Martin Guptill continues to dominate the HRV Cup this season. In the latest round he scored an unbeaten 68 against the Otago Volts to take his season aggregate to 416, a new season record passing the 383 scored by Ross Taylor two seasons ago.
Guptill and Azhar Mahmood added 97 for the second wicket, a record for the Auckland Aces against the Volts beating the 88 the same pair added in the match between the two teams nine days ago. It is the third half-century partnership between the two batsmen this season. In his two matches against the Volts Azhar Mahmood has scored 79 not out and 51. Guptill has also scored half-centuries in his last two innings against them with scores of 65 and 68 not out.
Anaru Kitchen took three catches during the Volts innings to equal the Auckland record. Scott Styris also took three catches against the Volts at Dunedin in the 2008-09 season. Only Peter Fulton has taken more catches in an innings with four for the Canterbury Wizards against the Northern Knights last season.
The Canterbury Wizards recorded their largest ever victory as they won by 70 runs against the Wellington Firebirds, eclipsing the 61 run win they had against the same opponents earlier in the season. The Firebirds contrived to lose their last seven wickets for fifteen runs in five overs. Prior to the collapse James Franklin and Grant Elliott had added 79 runs for the fourth wicket, a record for the Firebirds against the Wizards.
During the Canterbury innings George Worker became the second Wizards batsman, after Johan Myburgh, to bat through the full twenty overs. He shared a record second wicket partnership against the Firebirds of 68 with Peter Fulton, their second partnership of that amount this season having also added 68 for the second wicket against the Central Stags.
During his innings of 48 Rob Nicol became the fourth player to reach the 1,000 run mark in the HRV Cup. Martin Guptill is poised to be the fifth player to reach this milestone needing just seven runs.
Mitchell Claydon (three for eight) and Yasir Arafat (three for thirteen) recorded their best bowling figures for the Wizards as the Firebirds batting imploded.
Doug Bracewell has improved his best score three times this season. He came into the season with a best of 30 on debut for the Central Stags during the 2010 Champions League. He improved to 35 not out, then 36 not out and during this last round he scored 37 against the Northern Knights.
Ross Taylor scored his first duck for the Stags in his 28th innings. Rather surprisingly for a player with his big hitting credentials he took six balls to record his duck. Craig Cumming has played the most innings in the HRV Cup without recording a duck having batted 37 times. BJ Watling has batted 29 times without a duck while Brendon McCullum and James Franklin both currently stand on 26 innings without being dismissed for a duck.
Going into the last round of the HRV Cup Martin Guptill is the leading runscorer with 416, well ahead of Brendon McCullum with 269 runs. James Franklin (243), Mathew Sinclair (211), Ross Taylor (206) and Brad Wilson (201) are the only other batsmen to have passed the 200 run mark.
Things are closer on the bowling front with Rob Nicol in front with 12 wickets but Michael Bates, Roneel Hira, Tim Southee and Andy McKay are all just one wicket behind him.
Kruger van Wyk leads the 'keepers with four catches and five stumpings. Derek de Boorder (four catches and three stumpings) and Brendan Taylor (three catches and four stumpings) are next on the list.
With three catches from round nine, Anaru Kitchen jumps to the top of the outfielders with eight grabs in total. Rob Nicol is just one behind with Martin Guptill next with six catches.
Dean Brownlie still heads the batsmen's strike rates with 169 runs per hundred balls faced. Doug Bracewell (158), Scott Styris (156) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (153) are the others with a strike rate of over 150.
The spinners continue to dominate the bowlers' economy rates. Kane Williamson still leads with just 5.33 runs off each of his overs. Roneel Hira (5.71), Daniel Vettori (5.84) and Muttiah Muralitharan (6.11) are next. Mitchell Claydon is now the most economical of the seamers conceding 6.46 runs per over.
