Nicol's century gives Auckland upper hand over Academy

Auckland's batting proved too strong for the New Zealand Academy Selection in the last game of their programme completed at Lincoln Green at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University on Saturday.

The loss of the morning session, and part of the post-lunch session due to persistent drizzle meant the game was confined to a first innings affair. Rob Nicol and Sam Whiteman took their chance to play themselves back in by sensibly working the ball for singles. By the drinks break they had added 61 runs to the overnight score and had Auckland on 126 for 3.

Their 85-run stand ended however when Whiteman was caught in the slips by Jesse Ryder from Mark Orchard's bowling. Orchard had found some bounce in the pitch and two balls later Craig Pryor also fell to his bowling, the catch being held by Neil Broom at third slip.

Nicol took a painful blow to the foot off the last ball of the over, just managing to survive a leg before wicket appeal. However, he carried on and brought up his half-century off 157 balls. After a steady start, Andre Adams gave some velocity to the scoring rate with some hard-hitting and his sixth-wicket partnership with Nicol brought up 50 runs in 46 minutes. After the tea break, Adams brought up his 50 off 52 balls. The Academy Selection brought on the new ball, but it made no difference, the batsmen sharing 100 runs off 156 balls, in 85 minutes.

Adams was finally out for 67, misjudging a pull shot from Broom's bowling and was caught on the mid-wicket boundary. With Auckland having secured the first innings lead, Nicol carried on to post a century off 254 balls, having taken 295 minutes. When play ended, Auckland were 286 for 7 with Nicol unbeaten on 121.