Cricket: Hurting Harts still smiling after ND win

By Terry Maddaford

MT MAUNGANUI - The Hart brothers were hit where it hurts - one on the head, the other in the pocket - but still came out smiling after Northern Districts strangled Auckland in their Shell Cup cricket clash at Blake Park yesterday.

Northern captain and wicket-keeper Robbie Hart was hit in the face by Kyle Mills' swinging bat, but after treatment battled bravely to steer his team to an unlikely 42-run win. He later had three stitches in the wound above his right eye.

Older brother Matthew's pain came in having to open his wallet and cough up the mandatory $15 fine for a career-best four for 21 as Auckland struggled to 171 in 48 overs in reply to the Knights' 213.

Hart, hampered in his movement with his thigh strapped after tweaking a muscle in the early stages of his innings of 27, took his tally of Cup wickets to 51.
In playing with just five frontline bowlers, Auckland gambled and lost both the game and the chance of the outright lead after four games.

Auckland's three medium pacers, Chris Drum, Mills and Aaron Barnes, gave up 146 runs and claimed four wickets from their 29.4 overs. Only good work from spinners Brooke Walker (10 overs, one for 30) and Mark Haslam, who bagged four for 33 from his 10, kept any lid on the Northern scoring.

Auckland did reasonably well to bring it back after Northern threatened to race away and build on a flying start by Michael Parlane and promoted opener Hamish Marshall. The Northland pair raced to 51 inside 40 minutes before the impetuous Parlane fell for 29.

The rejuvenated Scott Styris later clubbed his second successive half century on the ground, joining Matt Hart in a 51-run fifth-wicket partnership.

Auckland looked strong at the top of their innings, especially as Bryan Young, in his first outing against the team he had played for in 76 Cup games, majestically stroked his way to 34 in 31 minutes including six boundaries.

His departure threw the work-load to Aces captain Blair Pocock, and while he reached 42, it was never easy as he struggled with a groin injury which had restricted his movement from the start of play.

There were brief flurries from Barnes (16) and Mills (27), but not much else as the tight ND bowling strangled any remaining fight from the visitors.

Northern and Auckland have two-win, two-loss records going into Friday's matches against Otago and Canterbury respectively.