Cricket: Auckland attack under pressure

Auckland bowler Greg Morgan. Photo / Dean Purcell

Defending champions Northern Districts kept their cool to beat a skittery Auckland team by two wickets with four balls to spare in the opening one-day game of the season at Colin Maiden Park yesterday.

Auckland reached 264 for eight after at one stage looking likely to top 300 and, while nobody reached 50 for the visitors, they kept ahead of the required run-rate for much of their innings and when the crunch came the Auckland attack was too spendthrift.

They gave away 30 extras, including 14 leg byes, a no-ball and 15 wides, five of which came off one ball in the closing stages.

Not all of Auckland's woes were of their own making as skied shots fell tantalisingly close to fielders and the winning three runs came when a Joey Yovich drive was deflected by one diving fielder away from another.

Auckland started with a rush as opener Richard Jones smote 22 off 19 balls, including five fours, before mistiming a pull shot. Fellow opener Reece Young made 65 and, when he fell to a legside stumping off Bruce Martin, Auckland were 168 for four.

Captain Gareth Hopkins rattled up 51 off 41 and there were brisk contributions from Scott Styris (28) and Ronnie Hira (28 not out).

Brent Arnel, Kane Williamson and Bradley Scott all took two wickets and they were well supported by some sharp fielding, with Williamson outstanding close in.

The Northern openers, Brad Wilson and Anton Devcich, put on 61 from 63 balls. Wilson's included six fours in his 37, while Devcich scored 47 before falling to left-arm spinner Hira.

Michael Parlane kept the momentum up with 47 off 56 balls but two wickets at 196 left ND needing 64 from 10 overs with four wickets in hand.

Auckland made a series of bowling changes, but 15 off the 43rd over tilted the balance to the visitors and Yovich, despite a couple of alarms, steered the visitors home.

The Auckland bowling and fielding was a mixed bag.

Hira picked up three wickets, fellow spinner Bhupinder Singh deceived the dangerous Peter McGlashan and Ravi Bopara bowled an economical spell of medium pace.

CANTERBURY V CD

An outstanding 150 from former international Michael Papps brought Canterbury surprisingly close to stealing a win in Rangiora.

Instead, they fell 15 runs short after Central set a challenging 301 for nine after being sent in.

Canterbury's start couldn't have been much worse: Rob Nicol lasted only two balls before George Worker took a sharp chance at mid-off from Ewen Thompson, and although Papps was in good touch at one end, the other proved problematic.

OTAGO V WELLINGTON

A dashing fifth-wicket partnership between brothers Neil and Daniel Broom steered Otago to a six-wicket victory over Wellington in Queenstown.

Rain and a damp outfield delayed the start by almost five hours and the match was reduced to 22 overs a side.

The brothers came together with 6.1 overs left when Otago were four for 117 in pursuit of Wellington's 153 for seven.