CRICKET - Unfazed Knights have their day

It wasn't clinical enough for skipper James Marshall but the Northern Knights' three-wicket victory over the Otago Volts yesterday kept the crowd entertained and set up Wednesday's match against the Central Stags perfectly.
Bruce Martin hit the winning runs with two balls to spare after Otago had gamely stuck to their guns, while the Knights had earlier looked at ease chasing down Otago's first-innings tally of 238.
Ian Butler's dismissal of Peter McGlashan and Joe Yovich in the 48th over got the Knight nerves jangling after the game had looked in the bag with 20 to win and five overs remaining. "It was a funny game really. We kept Otago in it by losing wickets in clumps and in one-day cricket, partnerships are the key to chasing down scores," Marshall said.
"What did satisfy me is that we didn't panic when we were losing those wickets and we got there in the end," he added.
Apart from B.J. Watling, who's early dismissal gave Otago a dream start, the Knights' top-order all contributed to the scoring but only McGlashan, batting at No6 reached 50 and it was really his partnership with Yovich (27) of 77 that got the side home.
The victory and a six-wicket defeat of competition leaders Central Districts by Wellington yesterday gave the Knights a boost into second place on the table, one point behind Central.
Yesterday's results make Wednesday's clash between the two, again at Cobham Oval, a much-awaited top-of-the-table clash, with the winner likely to claim a spot in the semifinals.
The Knights captain wants some improvement in the match against the team that beat them easily in Palmerston North last week. "I'd like to see the batsmen take more responsibility and turn the good starts into big scores and I'd like the bowlers to pull back some of the four-balls they're bowling."
On the positive side, the Knights' bowling had improved. Yesterday the bowlers had taken wickets each time the Otago batsmen threatened to get on top of them.
"Joey [Yovich] got a couple of breakthroughs in a row for us which pulled them back for us and he was well supported by our slow bowlers ..."
Marshall felt Otago's total was 10 or 20 short of handing them a tough chase. Otago opener Shaun Haig got over a streaky start to dominate the bowling but, like McGlashan in the Knight's innings, perished after reaching his half-century.
Nathan McCullum and Derek de Boorder staged a middle-order fightback, scoring 57 together to give Otago a chance in the match. Butler put on some fireworks at the end to score a rapid 23.