Auckland captain Tim McIntosh led his side to a relatively comfortable six wicket victory over Canterbury in their third round match at the Provincial A tournament in Lincoln.
Canterbury were dismissed for 220 with two balls remaining in their innings, but couldn’t restrict Auckland the same way as they reached their target with 11 balls to spare.
Hero of the reply was undoubtedly Tim McIntosh, who showed all of his experience with an unbeaten 106 from 147 balls. It was a mature innings which was well timed and kept his side in control from start to end.
His main partner was Dusan Hakaraia, who continued to have a good tournament with 64 from 80. Brad Schmulian (37) then came in and went close to finishing the deal with his skipper, but fell with just 12 further runs required.
McIntosh proceeded to end the match and in doing so put his side into second on the table.
Earlier, Shanan Stewart and Henry Nicholls had combined to help Canterbury post a competitive total.
Stewart made 52, while Nicholls top scored with 66. Joel Abraham (23) and David Fulton (23) also contributed as the home side went past the 200 mark.
Their biggest threat to them though was Rajiv Sharma, who put the competition on notice with extraordinary figures of six for 33 from nine overs. His impact was huge, taking the wickets of both Stewart and Nicholls.
Canterbury are still in a share for third on four points.
