CD, Auckland, Otago in front

Following an excellent caught and bowled from Monique Way (centre) she receives the high fives from CD teammate Sophie Pyott yesterday. Photo/Bevan Conley

Auckland and competition newcomers Otago joined Central Districts on the leader board after yesterday morning's session at the under-15 girls' nationals at Victoria Park, Wanganui.

After Tuesday afternoon's matches were rained off and points shared among the six teams, Central were the sole leaders, but that all changed yesterday morning when Auckland racked up 134-8, then bundled CD out for 124 with 2.5 overs to bowl.

Otago had a long trip north on Monday and showed fatigue to go down in a close encounter with CD, but bounced back on Tuesday morning with a fighting victory over Auckland. Yesterday morning Otago showed they were the dark horses with a win over Canterbury.

Otago have an edge with New Zealand White Ferns captain Suzie Bates as their coach and she rated their chances after the brace of wins since Monday.

"Because it's our first time at this competition it was difficult to gauge how we would stack up against the others," Bates said yesterday.

"I work with a lot of these girls down in Otago after taking up a job with Cricket New Zealand. I'd say our top for or five are right up to this level. We went close to CD on day one after a long trip up in the morning and then we beat Auckland, which surprised them a bit, I think."

Bates said such a competition was not around when she was that age and she had to compete against boys.

"There wasn't a national girls under-15 competition back then, so I played against the junior boys and then competed in under-17 girls'. This type of competition today is excellent, because it allows the girls and their coaches to see just what their skill level is," Bates said.

Meanwhile, Northland nailed their first win yesterday. They were all out for 118 in 30 overs, then dismissed Wellington for 93 after 20.2 overs.

The standings after yesterday morning's session had CD, Auckland and Otago on seven points, while Wellington, Canterbury and Northland were on four. The results from yesterday afternoon's session, which were unavailable at press time, would determine the final match-up to be played today.

In the Secondary Schools Girls' District tournament on the Collegiate School grounds, Canterbury/Nelson Bays combined made the finals of the T20 and 40-over competitions.

Tuesday afternoon's T20 play-off between Wanganui and Hawke's Bay was rained off late in the piece, so a super over was ordered yesterday to decide the other final berth, which Wanganui won.

The 40-over final is likely to match Manawatu against Christchurch/Nelson Bays after run rates were calculated.

Christchurch/Nelson Bays will be the strong favourites after convincingly beating Manawatu yesterday morning in what was effectively a dead rubber.