Northern have to stash champers in cellar

Northern Districts captain James Marshall was struggling not to show his disappointment after his team failed to clinch the Plunket Shield in Whangarei yesterday.
The lack of points in the drawn match with Otago at Cobham Oval, combined with Canterbury's outright victory over Wellington, meant Northern  would have to wait until the end of the final round to begin their celebrations.
"Otago batted well, I mean getting 450 batting on a second-day wicket is a pretty good effort. We possibly could have bowled a bit better but in saying that, this is definitely not a train wreck for us," he said.
Northern are still the overwhelming  favourites to win the series. Canterbury need an outright victory - with first-innings points - over Auckland at Colin Maiden Park and even if that happens, Northern will need just a single point to assure them of the title. But they have a tough match ahead  against Central Districts in Napier and will  aim to win at least first-innings points.
"For us now it's about focusing on what we have to do and that is going down to CD and get some points off them,"  he said.
Otago declared their first innings closed yesterday just before lunch at 576/8 and took regular wickets to have Northern in a spot of bother at 137/4 at tea.
Although Northern lost a few more wickets to be seven down at the close of play, Otago had long since run out of time to effect an outright win.
Marshall said the decision to declare in the first innings at 465/9 was in keeping with their style of play this season.
"The wicket didn't change as much as we expected but it's not about miscalculation, we played the same brand of cricket as we've played all summer - aggressive, positive cricket and trying to declare as soon as possible and not trying to get huge totals and turning matches into one-innings games," he said.
The loss of Brent Arnel to the Black Caps may have been a reason for the lack of penetration in the bowling attack but Marshall waved off the excuse.
"We can't use that as an excuse, Brent's obviously a very good bowler and to have him would have been great but we've always had confidence in our squad and we've got some depth there - we even had Trent Boult sitting on the sidelines - and his replacement, Bradley Scott, has got a lot of experience," he said.
If the rumours circulating around Cobham Oval yesterday are true then ND may have to find another replacement for the CD game - this time for in-form  batsman Kane Williamson, 19, who seems likely to be called into the Black Caps side for the second test against Australia.
ND now have a few days off before getting back together in Napier on Saturday for their final match, which starts on Monday.