Date-stamped : 13 Jan94 - 10:38
NZ SHLCUP : Round 8, 11 Jan 94
Northern Districts v Canterbury, Blake Park, Mount Maunganui.

The match of the round was contested by two of  the  frontrunners
of the competition. The injury plagued Northerners' great display
in the field was laid to waste by some typically miserly  bowling
by the Canterbury medium pacers.

Medium pacer Alex Tait dominated the first 20  overs.  He  bowled
his  ten  overs on the trot, finishing with the excellent figures
of 3-13. Slow medium bowler Nathan Astle  showed  his all   round
skills  with  a hard hit 60 not out, but Canterbury's final total
of 138-8 seemed to be uncompetitive. Former international and  ND
captain Grant Bradburn took about 2-14 from his 10 overs.

Ford dismissed Parlane without a run on the board, but a  69  run
second wicket partnership between Burnett (40) and Wealleans (27)
seemed to put the match beyond doubt. With Astle as  usual  tying
up  the  middle order (2-19 from 10) a bit of pressure was placed
on Northern. The heroes of the previous two games Cooper and Bra-
dburn   could   only   score  four runs between them.  Somani and
Hart put on 33 runs to bring ND to within just 28 runs of victory
and  with   five  wickets in hand, but Ford came back to make the
vital breakthrough. With plenty of balls remaining,  only  a  few
runs   to  score   and   two  wickets in hand the last recognised
batsman Hart was run out for 20. With 10 balls remaining the last
batsman   was run out, and Canterbury had scored an unlikely vic-
tory.

<END> Contributed by Jason (jmas@waikato.ac.nz)