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Gareth Hopkins flew back from Australia after providing cover with the Black Caps to steer Auckland to a five-wicket win over Northern Districts in their opening round Twenty20 match at Eden Park yesterday.
Hopkins came to the crease with Auckland teetering at 79 for four in reply to ND's 149 for eight. They lost another wicket at the same score but a 71-run unbroken partnership with Anaru Kitchen saw them home with eight balls to spare.
Hopkins, who belted two fours and a six off the 19th over to clinch the win, was 38 not out from 26 balls while Kitchen had 33 off 32 balls.
Auckland would have been kicking themselves if they hadn't won. They had a dream start reducing Northern to five for three wickets after three overs. Azhar Abbas had the wickets of Hamish Marshall and Daniel Flynn while Chris Martin accounted for James Marshall.
Halfway through the innings it was 57 for three thanks mainly to Michael Parlane and a respectable total was in sight as Peter McGlashan bludgeoned four fours and three sixes on his way to 52 off 34 balls.
A direct hit by Ronnie Hira from deep mid-off accounted for McGlashan and the dangerous Joey Yovich departed for a duck as Colin de Grandhomme plucked a one-handed caught and bowled off a stinging drive.
Bradley Scott offered a late flurry of runs but 149 never looked enough on the Eden Park outer oval.
It looked even less of a target when Richard Jones and de Grandhomme began the Auckland innings as if they had an early dinner date. They had 29 off three overs and it was 71 for one off seven overs when left-arm spinner Bruce Martin came on to bowl.
He had de Grandhomme stumped for 36, Reece Young caught for 15 and Luke Vivian caught for 2, in the space of seven balls. Yovich accounted for Steven Croft and it was 79 for five.
Martin's four overs cost him 16 runs for three wickets and at 119 for five Auckland were struggling until Hopkins and Kitchen restored some sanity with patient cricket.
Otago beat Canterbury by 30 runs in Dunedin last night.
They scored 222 for three before holding the visitors to 192 for six at University Oval.
Otago's total was based around an unbeaten stand of 140 for the fourth wicket by Nathan McCullum and Dimitri Mascarenhas.
McCullum clubbed an unbeaten 76 off 42 balls and Mascarenhas hit 57 off 35.
Johann Myburgh did his best to keep Canterbury in the contest by hitting 73 off 42 but the target was always going to be too much.
Wellington emerged with the points when rain forced an early end to their match against Central Districts in Napier last night.
They were declared the winners by 20 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis system, with the home side on 63 for four after 10 overs chasing a target of 161.
- additional reporting NZPA
