Cricket: Auckland bowlers Kane'd by ND star

A magnificent unbeaten century by in-form teenager Kane Williamson helped Northern Districts take a stranglehold of their Plunket Shield four-day cricket match against Auckland yesterday.

Having secured first innings points after surpassing Auckland's first innings score of 227, Northern resume today at 348 for seven.

Williamson, coming off a career-high 170 in last week's match against Wellington, was 163 not out at stumps. The 19-year-old was given a life on 88 when he was dropped by Tim McIntosh in the gully and he went on to craft three solid partnerships.

Competition leaders Northern, resuming this morning at 36 for two, were in trouble at 52 for three, but Williamson and Hamish Marshall, 57, steadied the ship with a 123-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Skipper James Marshall, 40, helped put on 101 runs for the sixth wicket with Williamson. At the close, Peter McGlashan, unbeaten on 25, had added another 61 runs to the total in tandem with Williamson.

Auckland skipper Richard Jones resorted to using nine bowlers as he tried to remove Williamson, without success.

Michael Bates, two for 40, Gareth Shaw, two for 71 and Anaru Kitchen, two for 31, shared the honours, but they have their work cut out today to stop Williamson from scoring a double century.

In Queenstown, Otago's batsmen struggled to build partnerships on the second day of their match against Canterbury.

In reply to Canterbury's first innings 315 all out, Otago were 178 for six when stumps were drawn half an hour early due to bad light.

Black Caps speedster Chris Martin was the best of the Canterbury bowlers, his three for 38 coming off 12 overs, while Hamish Bennett picked up two for 50 after finding himself on a hat-trick when he removed Otago captain Craig Cumming for 29 and Neil Broom for 17 with consecutive balls.

Otago went from 75 for two to 75 for four but managed to partially regroup, with Greg Todd holding firm until late in the day when offspinner Jason Donnelly him around his legs for 46.

Derek de Boorder and Warren McSkimming dug in to see Otago through to stumps without further loss.

Earlier in the day, Canterbury's middle and lower order somewhat squandered yesterday's solid start, when Rob Nicol and Michael Papps put together a 134-run opening partnership as Canterbury eased through to a useful 218 for four at stumps.

Dean Brownlie, resuming on 19 not out, batted with real application but wickets fell regularly around him, Canterbury's last six going for just 97 runs. Brownlie's 63 off 97 balls was the highlight.

Otago medium pacer Anthony Bullick was the pick of the bowlers with three for 57, while young offspinner Nick Beard worked hard for his two for 47 off 29 overs.

Wellington snatched first innings points after a maiden five-wicket bag by Ili Tugaga in their Plunket Shield against Central Districts at Napier yesterday.

However, seeking to overturn a run of four heavy defeats, Wellington were in danger of squandering their advantage after they were an unsatisfactory 78 for three at close of play.

Their task of posting a big second innings score was made harder after skipper Matthew Bell did not take up his customary opening position in the batting line-up after injuring a finger in his right hand while fielding.

Earlier, Central Districts, chasing Wellington's first innings of 250, were dismissed for 232 after resuming on 25 without loss.

Wellington wicketkeeper Chris Nevin shared the limelight with Tugaga as he took five catches, four to edges off Tugaga and the other off Michael Burns.

Central struggled to establish any meaningful partnerships as wickets fell regularly. Tugaga and Nevin got their combination going with the dismissal of Central skipper Jamie How for 26 in the 12th over.

Central knew they were in a struggle when Tugaga and Nevin ripped out Central's middle order of Mathew Sinclair, Tim Weston and Bevan Griggs in the space of 25 runs.

A 30 from Ewen Thompson and 22 from Seth Rance helped to pad out Central's score.

Wellington's second innings began disastrously. They were two for four after Stephen Murdoch, promoted because of Bell's injury, and Cameron Merchant went for ducks. They were quickly followed by Michael Pollard, who made nine.

Wellington will be hoping for big scores from Neil Parlane and Luke Woodcock, who resume today on 39 and 26 respectively.

- NZPA