Northern Districts double in sight

While  Northern Districts could not quite clinch the Plunket Shield title against Otago, with a match in hand, the four-dayer at Cobham Oval allowed Michael Parlane to clock up over 4000 runs for the side.
The 37-year-old right-hand batsman made his debut for ND in February 1993, and has played 12 seasons for ND and five with Wellington.
While the Maungakaramea cricketer said he was not statistically motivated, reaching 4034, with his match total of 79, including 60 runs in the first innings against Otago, was a great sort of achievement to reach.
"I'm pretty happy with the effort," he said.
After 80 first class games, Parlane said he was still enthusiastic about the game and wanted to keep playing as long as he could. "It's up to the powers that be, but I'm hoping to be back next season ... the next target is 5000 runs over the next couple of seasons, if I got that, I'd be happy," he said.
Another  ND stalwart Joey Yovich, also reached 50 wickets against Otago province during last week's match.
The milestones keep on coming for ND, whose achievements this year have exceeded the expectations of coach Grant Bradburn.
On Monday, Bradburn's charges face a tough Central Districts side at Napier's McLean Park,  for their final four-day match.
While the lack of points in the drawn match with Otago, combined with Canterbury's outright victory over Wellington last week, meant  ND had to wait until the end of the final round to see if the Shield was theirs, they are still the overwhelming favourites to win the series. Canterbury, in second place need an outright victory, with first-innings points, over Auckland at Colin Maiden Park, and even if that happens, ND will need just a single point to assure
them of the title.
"It was disappointing not to clinch the Shield in Whangarei - we would have loved to get a point there and take the title with one game to go," Bradburn said yesterday .
"When we started our campaign at Labour Weekend last year, to say then we would have the one day trophy in the cabinet and only needed one point to win the four day, we would have been stoked with that ... we have earned the right to be here and feel we deserve to be the ones to deliver the killer blow ... we are just looking to play four days of good cricket."

 If ND win, they will gain their first Plunket Shield in 47 years, after the four-day competition regained its former name this season. It will also be their first double of the one day and four day competitions in 31 years.
 The Black Caps side for the second test against Australia had not been  confirmed at the time of publication, but if Kane Williamson was not named in the test team, he was likely to rejoin ND for Monday's match.
Meanwhile, Auckland play Canterbury at Colin Maiden Park in Auckland, and Wellington face Otago at Basin Reserve, in Wellington in the other Plunket Shield matches.