Styris leaves a farewell present as ND make Shield semi-final

World Cup all-rounder Scott Styris launched his Northern Districts side into the State Shield semi-final against Wellington with a controlled 66 not out against Central Districts at Napier today.

ND now goes to play Wellington, in Wellington, in Wednesday's semi-final. The winner of that plays Auckland in the final.

The TelstraClear Black Caps team leaves for the World Cup tomorrow, with Styris in good batting form. The all-rounder was well supported by Joseph Yovich and Michael Parlane in reaching the 169 runs needed to win.

ND reached it in 38.4 overs to gain the bonus point, but that came to nothing when Wellington beat Otago.

Styris struck two sixes and eight fours in his very good innings. Clearly ND had the better of the wicket, but at no stage could it be said CD was severely embarrassed by being asked to bat when Robbie Hart won the toss.

Yovich had a good match. A tall man, he plays extremely well on the off-side from his left-handed stance, and as a bowler bowls with some pace and bounce because of his angular frame. He finished with three for 27 and 35 not out.

He proved an able lieutenant for Styris.

At the start of the innings Parlane produced a useful 35, waiting for the right ball and then clubbing it through the leg-side for boundaries - six fours and one six.

CD, bluntly, just did not score enough runs. Captain Craig Spearman has had to carry this batting line-up most of the season, and when he started today he looked like he would do the job again.

But when he got to 40 on a wicket that was doing a bit, he tried to push Graeme Aldridge towards mid-on and succeeded only in putting the ball back into the bowler's hands.

Yet again the CD middle failed, with a couple of run outs not helping. This has been the Achilles' heel of this side, and usually it's been the top and bottom middle that have scored the runs.

This time Mathew Sinclair did have a prolonged stay at the wicket, but he was not in great form and took a long time to get his 61. One of Sinclair's problems was a tendency of lesser-equipped partners to steal the strike, the other his bad habit of hitting shots to fieldsmen.

But he stuck, and at least he gave CD a moderate total to bowl at.

Left-arm spinner Bruce Martin bowled beautifully for his two for 26, but the point must be made that he was allowed to by CD batsmen who refused to use their feet.

Later in the game Glen Sulzberger was quite useful for CD as well, indicating the slowness of the wicket.

But the medium-fast attack could make no headway as the sideways movement disappeared, and ND always had this match in hand.