Central Districts hammered in Lincoln

It has been a tough two days in Lincoln for the Central Districts Under 17 team and their Whanganui contingent at the national tournament.

Central Districts was beaten by five wickets against Wellington on Thursday and yesterday at press time were fighting for survival against Otago.

Chasing a massive 296-8 on the Lincoln Green, Central Districts were reduced to 153-9 in the 36rd over, with Connor O'Leary just dismissed for 5.

His Whanganui team mate Akash Gill had come in at 34-3 and top scored for his team with 30 before being caught and bowled.

Earlier, the pair had been among the bowlers who got hit around quite a bit by the Otago batsmen, who had an opening partnership of 142.

O'Leary finished with figures of 0-67 from eight overs, while Gill closed out the innings to be left with 0-55 from his nine.

"Very tired at the moment and need to give it a lot tomorrow against Auckland," said coach Dilan Raj.

The team had only been able to muster a 20 percent effort and the scorelines reflected that, Raj said.

Gill had been unlucky to have a couple of dropped catches off his bowling, while taking a catch himself and being involved in the run out to get rid of Otago's well set openers, but having got their team through to the 26th over, it freed up the rest of the team to attack freely.

On Thursday against Wellington, Central Districts put up a defendable 250 on the Bert Sutcliffe Oval, although Gill and O'Leary were both dismissed for one run.

Wellington worked their way to the total, reaching it at the start of the final over from Gill.

He took 1-42 from 9.1 overs, while O'Leary finished with 1-28 from seven.