ND by 8 wickets
CRICKET: Northern Districts hold an interim advantage on the Plunket Shield leaderboard after picking up the opening outright win of the first-class summer at Mount Maunganui’s Bay Oval yesterday. ND collected 16 of the possible 20 points for an eight-wicket victory over the Otago Volts, with a day and a half to spare. Black Caps captain Kane Williamson (83) shared a 139-run partnership for the second wicket with Northland batsman Henry Cooper, who remained unbeaten on 66. Round one of eight will be completed in Nelson and Wellington today, with both the remaining matches having been stalled yesterday by rain. Tantalising encounter as unbeaten Greerton and Mount do battle
Cricket
The big match-up in the Baywide Twenty20 competition today is likely to take place in round four, where the two unbeaten sides in last week’s season openers square off.
Eves Realty Greerton and Carrus Mount Maunganui emerged from the first two rounds of the Baywide T20 championship at the top of the standings. Barring the Mount being beaten in round three, with Greerton drawing the bye, a battle of attrition should take place to decide the competition’s remaining unbeaten team.
Greerton are likely to have Northern Districts’ Brett Hampton available again, fresh from hammering 17 sixes in a whirlwind innings that produced 155 runs against Te Puke last Saturday.
Another Greerton batsman to make a big impression was Pip Thickpenny, who scored 47 and 25 last weekend.
Long-time Mount Maunganui premier stalwart Peter Drysdale is another who likes to attack the boundary ropes, with his two turns at bat last weekend producing a neat 100 runs.
Drysdale opened with 65 off just 35 balls and then helped take his side to a nine-wicket win over Te Puke, with an unbeaten 35 from 19 deliveries.
Mount’s new recruit, Ben Pomare, who has moved across town from Tauranga Boys’ College, finished his first day in green and gold with 30 not out. Fergusson Park Round Three New World Te Puke v Bond & Co Tauranga Boys’ College; Carrus Mount Maunganui v Bayleys Central Indians; Element IMF Cadets v GM Painters Lake Taupo CC; Eves Realty Greerton the bye. Round Four Carrus Mount Maunganui v Eves Realty Greerton; Element IMF Cadets v Bond & Co Tauranga Boys’ College; GM Painters Lake Taupo CC v Bayleys Central Indians; New World Te Puke the bye. Points Greerton 12, Mount Maunganui 12, Cadets 6, Lake Taupo CC 6, Te Puke 0, Central Indians 0, Tauranga Boys’ College 0.
The two other round-four encounters see Element IMF Cadets favoured to dispatch Bond & Co Tauranga Boys’ College and a Lakeland derby between GM Painters Lake Taupo CC and Bayleys Central Indians.
There should be a good scrap in the early-afternoon round between New World Te Puke and Tauranga Boys’ College with the winner claiming their first points of the T20 competition.
Mount Maunganui will be odds-on to defeat Central Indians and Lake Taupo would have to produce a major surprise to lower the colours of Cadets.