Cricket News

Craig McMillan made an effortless transition from Test to limited overs cricket, scoring a century from 77 balls as Canterbury beat national one-day champions Central Districts by five wickets in a State Shield match at Pukekura Park today

Queenstown's first scheduled top level game finally got under way two hours late and was just a 39 overs per side contest, but a game was at least played, with Wellington beating Otago in their State Shield match by an exciting three runs

Canterbury's success in winning the national Under-19 tournament which finished in Auckland today, was borne out with its players winning four spots in the New Zealand team to play in the ICC Under-19 World Cup tournament here later this month

Take two teams packed with talented batsmen, provide a pitch full of runs and a carpet-like outfield, add in a glorious Auckland day, and the crowd enjoying the surroundings of the Eden Park Outer Oval could not help but be entertained

Auckland and Northern Districts will have their internationals on duty at Eden Park tomorrow as the whites are discarded until the middle of February and the dress code turns coloured in the State-sponsored domestic competition

Canterbury will need no special motivation for their State Shield opener against Central Districts in New Plymouth tomorrow

Otago's John Davies Oval at Queenstown will be on centre stage tomorrow in the State Shield match with Wellington

New Zealand's batsmen have made no significant advances on the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers Test rankings but Chris Cairns has leapt four places on the bowling list into sixth place

It is a measure of the growing stature of the New Zealand Test side that they finished the year 2001 as the best performed of all the Test nations

Leg spinner Aaron Redmond took four wickets, including the pivotal wicket of Ben Smith, to urge Canterbury towards a 102-run win over Central Districts in the State Championship match that ended today at Pukekura Park

Statistical review - 2001

David Kelly, Jamie How, Mathew Sinclair, Ben Smith, Glen Sulzberger, Richard King, Campbell Furlong, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Michael Mason, Brent Hefford, Richard Scragg (12th man).

Brad Williams' claims on an international debut have been enhanced after the pace bowler was today selected in the 14-man squad that will represent the country in the VB Series of one-day international matches against New Zealand and South Africa.

Western Australia's Ryan Campbell is the surprise choice as wicketkeeper in the 12-man squad selected to represent Australia 'A' in matches against New Zealand and South Africa next week.

Wellington completed an outstanding run chase to score 352 runs to beat Otago in their State Championship match on a superb Carisbrook pitch today

Northern Districts beat Auckland by five wickets with 13 balls to spare at WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton

Two comprehensive victories over the last week have seen the CLEAR Black Caps move up the ICC Test Championship ladder

A tense, rather than exciting, third day saw this State Championship match move into the control of Northern Districts, but a quickfire sixth wicket partnership between Kyle Mills and Tama Canning left Auckland with some hope

Wellington started out with good intentions on day three of their State Championship match with Otago at Carisbrook today, but the loss of wickets forced it to abandon any hopes of first innings points and declare to set up a last day run chase

Ben Smith reached his second double century in first-class matches for Central Districts against Canterbury at Pukekura Park today, transforming at one stroke this match and his season