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Corey Anderson has left the Wellington Firebirds bowlers mulling over the prospects of laying an assault charge with police.
They may have a case, too, after being brutalised in broad daylight by the Northern Knights allrounder who belted 74 not out off just 31 balls when his team posted a challenging 327 for five en route to a 27-run victory at the Basin Reserve in the capital.
The outcome was decided by Duckworth Lewis calculations when rain intervened with the Firebirds still in the contest at 221 for six after 38 overs, with Harry Boam unbeaten on 49 off 44 balls and opener Michael Papps come and gone for a breezy 52.
While veteran James Marshall topped the billing with an unbeaten 110 it was Anderson, just one day past his 21st birthday, who demanded the spotlight because of 41 minutes of calculated destruction.
Anderson’s career best one-day score contained four fours and six sixes as he tore the Firebirds attack to shreds, piling on 100 for the fifth wicket with Marshall in the space of 50 deliveries.
He reached his own 50 in 22 balls, the equal fifth quickest scored in this country and three balls shy of the record jointly held by Knights teammate Peter McGlashan and Canterbury’s Shanan Stewart.
The groundwork had been done to set up Anderson’s onslaught by James Marshall, who had already prospered in the company of his brother his Hamish and Scott Styris.
Opener Hamish Marshall made 64 off 69 balls in a second wicket stand of 103 then Styris smacked 50 off 40 and rotated the strike expertly as he and James Marshall added 75 for the third wicket in less than 11 overs.
James Marshall had hardly been pedestrian in reaching his seventh one-day century off 113 balls but it was Anderson’s arrival which really hurried things along at an electric rate.
When the Knights ran out of overs they were just five runs short of the province’s one-day record score of 332 for five, managed against Canterbury in 2005-06 when James Marshall hit his straps with a career high 152 not out.
A few of the Firebirds bowlers suffered greatly at the hands of Anderson but two to emerge unscathed were spinner Luke Woodcock and left-arm swing bowler Andy McKay.
McKay impressed in taking three for 32 off eight overs while Woodcock was tidy also in claiming two for 40 off 10.
