Northern Districts recovered from an early slump to beat Otago by five-wickets in the final of the HRV Cup at Seddon Park in Hamilton tonight.

The domestic T20 playoff teams have been finalised and even though they have one game outstanding, Auckland won't be in the mix this week.

As clutch games go, today's contest at Eden Park's outer oval takes some beating.

Corey Anderson coined the term, and if BJ Watling carries on as he is playing now, it'll probably stick.

Only a downpour prevented Jesse Ryder from yesterday adding to the deluge of runs he has scored this summer in search of an international return.

'I've never seen it looking that green.' After 14 summers, Peter Fulton's opinion on the Basin Reserve pitch ahead of tomorrow's second test is pretty important.

Martin Crowe has Ross Taylor's ear and spoke reassuring words into it before the opening test against the West Indies began.

A day which began badly for Northern Districts ended rather well at Seddon Park yesterday.

As we head into potentially a very interesting summer of cricket against the West Indies and India, to be honest, we are not in a healthy state at all.

A century from New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling has set up an intriguing final day in Northern District's Plunket Shield clash with Auckland at Seddon Park.

It took Dan Vettori two days of first-class cricket to make an impact in the Plunket Shield.

Jesse Ryder's six-month ban for failing a drug test expires today and he will rejoin the Otago squad on Monday to prepare for the start of domestic first-class cricket.

It may be cold comfort, but the New Zealand cricket team are far from alone when it comes to the difficulty of negotiating with Indian officials.