ND beat Wellington for place in Shield final

Wellington paid the price for poor batting in the first innings of their State Shield semi-final match with Northern Districts and suffered a four-wicket loss at the Basin Reserve.

ND reached Wellington's paltry total of 137 with 11 overs to spare.

ND now meet Auckland in the State Shield final at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland on Saturday.

In perfect conditions and on yet another seemingly benign pitch typical of New Zealand's summer, Wellington's total of 137 was never going to be enough to defend and while ND suffered a few hiccups along the way, they knocked off the required runs with relative ease.

Wellington's top order never got going. Following a partnership of 48 for the second wicket between Chris Nevin (24 off 35 balls) and Richard Jones (37 off 73 balls), the innings floundered. Only James Franklin (34 from 82 balls) showed any further resistance.

A disappointed Wellington captain Matthew Bell was quick to concede this was the cause of his side's loss.

"We just didn't perform well with the bat today. If your top order can't score runs consistently you will always struggle".

The ND bowling was also very much on song. Ian Butler bowled with genuine pace and plenty of venom throughout and was rewarded with three wickets for 15 runs from his nine overs.

Left-arm spinner Bruce Martin bowled with guile and was prepared to flight the ball and entice the batsmen out of their crease. Martin bowled 10 overs and took two wickets for 22 runs. He caught and bowled Nevin with his first ball and then had Neal Parlane stumped.

Graeme Aldridge who bowled his nine overs for one wicket for 31 runs and Mark Orchard with two for 32 runs from his 10 overs, also chimed in well for ND.

ND had no real problems knocking off the 138 it needed for victory. James Marshall (32 off 46 balls) played a handy innings at the start, Michael Parlane (32 off 48 balls) played some typical bludgeoning shots and David Kelly (30 not out off 70 balls) batted intelligently.

They did suffer a hiccup in the 31st over when they were on 114. Matthew Walker got a double breakthrough when he removed Parlane and Joseph Yovich (0).

But Kelly and his skipper Robbie Hart steered their side home and on the basis of today's performance, they thoroughly deserve to be in the State Shield final.