Daniel Vettori followed up his five catches in the field in the last round by doing even better and claiming six catches against the Canterbury Wizards to equal Brian Young's record for the Northern Knights. The four catches Vettori took in the first innings also equalled the Knights record for catches in an innings, a record he now shares with six others.
Joe Yovich scored his fourth first-class century and in the process became the seventh Knights player to pass four thousand runs for his association. Hamish Marshall, needing eighty nine runs to also reach four thousand for the Knights only managed thirty so remains fifty nine short of the milestone.
Twenty wickets fell on the first day in Rangiora and as a result Brent Arnel was able to achieve the rare feat for him of opening the batting twice on the first day of a match. Arnel was used as night-watchman to face the one over that Northern had to survive on the first evening.
Canterbury used twelve players during the match. Tom Latham batted on the first day before being called into the Black Caps squad as cover for James Franklin. Tim Johnston, a young off-break bowler making his debut was brought in as Latham's replacement on the second day. As Latham wasn't required in Wellington he returned after lunch on the third day and batted in the Wizards second innings. So Johnston didn't get to bat but did bowl thirty four overs in the Knights second innings taking two wickets including Daniel Vettori as his maiden first-class victim.
Willie Lonsdale finished with six for 53 in the Knights first innings his first five wicket bag while Henry Nicholls with 93 not out and Matt Henry (51) achieved career-bests in the Wizards unsuccessful chase for five hundred and three to win the match.
Brad Watling achieved the rare feat of scoring a half-century and taking five wicketkeeping dismissals in an innings in the same match.
The Northern second innings was declared when he reached fifty and he had earlier taken five catches in the Canterbury first innings.
James Brodie registered his highest score for the second time in two innings. After scoring 116 in the second innings against Canterbury he followed up by scoring a magnificent 210 against the Auckland Aces. Michael Papps scored his first century for the Wellington Firebirds and together the pair put on 236 for the Firebirds first wicket.
Luke Woodcock added 62 later in the Wellington innings to become the tenth player to reach four thousand runs for the Firebirds. He also brought up one thousand runs against the Aces, the seventh Wellington player to achieve this feat.
Mark Gillespie followed up his best bowling in his last match with his first ten wicket haul. He finished with five wickets in each innings so has now had three consecutive five wicket bags for Wellington. However he is short of the record for Wellington which is held by Bob Blair who managed five consecutive 'five fors' in the 1956-57 season.
Craig Cachopa made his debut for Wellington falling victim to his brother Brad, who on his first bowl in first-class cricket finished with two for two off four balls. He was the ninth bowler used and you have to feel for Chris Martin and Mitch McClenaghan who both bowled twenty nine overs without success only to see a non-bowler come on and clean up the tail.
Bruce Martin toiled for fifty nine overs and finished with six for 187 for the Aces in the Firebirds first innings. Only Chris Pringle has conceded more runs in an innings for Auckland, going for 198 against the Central Stags in 1995-96. His spell was also the third longest in an innings for the Aces with only Cyril Allcott and John McIntyre having bowled more than his 354 balls in an innings.
In Queenstown it was a case of 'almost but not quite' for two of the veterans of New Zealand cricket. Mathew Sinclair was dismissed in the Central Stags second innings when just two runs short of becoming the first player to score two thousand runs for one association against another. Earlier Craig Cumming was just fifteen runs short of becoming the third player to have scored a thousand runs for one association against the other five when out for just five in the Volts second innings. Had he scored fifteen more runs he would have joined Michael Papps and Mathew Sinclair in having achieved the feat.
Cumming scored 125 in the Volts first innings which is exactly the same score he made the only other time these two teams have met at Queenstown, seven seasons back.
Kruger van Wyk held the Central batting together scoring unbeaten seventies in both innings and passing one thousand runs for the Central Stags in the process.
Eighteen year old Dan Wightman had a successful first-class debut for the Stags being on the winning side and picking up three for nine in the Volts second innings.
