Douglas and Smith in record stand before CD collapse

Northern Districts was 12 without loss in reply to Central Districts' 289 at the end of an interesting and often exciting day at Owen Delany Park, Taupo.

The highlight was a partnership of 210 Mark Douglas and Ben Smith, a CD record for the third wicket against ND.

CD coach Dipak Patel said that there was no thought of doing anything other than batting when Jacob Oram won the toss, even though few of the local sages suggested that a touch of green about the pitch would be of advantage to the seam bowlers.

He might have had a few private doubts when openers Kelly and Hill were both out lbw early on. These would soon have been dispelled as Mark Douglas and Ben Smith set about the ND attack in a wonderful display of strokemaking.

Douglas scored 130 from 147 balls including 19 fours and a six, while Smith reached 92 from 160 deliveries.

As the figures suggest, Douglas was the dominant partner. He attacked throughout, reaching his fifty from 43 balls, slowing down only marginally to take 63 more to reach three figures. There were a few scares early on, especially a big appeal for a bat/pad catch off Martin. The response of Douglas was always to try to hit the next one harder.

He was especially effective off-driving and cutting. This is an indication in itself that the ND attack maintained an inconsistent length.

Ben Smith has now scored 223 runs in three innings in the Shell Trophy. He has been a regular with Leicestershire, one of the better teams in the English County Championship, for six or seven years. Today, he had plenty of time and looked unflustered throughout. It was a surprise when he was lbw to Martin.

Douglas was dismissed soon after, driving Aldridge straight to Bailey at cover. The departure of the two big scorers was the start of a spectacular collapse by CD, its second in a week.

Against Otago, the last eight wickets managed 28 between them. That they did slightly better here was due only to a dogged ninth wicket partnership of 31 between Peter McGlashan and Gareth West.

In the period before tea CD lost five wickets for seven runs and went scoreless for twenty-five minutes at one stage. The wickets were shared among the bowlers.

CD' s cause was not helped by two run outs, of Loveridge and West. Credit should be given to the fielders, Doull and Marshall, for direct hits on the stumps in both cases.

ND Coach Chris Kuggeleijn was disappointed with his team's bowling effort against Douglas and Smith.

"It's a pretty flat wicket and we didn't bowl the right length on it. We bowled both sides of the wicket and the line seemed to be changing with every ball at times.

"Their two main batsmen played well, but we didn't put them under enough pressure."

Off-spinner Grant Bradburn, who came on when the run rate was at its highest and managed to slow things down, drew praise from his coach.

"He has bowled pretty consistently for us in both forms of the game"

Kuggeleijn feels that CD's collapse let his team back into the match.

"They would be disappointed. You'd be looking for 350 - 400 on this track. We will be looking to build a big lead tomorrow."

The effects of the greenness of the pitch wore off early and there is sufficient pace and consistency of bounce for batsmen to be confident as they make their shots. There was some turn for Bruce Martin from the Lake End, which makes it imperative that ND build a lead as they have to bat last.