Neil Wagner of Northern Districts reacts during the Plunket Shield match between Canterbury and Northern Districts in Christchurch last week. Photo / Getty Images
Neil Wagner of Northern Districts reacts during the Plunket Shield match between Canterbury and Northern Districts in Christchurch last week. Photo / Getty Images
Another competition, another Bay of Plenty-dominated Northern Districts Knights cricket team to start to the Ford Trophy provincial 50 over matches today.
There are five Bay of Plenty players in the 12 named for today's match against defending champions Auckland on the Eden Park Outer Oval.
Black Caps pace bowlingstars Trent Boult and Neil Wagner will both be in the ND colours on the day many of their colleagues depart for the United Arab Emirates for the series against Pakistan starting next week.
Boult and Wagner will join that team later in the tour but won't be playing in the T20 matches there.
The Knights will be led today by Bay of Plenty's Dean Brownlie who takes over the skipper's reins from Daniel Flynn who was in charge for the Plunket Shield four-day matches.
"The team is playing some good cricket early in the season and are looking forward to transferring our momentum over to the Ford Trophy," says Brownlie.
Freelance T20 player Anton Devcich is also back with ND today after playing in the Afghanistan Premier League in Sharjah.
"It's been great playing in different conditions and cultures, and next to some world renowned T20 players but I've really missed the ND pre-season and am looking forward to playing with all the lads once again and hopefully we can start this competition off in style," Devcich said.
In their two Plunket Shield matches so far, ND have beaten Otago and were just denied a second win by Canterbury's last-wicket stand last week. ND are third on the points table behind Central Districts and Wellington.
Today's game starts at 11am.
Northern Districts team to play Auckland Dean Brownlie (BOP) captain Peter Bocock (Hamilton) Trent Boult (BOP) Henry Cooper (Northland) Daniel Flynn (BOP) Zak Gibson (Waikato Valley) Brett Hampton (BOP) Nick Kelly (Counties Manukau) Daryl Mitchell (Hamilton) Brett Randell (Northland) Neil Wagner (BOP)
