of the excuses for us, we're a good side but we didn't play to our full potential, we lost four quick wickets and never really recovered," player-coach Ewen Thompson said.
The Northland top order were in all sorts of trouble at 39-6 before Ben Williams and Richard Atkins formed a partnership to right the ship and at least saw them reach a defendable total. Williams was run out for 33 and Aktins reached 59 before he too perished, pushing hard for runs.
Thompson (10), Kevin Forde (24) and Jake Phillips (14) all chipped in to help set the Bay of Plenty a total of 177 to win.
A good opening partnership of 119 runs between Bay openers Peter Drysdale and Tim Clarke took the game away from Northland.
Thompson was the only Northland bowler to take any wickets in the Bay innings, with 3-40.
Northland play Poverty Bay today and Waikato Valley tomorrow and their coach is looking for them to show some improvement in those matches to give them something to hang the rest of their season on.
"We've got to take the hard road now, we'll have to beat either Bay of Plenty or Hamilton outright now - or both - if we want to earn a Hawke Cup challenge, so it'll be a big ask for us but one we're up for." Thompson said.
Northland v Bay of Plenty
(BOP won the toss and fielded)
Northland
R Farrand c Christenson b Hampton 0
T Satti c&b Goodin 9
I Page lbw Hampton 3
H Cooper c Christenson b Goodin 6
B Williams run out 33
B Hood c Popli b Rae 4
C Page c Clarke b Hampton 0
R Atkins b Christenson 59
E Thompson c Clarke b Donnelly 10
K Forde c Rice b Christenson 24
J Phillips not out 14
Extras 14
176 (49.3 overs)
FOW: 1/9 2/9 3/19 4/23 5/35 6/39 7/86 8/113 9/157 10/176
Bowling: T Goodin 10 2 32, B Hampton 10 2 22, S Rae 9.3 1 11, J Donnelly 10 1 30, B Christenson 10 2 47.
Bay of Plenty
P Drysdale lbw Thompson 47
T Clarke c Phillips b Thompson 54
B Christenson not out 23
B Popli lbw Thompson 1
D Sorrenson not out 31
Extras 24
180-3 (45.1 overs)
DNB: J McMillan, R Rice, S Rae, B Hampton, C Wilson, T Goodin
FOW: 1/116 2/117 3/119
Bowling: E Thompson 10 3 40, R Atkins 2 0 14, K Forde 4.1 0 30, J Kay 3 0 16, T Satti 8 0 24, J Phillips 10 0 21, B Williams 2 0 8, H Cooper 1 0 1, C Page 5 0 17
BOP win by seven wickets