Bevan Small claimed five wickets on debut to help bowl the Stags to victory over the Auckland Aces in New Plymouth. He finished with five for 45, the second best figures for a bowler on debut. Only Leighton Burtt with five for 26 for the Canterbury Wizards has better figures in his first match, while only Michael Mason (six for 25) has better figures for the Stags against the Aces.
Hamish Marshall celebrated his one hundredth one day match for the Northern Knights by scoring 83 and playing a leading role in carrying his team to victory. He shared a fourth wicket partnership of 118 with Anton Devcich who followed up his maiden century in his last match by scoring an unbeaten 79.
Graeme Aldridge became the first bowler in New Zealand one day history to reach the one hundred and fifty mark after claiming three wickets in four balls to stymie the Canterbury Wizards late innings charge.
Earlier Jono Boult had put the clamps on the Wizards top order finishing with career-best figures of three for twenty eight off his ten overs.
Todd Astle was the Wizards top scorer with 78 not out, easily beating his previous one day best of twenty. Together he added ninety for the fifth wicket with Shanan Stewart, who in the course of scoring 64, became the fourth Canterbury player to achieve the three thousand run mark.
Jesse Ryder, on the comeback trail, scored his highest domestic one day score and helped the Wellington Firebirds finish the Ford Trophy on a positive note. His score of 96 beat his previous best of 63 for the Central Stags and was just his sixth half-century in domestic one dayers.
His partnership of 120 with Grant Elliott for the fifth wicket was a record for the Firebirds against the Otago Volts, helping Wellington recover from the loss of four early wickets. Elliott carried on to score 63 and helped Wellington reach 276, their highest total against Otago.
The Volts were in even bigger strife at 87 for six in reply before Derek de Boorder and Jimmy Neesham joined in another record stand adding 109 for the seventh wicket, the best for the Volts against the Firebirds. Neesham was dismissed for 69, his best one day effort, to end the partnership.
James Franklin, with bowling figures of five for 46, made sure that their efforts would be in vain as he completed his first five wicket bag for the Firebirds. His only better bowling was for the Black Caps against England in 2004 when he had figures of five for 42 at Chester-le-Street.
Neil Wagner had earlier taken his fifth four wicket bag for the Otago Volts, four of which have come against the Firebirds. Prior to the Playoffs the leading runscorers are Michael Papps (Wellington Firebirds) 337, Tom Latham (Canterbury Wizards) 332, Craig Cumming (Otago Volts), 310, George Worker (Canterbury Wizards) 298, Hamish Marshall (Northern Knights) 297 and Brad Cachopa (Auckland Aces) 290.
Andy McKay (Wellington Firebirds) leads the bowlers with 18 wickets, followed by Mitch McClenaghan (Auckland Aces) 12, James Franklin (Wellington Firebirds) 11, while Andre Adams (Auckland Aces), Matt Henry (Canterbury Wizards), Ian Butler (Otago Volts) and Graeme Aldridge (Northern Knights) each have ten wickets.
Gareth Hopkins (Auckland Aces) is easily the leading wicketkeeper with 13 dismissals (ten catches and three stumpings) ahead of Kruger van Wyk (Central Stags) with 6 catches.
Similarly Harry Boam (Wellington Firebirds) is comfortably the most successful outfielder with ten catches ahead of Nathan McCullum (Otago Volts) with six catches.
