By BOB PEARCE
Auckland may have beaten Canterbury to extend their lead in the State championship to five points, but it's hard to go past Canterbury wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins as man of the match.
Unwanted by the Canterbury selectors at times this season, he scored 115 in the first innings and
was undefeated on 175 in a Canterbury second innings of 413.
Hopkins also kept wicket through two innings dominated by spin bowling, spending 21 hours of the four-day match on the field.
He scored 60 more runs yesterday on the benign wicket at Colin Maiden Park before he ran out of partners and his 175, one short of a 106-year-old Canterbury-Auckland record, contained 26 fours.
In any other context Auckland all-rounder Tama Canning would have been the hero. He scored a century in the first innings, took eight wickets in the match and was unbeaten on 44 when Auckland won with five wickets and six overs to spare.
They had been left 188 to win and were crawling to that when Canning and Barnes broke the stalemate. Spin bowler Paul Wiseman's 27 overs on the trot could not save Canterbury.
A dogged innings from Mark Orchard carried Northern Districts to a four-wicket win over Central Districts at McLean Park.
Orchard scored a painstaking 49 not out as Northern, after trailing by 45 runs on the first innings, reached their target of 205 before lunch on the fourth and final day.
Orchard, posting his highest score in just his second first-class match, and his captain Robbie Hart, unbeaten on 18, finished off a strong fightback from the Northern side with an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 46 runs.
In Wellington, Otago reached 295 for five to beat the home side by five wickets. Otago's Chris Gaffaney hit 108 and Robbie Lawson 66.
Auckland lead the table on 18 points, with Wellington on 13, Central and Otago on 12, and Northern and Canterbury on 7.
