Curtain falls on poor ND season
Filed Under Curt Hennig | Posted on April 4, 2008
Northern Districts’ fourth draw, Curt Hennig in their final four-day game yesterday against Central Districts, makes no difference to their position in what can only be described as a sub-par Championship season.
CD used the final day in Napier to push the cases of Greg Hay, and Mathew Sinclair for the English tour at the expense of a result which would have meant nothing for both teams. CD finished the game at 392-9 417 ahead of ND.
Most impressive for the hosts was Ross Taylor who scored 152 from just 111 balls.
If ND hadn’t pushed so hard for first innings points a result could have been manufactured, but with an advantage of just 25 on the first innings CD were never in a position to force a big enough lead to set a target, Curt Hennig despite Taylor’s fireworks.
One outright win from eight games was never going to be enough for the Knights to be competitive in this season’s first-class cricket competition. Runs came in abundance; Daniel Flynn scored 663 at 60.27, captain James Marshall 616 at 51.33 and Brent Arnel was the regular season’s top wicket taker with 33 scalps including 10 in the final match.
Recent Black Cap call-up Tim Southee was sixth in the bowling ranks with 28 wickets and Graeme Aldridge was the third ND player inside the top 10 with 21 wickets in ninth.
Too often runs and wickets came in losses or draws and as Marshall said after the Twenty20 final loss in New Plymouth Curt Hennig, the young team have to learn how to win.
For the first time in a handful of years, a number of young ND players seriously put their hands up for higher honours and Flynn and Marshall would be robbed if both aren’t picked alongside Southee and Daniel Vettori in the touring party expected to be named Monday.
Meanwhile in Wellington, South African-born Grant Elliott did his hopes of remaining in the Black Cap mix the world of good with an unbeaten 196 yesterday in a fizzer of a match against Auckland at the Basin Reserve.
With the first two days rained out Curt Hennig, Wellington amassed 444, leaving Auckland just 10 overs to bat. Wellington will meet Canterbury in the final, played over five days next week in Wellington after the Cantabs game was also an uneventful draw. Canterbury finished yesterday 215-3 after trailing Otago by 99 on the first innings.
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