ND tops Trophy table with eight wicket win in Taupo

Northern Districts is top of the Shell Trophy table after two rounds of the competition, the only team with a hundred per cent record.

An eight wicket victory over Central Districts was completed shortly after lunch on the final day. It was ND's seventh successive victory in the Shell Trophy.

CD resumed this morning on 180 for eight, a lead of 97.

Any lingering hopes of victory for CD were ended when the last two wickets managed only two runs between them. The first wicket was the run out of Ewan Thompson following hesitation over a short single, a disastrous start to the day.

Needing exactly 100 to win, ND lost two early wickets to left-armer Thompson. Mark Bailey and Neal Parlane remained together for the rest of the innings, Bailey finishing one short of his half century.

A note of drama was added at the end, as thunder and lightening appeared around the Taupo area and rain began to fall. It is possible that had Parlane not hit the winning runs when he did, a long delay might have ensued.

ND Coach Chris Kuggeleijn was understandably happy with his team's performance. He cited the performances of Neal Parlane with the bat and Grant Bradburn with the ball as being key to ND's success, but stressed that it was a good all round team performance.

"All the bowlers got wickets and most of the batsmen contributed too."

Kuggeleijn's only worry was that the thunder and rain would end the game before the win had been sealed.

ND's next Shell Trophy game is against Canterbury in Rangiora. As Kuggeleijn says, "that'll be a big one."

The decisive passage of the game was CD's descent from 240 for two to 289 all out on the first day. Kuggeleijn's judgment that CD left themselves at least seventy short on first innings was proved correct. The visitors wasted the advantage given them by some top class batting by Ben Smith and Mark Douglas, whose 130 was the only century of the match.

ND had to fight for its lead, having given away wickets early on. Neal Parlane played a disciplined innings of 89, well supported by Grant Bradburn. Even so, it was left to the resilient ND tail to take the team to a significant lead.

CD made heavy work of batting in the second innings, falling exactly a hundred short of coach Dipak Patel's idea of a fourth innings target that would test the home side.

Apart from the batting of Douglas and Smith there were a number of positives for CD to take away from the game. Its young attack stuck to its task well, with off-spinner Haydn Morgan impressive on debut.

Ewan Thompson showed himself to be an accurate fast medium bowler who has the ability to bring the ball back into right-handed batsmen. Michael Mason proved that it is an unfair world by bowling superbly for one wicket.

The game at Rangiora will be Grant Bradburn's one hundredth for ND at first class level. Later this season he will expect to break Andy Roberts' record of 104 appearances. His contributions in this match were typical of his career as a whole; unflashy, understated, but vital.

His off-spin slowed CD down when Smith and Douglas were racing away, while his first innings partnership with Neal Parlane was the core of ND's first innings. Three wickets followed in the second innings.

Bradburn takes the unofficial CricInfo MVP award.

This has been a fine game of cricket in which Central Districts has shown itself to be a talented young team. But the experience and all round talent of Northern Districts was decisive in the end. It will be hard for any of the other five teams to beat them to the Shell Trophy this season.