Northern Knights produced a thrilling finish to beat Central Stags by one wicket with a ball to spare in their second round domestic men's one-day cricket championship match at Palmerston North.
Defending champions Northern who narrowly beat Auckland by two runs in the opening round, chased down Central's Districts 280 for five with Brad Scott scoring a boundary with the penultimate ball of the match off Doug Bracewell to bring the score to 283 for nine.
Opener Daniel Flynn was the anchor of Northern's innings, scoring 115 runs off 124 balls for his third one-day century in 62 matches.
His flowing knock lasted 43.2 overs as he set the foundation for a successful chase in an 88-run first wicket stand with BJ Watling, who scored 46.
Flynn's score included 12 boundaries until Jacob Oram dismissed him via a catch by Jamie How.
Though Bracewell, three for 66, Oram, two for 55 and Tarun Nethula, two for 56, chipped away hard at Northern's batting other handy contributions of 24 from Brad Wilson and Scott's 25 not out off 10 balls was enough to guide Northern through to a hard fought win.
Earlier, left hander George Worker hit 109 runs off 129 balls in a chanceless inning containing five boundaries and four sixes for his first one-day century in 22 matches.
With Central 57 for two after 12 overs, Worker and Mathew Sinclair put on 149 for the third wicket before Sinclair departed for 66 -- his second consecutive half century.
Worker departed in the 42nd over but after Oram's miserable season with the bat continued when he was run out for one, not out batsmen Kieran Noema-Barnett with 41 off 26 balls and Tim Weston, 27 off 20 used the final six overs to thrash the score out to 280-5.
NZPA
