Cricket: Auckland keep pressure on Knights

Another Black Cap in the form of the leg spinner Ish Sodhi turned out for Northern Districts on the Cobham Oval.

The last time Whangarei's Cobham Oval hosted a Plunket Shield match this early in the season it only yielded about a day and a half's play. However, that wasn't the case this season as Auckland pressured Northern Districts into submission.

Auckland were in the box seat early to take the opening Plunket Shield match of the new season, needing just 203 runs with a full complement of batsmen and a day to play - something the class outfit did easily as they won with five wickets in hand yesterday.

Northland turned on superb cricket weather for the four-day match, which was being hosted earlier than usual because of Cricket World Cup commitments elsewhere around the country.

An efficient third day with the ball in Whangarei saw Auckland bowl out Northern Districts and restrict their target to 211, after Auckland had earlier gained a first innings lead of 31 runs.

Leading the way for Auckland was opener Jeet Raval who scored a game high 90 before falling to Mitch Santner with only 16 runs needed to see his side home.

On Saturday afternoon, Raval and fellow opener Rob Nicol had negotiated a tricky 10-over period to see their side through to stumps unscathed.

Also contributing strongly to Auckland's fourth innings chase was No 3 batsman Carl Cachopa who produced a handy 52 before falling to Graeme Aldridge.

Aldridge captured the final three wickets in Auckland's first innings to claim a five-wicket bag. At the time, and after Northern Districts made a solid start to their second innings, the hosts appeared to have a chance of victory.

But once Daniel Flynn fell with the score on 90, the Knights lost regular wickets to leave their bowlers with plenty of work to do yesterday.

Northern Knights opener Anton Devcich top-scored with 64 in the second innings with only Bharat Popli (43) and BJ Watling (45) offering resistance in the middle order.