Walmsley rocks Northern Districts

Auckland 418 (Canning 115, Tuffey 4-74) beat Northern Districts 237 and 92 (Walmsley 7-28) by an innings and 89 runs
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Northern Districts ran into Hurricane Kerry at Westpac Park in Hamilton on Wednesday. Kerry Walmsley, the Auckland fast-medium bowler, gave the national selectors a reminder of the destruction he is capable of by mowing down Northern Districts for just 92.

ND were without their captain James Marshall while facing a first-innings deficit of 181. Marshall turned an ankle while warming up before the day's play and could not bat as a result. Auckland had continued their innings at the resumption and Tama Canning completed the second, and highest, century of his first-class career by reaching 115, to follow up his career-best bowling figures of 6 for 44. Almost as significant was the 136-run stand which broke the record for Auckland in matches against ND, passing the 129 set by JD Behrent and ER Tovey in the summer of 1963-64. Canning's partner, and captain, Brooke Walker scored 32 but once they were separated Daryl Tuffey mopped up the tail and finished with 4 for 74.

Facing such a large deficit was always going to be a struggle for the inexperienced ND line-up, especially with Marshall absent. And the task proved too much in the face of a fiery Walmsley who wrapped things up in 24.5 overs to finish with 7 for 28.

2nd Day Canterbury 71 for 2 (Fulton 40*) trail Wellington 384 (Bell 86, Woodcock 64, Martin 4-63) by 313 runs
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Canterbury's bowlers relished the chance to come back fresh after the rain-shortened first day against Wellington at Hagley Oval. Had it not been for a last-wicket stand of 49 between Sam Fairley and Iain O'Brien, Wellington would have been bundled out much below 384.

Wellington's innings was built around Luke Woodcock's 64, and handy contributions from Chris Nevin, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper, and Fairley. Fairley held the lower order together during the last 220 minutes of the innings and frustrated the Canterbury bowlers along with O'Brien. Chris Martin finished with 4 for 63 while Paul Wiseman, his New Zealand Test team-mate, ended with 3 for 63.

Wellington bowler Ash Turner gave his side a fillip by dismissing both the Canterbury openers, Tim McIntosh for a duck and Michael Papps for 5. However, Peter Fulton and Shanan Stewart avoided further setbacks and took the side through to 71 for 2 at stumps. Fulton, who has a fantastic record on this ground including a triple century, was unbeaten on 40.

2nd Day Otago 193 and 90 for 2 trail Central Districts 291 (How 105, Wilson 3-48) by 8 runs
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Jamie How completed the fourth century of his career after surviving some early-morning jitters. He was finally dismissed for 105 and it was left to Jarrod Englefield to help the team achieve a healthy first-innings lead of 98. He batted for 177 minutes for his 39, and that allowed Ewen Thompson to hit out for 49 off 59. Jeff Wilson, the former rugby international, took 3 for 48, including the wickets of How and Glen Sulzberger, CD's captain.

Otago lost Mohammad Wasim for 8 but Craig Cumming, making up for his first-innings duck, got through to stumps at 34 not out. Chris Gaffaney had scored 29 when he was dismissed, while Aaron Redmond was unbeaten along with Cumming when stumps were drawn.