Auckland win through to semi-finals

Auckland will host the semi-finals of the Shell Super Max League after their eight wicket victory over Northern Districts in Whakatane this afternoon. The two sides began level on points with only this game remaining in the five match qualifying series.

The match was played on a grass pitch for the first time in a Northern Zone series that has taken top class cricket to some ND outposts. This was the first time that top provincial teams had ever played in Whakatane.

The pitch dominated the game. It was slow and unpredictable in bounce. The top score in any of the four innings was 93, well below par for Max cricket.

ND were fatally undermined by disastrous starts to both innings. In the first, three wickets fell before a run came from the bat. Makeshift opener Simon Doull suffered the indignity of a first-ball pair.

The first five in the order scored only seven between them in the ND first innings and it was left to Grant Bradburn with an unbeaten 37 to shepherd ND to a final total of 79-6.

They were further hampered by the illness of Neal Parlane, which prevented him from batting at all in the second innings.

Auckland also struggled in their first innings, being 36-5 at the halfway stage. That they achieved a first innings lead of 11 was largely due to Richard Morgan's 25, which included only one four. Tama Canning (10) was the only other batsman to make double figures.

Doull made up for his batting mishaps by taking a hat-trick that spanned the two innings. He removed Lou Vincent and Kyle Mills with the last two balls of the fourth over of the first innings, completing the hat-trick with the first ball of the second over of the second innings when James Marshall took a good catch to dismiss Llorne Howell. Doull's match figures were outstanding: 4-0-25-4. On reflection he will probably decide to stick to the bowling.

The fight to set Auckland a decent total to chase in the fourth innings was led by Joseph Yovich after a second failure by the top order. His 45 included three sixes, one into the Max zone. Aaron Barnes added to a fine all-round performance by taking two wickets for seven runs in his only over. Outstanding catching also helped to restrict ND. Best of a good bunch was a great effort by Richard King throwing himself to his left at mid-wicket to dismiss Bradburn.

A target of 83 was never going to be easy in these conditions, but Barnes and Vincent took Auckland most of the way with a second wicket partnership of 53. A Max six by Barnes off Alex Tait in the fifth over was the point of no return. The target was reached with two overs to spare.

Morgan was named man of the series.

Almost 1000 people watched the game and the experiment of taking the Max tournament into areas that do not otherwise see top level cricket appears to have been a success.