Canterbury claim strong position against Central Districts

the innings with career-best figures of 5-47, although Andy Ellis bowled superbly to finish with 1-13 off his 13 overs, including seven maidens.

Carter ended the day unbeaten on 76 as Canterbury reached an imposing 171-3 at stumps in their second innings – an overall lead of 207 with seven wickets in hand.

A maiden first class century by Robbie O’Donnell has helped propel the Auckland Aces into a dominant position against the coleading Wellington Firebirds after day two of their fifth-round Plunket Shield cricket match in Auckland on Sunday.

Auckland were in total control at stumps, having reached 369-4 for an overall lead of 195 with six first innings wickets in hand.

Resuming the day at 72-1 at Colin Maiden Park, O’Donnell and Michael Guptill-Bunce compiled a massive 172-run second-wicket partnership to ease past Wellington’s total of 174 and set up a poten- tially match-winning platform. Both former New Zealand under-19 representatives, the pair looked headed for matching centuries as Auckland asserted their domi- nance. But the partnership was finally broken directly after the lunch break when Guptill-Bunce was caught off the bowling of seamer Anurag Verma for 89, just four runs shy of his highest first class score, having faced 154 balls and hitting 10 boundaries.

O’Donnell eventually reached his century off 204 balls after 259 minutes at the crease as Wellington’s bowlers struggled to achieve breakthroughs.

Rob Nicol (22) joined O’Donnell to add a further 68 runs for the second wicket. O’Donnell and Brad Cachopa (60 not out ) continued to turn the screws, their 83-run stand finally ended when English legspinner Scott Borthwick trapped O’Donnell lbw for 167, the right-hander having faced 325 balls in his 411-minute stay at the crease, hitting 18 fours.

Northern Knights skipper Daniel Flynn fell just eight runs short of another first class century as the Knights amassed a healthy 324 in their first innings against the Otago Volts at Dunedin’s Uni- versity Oval.

Flynn was out for 92 off 194 balls at 184-6 in reply to Otago’s first innings total of 237. He’d earlier added 95 runs with Anton Devcich for the fifth wicket before Devcich also fell just one run short of a half century at 177-5.

The Knights eventually passed Otago’s total seven wickets down, Daryl Mitchell top-scoring with 73 runs for an impressive 324-run total. Otago had reached 32-0 at stumps.