Schoolboy's ton not enough for Northland win

The Northland First XI pushed strongly for an outright win over rivals Bay of Plenty in round one of the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl but had to settle with a draw after a hard-fought contest at Cobham Oval.

Northland batted first, with 18-year-old Bradley Kneebone opening in his first two-day match for the province. Kneebone stole the show when he stayed the distance to score a stunning 115 runs in Saturday's first innings.

The Whangarei Boys' High opener became the second youngest cricketer (behind Neal Parlane, who was aged 17) to score a ton for Northland in this competition.



Northland coach Stephen Cunis said the Northland side were delighted for Kneebone when he reached 100 runs.

"It was Bone's first two-dayer for Northland - he's played a few one-dayers where he batted eight or nine. But he opens for the Boys High team so I asked him the other day if he would have a go ... he was really excited. He batted out of his skin and there was a lot of feeling around the ground when he reached 100 ... He played with a lot of pride and passion," Cunis said.

Faced with a fast Bay of Plenty attack, Kneebone did well to put on partnerships of 65 with Henry Cooper (23) and 54 with Ian Page (28).

Northland were aiming to get a Hawke Cup challenge, and to do so they needed to win the first innings, to get the outright win.

"So, we took a big risk thinking we could get more wickets than we did, and declared at 251 runs for nine wickets - we were pretty unlucky to lose the first innings really," Cunis said.

At stumps on day one, BoP got through to 37-1 and knuckled down on Sunday, with partnerships the key as they declared at 283-9 with first-innings points safely in the bag. Bharat Popli (65) and Ben Christensen (60) put on 94 off 129 balls, and Brett Hampton (57) combining with wicketkeeper Tim Clarke to add 74 runs off just 79 balls.

Cunis had felt his side were still in the hunt at lunch on Sunday, when they had BoP at 175-6, but dropped catches cost the hosts and BoP gutsed it out at the crease.

Northland's Cody Andrews and Matt Taylor bowled well for long spells, with Taylor grabbing three wickets for 86 runs, while Andrews took 2-78.

With 50 overs left in the game, Northland started their second innings and quickly got into strife, losing three wickets for just 10 runs.

Craig Coffey steadied the ship, however, batting 33 not out, and with Ben Hyde put on a partnership of 55 to make it 68-3 by the close of play.

"There were still overs left to play but because we had already lost the first innings and we were not eligible for a Hawke Cup Challenge we mutually agreed to call the game off," coach Cunis said.

Next up for Northland is round two of the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl against Hamilton on December 10-11.

Fergus Hickey Rosebowl at Whangarei: Northland 251-9 declared (Brad Kneebone 115; Amandeep Singh 3/67, Tony Goodin 2/37, Jono Boult 2/42) and 68/3 (T Goodin 2/19) lost first innings points to Bay of Plenty 283-9 declared (Bharat Popli 65, Ben Christensen 60, Brett Hampton 57.