Cricket: Northern face daunting task in Napier

Northern Districts have a battle on their hands to salvage anything from their match against Central Districts in Napier.

They reached stumps on the second day of the four-day fixture on 254 for eight in their first innings, still trailing Central by 255 runs.

The Central bowling attack kept control of the pace of the game as the visiting batsmen scored at just 2.82 runs an over compared with Central's four an over on Monday.

None of the Northern batsmen wanted to take responsibility to anchor the innings, with only Mark Orchard and Matt Hart, who each scored 48, looking comfortable at the crease.

Northern's hopes will rest on BJ Watling today. He is unbeaten on 27, but has only two batsmen to support him.

Central's bowlers shared the success from maintaining a tight line and length.

Lance Hamilton and Michael Mason each took two wickets to spearhead the attack and they gained fine support from Ewen Thompson and Andrew Schwass.

Glen Sulzberger's spin added the variety.

Central had resumed yesterday in good health at 433 for eight after Jamie How and Mathew Sinclair had posted cleanly-struck centuries.

The home side were eventually dismissed for 479.

- NZPA