Knights falter, fall flat
Batting woes ensured the Northern Knights failed to get off to a wining start in the domestic one-day competition.
The visitors went down by seven wickets to the Auckland Aces at Eden Park’s Outer Oval yesterday after a limp batting display left the hosts needing just 196 for victory in 50 overs.
They did that with more than 11 overs to spare, despite a decent bowling effort from the Knights, who suffered from a lack of runs to defend on a slow wicket.
Aces pace bowler Mitchell McClenaghan proved to be his side’s trump card as he blasted big holes in the Knights’ batting on the way to taking 4-33 off 10 energetic overs. His dismissal of BJ Watling proved to be the turning point, and it came with McClenaghan’s worst ball of the innings.
Watling, batting at No 4 instead of opening as he has done chiefly in the past at domestic level, looked on path to register his seventh Trophy one-day ton before stretching to get an edge to a McClenaghan delivery that was short and well wide of the off stump. Aces keeper and captain Gareth Hopkins gobbled the chance to end a fifth-wicket partnership with Jono Hickey worth 85, with Watling’s 72 off 85 deliveries.
Hickey had moved untroubled to 28 off 36 balls before edging Michael Bates down the leg-side to Hopkins in the following over, ensuring a tidy Aces bowling attack had picked up back-to-back wickets with their two worst deliveries of the innings.
Earlier, McClenaghan had also dismissed fellow international Corey Anderson for a duck as the Knights also lost key wickets in back-to-back overs.
Bruce Martin’s first over was a mixture of full tosses and long hops, but Kane Williamson erroneously chipped the fourth ball of his second over into the hands of Colin de Grandhomme at long off to fall for 28 off 42 balls.
That brought Anderson to the wicket, and Hopkins responded immediately by bringing McClenaghan back into the attack from the other end. He roughed up his Black Caps team-mate with a short delivery that Anderson misplayed onto his body and followed that up with a full ball that Anderson hit straight to Bates at mid-off.
Northern’s tail didn’t provide any resistance as they were bowled out for a lowly 195 in 44.4 overs.
Their bowling effort began much better when Trent Boult had Martin Guptill edging the first ball of Auckland’s reply to Anderson at first slip.
The hosts also lost Craig Cachopa to injury when struck by a ball from Scott Kuggeleijn in the second over. But their chances of rolling the hosts cheaply took a major blow when Boult dropped a simple catch from Anaru Kitchen, who top-edged a Scott Kuggeleijn bouncer at long leg when the opener was on eight in the eighth over.
That ensured the hosts were able to pursue their target without too much pressure. Kitchen guided his team home in tidy fashion, making 87 not out off 117 balls while Colin de Grandhomme helped ensure an early finish with a rapid unbeaten 41 off 37 deliveries.
The Knights will chase their first Trophy win in Hamilton on Wednesday when they host the Otago Volts at Seddon Park. The hosts are hopeful of having all-rounder Anton Devcich back for that match after he was replaced for yesterday’s game by Mitchell Santner, with a calf strain ruling Devcich out.