Wellington complete resounding victory

Wellington completed the formalities at Otago's University Oval and won their round-two State Championship match by 10 wickets. Chasing 147, Wellington were untroubled, with openers Luke Woodcock (74*) and Matthew Bell (70*) shutting Otago's bowlers out of the game. The match highlights were Jesse Ryder's first-innings 79 and Lain O'Brien's 4 for 12 from 11 overs in Otago's first innings. Aaron Redmond and Nathan McCullum scored 86 and 93 respectively as Otago threatened to fight back on day three. Wellington have a maximum 16 points from their two matches.

Northern Districts and Central Districts played out a tame draw at McLean Park, after Central fell just short of overhauling Northern's first-innings total of 450. Northern used day four as batting practice with Nick Horsley (85) and BJ Watling (88) cashing in on Central's lack of purpose. Northern finished at 234 for 5 when stumps were drawn early. Ewen Thompson snared 3 for 53, including the wickets of the Marshall twins (James 7, Hamish 0), as their miserable start to the season continued. The match was highlighted by Mark Orchard and Joseph Yovich's debut centuries as they combined in a New Zealand record partnership of 322 for the sixth-wicket.

Frequent weather breaks meant there was no chance of an outright result as Canterbury hosted Auckland at the Village Green. The match ended with Canterbury 83 for 2 in the second innings after Auckland easily claimed first-innings points. Peter Fulton was not out on 52. Earlier, Auckland reached 365 with Reece Young the best of the batsmen with 72. There were handy contributions down the order from Tim Lythe (29) and Kerry Walmsley (37). Earlier in the match, Walmsley took 5 for 66 as Canterbury stumbled to 248.