Kaipara Flats' Brad Wilson proved his versatility by scoring a chanceless century for Northern Districts from the unusual position of number five. Wilson, a specialist opener, was happy enough to be shuffled down the order yesterday to give Daniel Flynn the opportunity to accompany Michael Parlane at the top of theorder. "I think the idea was to give Flynney a chance to bat somewhere different and bat against the new ball, so that opened up an opportunity for me to try and prove my skills batting further down the order," he said yesterday. It certainly paid off, with Wilson reaching his top score of this year's Plunket Shield campaign with 107, the highest score in ND's first innings total of 465/9 declared. "The tactic obviously worked, with Flynney getting 60 and me 100, it obviously worked and showed that we can be flexible about where we bat," he said. The Kaipara Flats batsman batted for 279 minutes and faced 232 balls in his innings, which included 14 boundaries. "I was pleased with my tempo last night [Saturday] but it was a bit tough this morning and I had to graft a bit but that's all part of cricket," he said. It was easily his best total in the four-day competition this year on a good wicket that was occasionally a little variable in bounce. "It was good for me to get some runs in obviously what is a big game for us," he added. Wilson said the side were hoping the wicket would dry out some more and give the ND spin bowlers some extra purchase in the rest of the innings. "We would have liked to pick up a couple of more wickets today but we're still confident we can go hard and get them out," he said. The Otago spinners Nick Beard (3/78 off 32) and Nathan McCullum (3/139 off 43) were the most effective of the bowlers. In reply to ND's first innings total Otago were 165/1, with Craig Cumming on 90 and Darren Broom on 21 at stumps, leaving the game very much in the balance today.
