The Auckland Under-19 team got their campaign off to a solid start, claiming first-innings points over Northern Districts in their two-day nearest neighbours match at Weymouth Oval, Manurewa.
Auckland posted 299 to set Northern a big task in the second innings. Despite 64 from star player Anish Desai, the pursuit fell flat as they were dismissed for 151 off 69.2 overs.
It gave Auckland a handy lead ahead of the tournament in Lincoln, which lasts ten days from Jan 16 -25.
Apart from Desai, who last year lit the tournament alight, the Northern batsmen offered very little, with Thomas MacRury (29) and Cameron Gibbons (22) the only others to produce anything of any real value.
Ben Horne may have missed out with the bat earlier on, but he made no such mistake with the ball and ended up with very impressive figures of four for 12 from 13 overs.
It helped to give his side a 148 run lead, after Auckland had finished just one short of 300 earlier.
The star from the innings was Sachin Variath, with the opener playing beautifully to make a wonderful 106. It came off a steady 213 balls and set his side up for an imposing total.
There were a number of other minor contributors, with James Parlow the best of them with 46. Following a few further cameos Northern eventually had their opponents out after 102.5 overs.
Three bowlers took two wickets apiece, but Jenkins was the best of them with three scalps in his 12.5 overs for 22 runs.
