Auckland steamroll battling Canterbury

There were hat-tricks, record totals and double centuries elsewhere, but only one outright winner as Auckland got the jump on their Plunket Shield cricket rivals.

Inspired by seven-wicket match hauls by their new ball duo Mitchell McClenaghan and Matt Quinn, the Aces polished off Canterbury by nine wickets at Eden Park’s outer oval on Sunday. As Otago and Wellington each fought back from precarious spots to bat out draws in Napier and Hamilton respectively, Auckland’s comprehensive win propelled them to a 10-point lead at the top of the ladder.

Chasing 155, victory was iced by an unbeaten 84 from Black Caps opener Martin Guptill who, like a few of his test team-mates, will board the plane for Australia on Tuesday with a spring in his step. He faced 94 balls and hit 12 fours and a six.

It was an early jolt for defending champions Canterbury as they seek to become the first team since the 1930s to win three successive Plunket Shield titles. They never recovered from their day one capitulation for 149, and in the second innings Leo Carter’s 79 was the best contribution as they were dismissed for 321.

Quinn snared the big middle order wickets of Peter Fulton and Andrew Ellis in his second innings haul of 4-81 while McClenaghan offered a reminder he wasn’t just a white ball bowler with 3-68 to go with his first innings bag of four.

In Hamilton, a Northern Knights team laden with five New Zealand test squad members were denied by the fighting Firebirds, notably a 10th wicket stand of 81 between former Knights stalwart Brent Arnel and Dane Hutchinson.

In Napier, the Stags couldn’t finish off the Volts on a flat Nelson Park pitch after a record-breaking day on Saturday. A century by Neil Broom, who returned to Otago from Canterbury in the offseason, saved the Volts.