ND hope early form follows them home

Whangarei all-rounder Joey Yovich hopes Northern Districts can build on their bright start to the 2009-10 campaign with a win over Central Districts at Cobham Oval this week.
Northern got off to the perfect start in the four-day  Plunket Shield competition by routing Otago by 10 wickets at University Oval last week. Yovich led the way with an unbeaten century and underlined his value to the side by taking 3-29 in the second innings.
"This kind of win brings confidence but we're not getting too carried away with things.
"The guys are really looking forward to putting in another good performance on our home patch at Whangarei," he said.
Yovich said the side were hoping to carry on from where they left off last season, when they defeated Wellington by eight wickets at Cobham Oval in their final match of the season.
After winning the provincial one-day series last year, there is a growing expectation among the team that they can pull something special off this season. Northern have retained most of their best performers , filling the spaces with players coming through the ranks.
"There are high hopes this season. We've got a good mix of experience along with some good young guys coming through and that makes the side that much more valuable and we want to target all competitions - not just one - and stamp our mark across the board.  That's what we're preparing for."
He said conditions had helped the team in Dunedin but the bowlers had been good enough to gain the advantage to dismiss Otago on a greenish pitch for just 88 in their first innings.
 Northern seamer Brent Arnel picked up a stunning 6-18 off 10 overs.
"Obviously the wickets at this time of the year can help the bowlers a little, but to be fair you've still got to bowl well using the conditions to pick up wickets.
"The pitch did calm down on the second day as four-day wickets tend to do and it was time for our batsmen able to make some runs," he said.
Michael Parlane scored a battling 50 but Northern were still in a spot of bother at 105-5 when Yovich came to the wicket. The 32-year-old was involved in three 50-run partnerships in his innings of 128 not out - for the sixth wicket with Peter McGlashan (35), and then on the second day  after Anton Devcich was run out without adding to his overnight score with Graeme Aldridge (52) for the eighth wicket and Bradley Scott (65) for the ninth. "Those guys [Aldridge and Scott] are obviously
genuine all-rounders now and they allowed me to go about my game without having to lift the tempo. Knowing those guys are capable of batting around me and adding to the score was a great help," he said.
Yovich's third first class century came off 201 balls in 250 minutes and included 13 fours and one six and helped Northern to a first innings total of 410. Opener Craig Cumming scored 126 in Otago's second innings total of 334, forcing Northern to bat again to reach 13 to win.
Northern with be weakened for the match with Brent Arnel and Daniel Flynn, named in the New Zealand Invitation X1  to play Pakistan at the Queenstown Events Centre in a three-day game from Wednesday onwards. They join Northern's Tim Southee and BJ Watling in the team that will stake their claim for test selection.

 Trent Boult will be joined in the ND squad by his brother Jono, with 19-year-old bowling all rounder Anurag Verma set to make his debut in the side as the other replacement.
Central Districts took two points from their drawn opening match of the season in Napier against 2008-9 champions Auckland. They will again have a solid batting line up led by last season's Domestic Player of the Year Mathew Sinclair, who notched up 165 in the opening match, ably supported by class batsmen Jamie How and Peter Ingram. The Stags bowling line-up may be their biggest weakness with former Northlander Euan Thompson and Michael Mason heading up the attack
as promising pace bowler Mitchell McClenaghan struggles  with injury.
Northern has won 19 first class matches against Central, lost 21 and drawn 31, with one match abandoned. The four-day game starts on Tuesday at 11am.