Cricket: Cachopa hits another century

Carl Cachopa. File photo / Duncan Brown

Auckland batsman Craig Cachopa scored his second hundred in as many matches as his side split the honours with Central Districts on day two of their Plunket Shield match at the Eden Park Outer Oval today.

The home side began the morning on 142-3 and Cachopa went about making his third first-class hundred, which backed up his 115 in Auckland's match against Northern Districts last week.

The 21-year-old was eventually dismissed for 145 after he hammered 16 fours and seven sixes and led Auckland to a healthy 115-run first-innings lead after CD made 233 yesterday.

Paceman Bevan Small picked up a career-best 5-61 in only his sixth first-class match, while former Black Caps skipper Ross Taylor gobbled up three catches.

With a hefty deficit to knock off, Central Districts openers Jamie How and Jeet Raval dug in and both made half centuries as they pulled CD back in to the game.

Central closed the day on 107-0, eight runs behind with 10 second-innings wickets in hand.

In Queenstown, Otago asserted their dominance over Northern Districts on day one of their meeting at the Queenstown Events Centre.

Otago won the toss and opted to bowl and they rolled ND over for 217 in their first innings as only Daryl Mitchell (60) and lower-order batsman Ish Sodhi (52) offered decent resistance.

Former international Ian Butler was a demon with the ball as he took 6-65 from 19.4 overs for Otago, while all-rounder Sam Wells claimed 3-40 and spinner Mark Craig bowled eight overs that only conceded nine runs as he picked up the other ND wicket.

When Otago went in to bat Aaron Redmond started slowly before he was dismissed for four but fellow opener Hamish Rutherford took up the initiative and blazed 85 from 102 balls.

Michael Bracewell added 30 as Otago closed day one on 135-2 and they are in a prime position to construct a big first-innings lead tomorrow if they can be disciplined with the bat.

Meanwhile, at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, a useful 10th-wicket partnership between Ryan McCone and Tim Johnston saw Canterbury push to a respectable first-innings total of 329-9 declared against Wellington on day one of their match.

The pair added an unbeaten 50 from 48 balls late in the day as McCone (35) and Johnston (30) took advantage of some tired Wellington bowlers who did themselves no favours as they delivered a whopping 19 no balls.

Earlier in the day, Peter Fulton made 94 in quick time as the Wellington bowlers shared the wickets around.

Wellington then had to come out and face two overs before the end of the day but openers Michael Papps and Josh Brodie survived unscathed and the home side closed play on 1-0.