George keeps working hard

George Worker continues to put pressure on the national cricket selectors to give him another go.

While Dean Brownlie continues to be preferred for the Black Caps with Martin Guptill again struggling with ongoing hamstring problems, Worker’s form must be close to being too good to ignore.

The left hander, who can be called on to bowl some midinnings overs, smashed 181 for Central Districts as the defending one-day champions clocked up 401-8 against Northern Districts at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park, bringing up 490 runs for him in the competition.

Opening the innings after a half hour delay because of dew on the outfield, Worker was watchful and largely sedate in the first part of his innings before ramping up his attack as the bowling became more and more loose.

As always, he was punishing to anything short or on his legs while he played some magnificent shots over cover, often clearing the ropes.

Worker’s first 50 came off 64 balls, his century off 115 balls while his 150 was off 133 balls.

By the time he was caught in the deep, he had amassed 19 fours

and seven sixes without offering the field a chance to see the back of him.

‘‘Obviously it’s pretty pleasing,’’ Worker said after the win and his 10th one-day ton. ‘‘We’re back at Puke Park in a must-win match and it’s really nice to get a bonus point as well.

‘‘We got off to a good start Jesse [Ryder] and I. Jesse played the way he plays and that allowed me to just knock it about a little bit and just play my game until at the end it just came off for me really.’’

Worker said with 15 overs to go they still had eight wickets in hand so he and Will Young decided to have a bit of fun.

Ryder found his season-best form, scoring 85 at the top of the order.

The former international had a great battle with Scott Kuggeleijn who was determined to keep it short, despite being hit to the third-highest terrace at the park.

Ryder’s departure, after putting on 138 for the first wicket with Worker, failed to bring much relief for ND as Young came in and scored 87.

Worker and Young then put on 184 for the second wicket before CD had a mini collapse, although they managed to get to 400 for the second time at the ground.

The reply from ND never looked likely as they lost early wickets, slumping to 44-5. They were eventually bowled out for just 174, handing CD a massive 227-run win.

Worker also backed up his hundred with career-best one-day bowling figures of 4-36 from 5.3 overs of his left-arm spin.

The result leaves CD with a faint chance of reaching the playoffs if they can get another bonus point win over Auckland at the same venue on Wednesday.

‘‘We just heard another result’s gone our way which gives us an opportunity to still get through to the semis,’’ Worker said.

‘‘We’ll come back here on Wednesday against Auckland and just do similar things that we did today in terms of do the basics well.’’