Verma, Woodcock star as Firebirds down Stags
A maiden five-wicket bag from Anurag Verma and a gritty knock from Luke Woodcock gave Wellington a tight four-wicket one-day win over Central Districts at Napier on Thursday.
Medium-pacer Verma derailed CD’s innings after they chose to bat first in the second-round match at McLean Park on Thursday, as he got rid of most of CD’s middle order to take 5-44 from his 10 overs.
CD struggled along to post 213-9 from their 50 overs and that was helped by all-rounder Josh Clarkson scoring 68 from 80 balls at No 6, hitting three sixes.
Clarkson’s partnership of 67 runs with Dane Cleaver, who scored 33, was the main reason they scored a defendable total.
Wellington opener Michael Papps got them off to a good start in their chase, scoring 50, but once CD spinner George Worker came on, he slowed things right down.
Worker took three wickets in the first half of the innings to put the pressure back on Wellington.
And when Wellington lost Matt Taylor in the 39th over, they looked to be in trouble at 156-7 with 11 overs to go.
Seamer Blair Tickner got rid of Taylor and Scott Borthwick (40) to give CD some hope of defending the target.
But Woodcock kept a cool head, scoring 63 not out from 75 balls, making sure the run rate never got out of hand and and he got them home with 1.2 overs to spare, reaching 214-6.
Debutant Brett Randell led Northern Districts to a thumping nine-wicket win over Canterbury in Hamilton. The 21-year-old took 4-34 off eight overs in his first ND appearance as Canterbury crumbled batting first to be rolled for 135 in 32 overs.
Northern reached their target with ease in their reply, making 136-1 in 29.3 overs for a bonus-point win.
Randell, a right-arm seamer, was backed up by 3-24 off seven overs from Brett Hampton while Scott Kuggeleijn’s 2-36 included the wicket of Canterbury’s top-scorer Jack Boyle.
Canterbury were moseying along at 80-2 in the 17th over when the dismissal of veteran Peter Fulton sparked an inexcusable collapse. The visitors lost their last eight wickets for 55 runs as Northern’s seam attack ran through a dispirited batting display on a placid Seddon Park wicket.
With little pressure on them, openers Dean Brownlie and Joe Carter were able to go about their work in measured fashion.
They compiled 131 for the first wicket, with Carter making 64 and Brownlie finishing unbeaten on 55.
Rookie Auckland batsman Sean Solia again put in an impressive performance, top scoring in their 19-run win over Otago in Auckland.
Solia, who scored a century in his debut game at the weekend, scored 84 to set up Auckland’s firstinnings total of 257.
Solia’s knock at No 3 was the best of an Auckland card that didn’t feature many other amazing scores.
Donovan Grobbelaar made 45 and Robert O’Donnell 42, but they were dismissed in 48.4 overs.
Otago spinner Anaru Kitchen, playing against his former teammates, returned his best bowling figures of 4-23 and Black Caps allrounder Jimmy Neesham snared 4-58.
In reply, Otago had a few contributions from their batsmen, but none stayed in to get the job done.
Opener Brad Wilson’s 40 was the best offering, but they lost regular wickets, particularly when facing spinners Rob Nicol and Tarun Nethula.
The two slow bowlers gutted the middle order and Nethula, who got rid of Neesham, took 3-41, while Nicol grabbed 2-49. Speedster Lockie Ferguson then came back to clean up the tail, taking the last two wickets just as things were getting close and he finished with 2-35.