Sam Ferguson driving Central Districts' unbeaten run in National U17 cricket tournament

Sam Ferguson is the golden child of the unbeaten Central Districts X1 at the National Under-17 tournament in Christchurch.

Hawkes Bay allrounder Sam Ferguson added insult to injury for Central Districts during the second innings against Canterbury at the National under-17 tournament in Lincoln on Monday.

Ferguson has been unstoppable at opener for CD with an extraordinary 344 runs in just two games.

Undefeated after wins over Auckland and Northern Districts, Central Districts then picked up a big 100-run victory over Otago on the Bert Sutcliffe Oval on Sunday, coming on the back of Ferguson's phenomenal 200 not out off 166 balls.

Central Districts then wracked up another big innings against Canterbury on Lincoln No3 on Monday, scoring 340/9 on the back of another Ferguson blinder - scoring 144 from 124 balls.

In the second innings on Monday afternoon, Ferguson took one wicket for a paltry five runs off two overs and added a runout for good measure to continue his hot run of form.

Central Districts mopped up the Canterbury batting line-up in 45.3 overs for 244 runs, well shy of their 341 target set by Ferguson and his fellow CD crew.

The 96-run victory was down to some good bowling from CD's Jordan Gard (3/69 off 10 overs). Gard heads the most wickets taken table with 14, while Ferguson's 413 runs over four matches places him well ahead with the bat.

Coached by Cricket Wanganui's Dilan Raj, CD leads the competition with 19 points after its unbeaten run with Auckland second on 13 points, Northern Districts and Wellington tied on 9, while Otago has 4 and Canterbury 0.

"We have a rest day today and then a bit of a dead rubber against Wellington tomorrow," Raj said on Tuesday.

"But comeThursday it's straight knockout competition, so all we have achieved until then will mean nothing."

Raj said both Sams in the team were in-form and developing in leaps and bounds.
Captain and Wanganui cricketer Sam Sherriff is really coming of age and was instrumental in bringing his namesake Sam Freguson on to bowl just before drinks against Canterbury.

"Sam (Sherriff) and I had discussed it for a few days actually," Raj said.

"Sam Ferguson is not one of our go to bowlers, he has quite a loopy, slow style and they are dangerous attacks especially when batters are uptight and desperate not to lose wickets before drinks. His runout was something quite special too. He was out on the third man boundary and had to run 15 to 20-metres to his left to pick the ball up and then threw it maybe 50m-60m for a direct hit - he's certainly the golden child at the moment." Raj said.