Northern Districts edged out Canterbury by four wickets in their fourth round Provincial A encounter, successfully chasing down the hosts’ 217 after 48.5 overs.
Henry Nicholls made it back to back half-centuries with 77 for Canterbury to lead his side past the 200 mark, but they were unable to adequately restrict the Northern top-order as the top five all but ensured the victory.
An opening partnership worth 75 between Mitchell Santer (53) and Joe Carter (28) put the chasing side in good stead and they didn’t disappoint.
Bharat Popli (35), Jono Hickey (34) and Tamati Clarke (38) all made valuable contributions to get Northern to within 18 of victory.
Their dismissals left some work to do in the last two overs, but a couple of late boundaries by the entering batsmen sealed the deal and gave the visitors their second win.
Brent Findlay took three wickets for Canterbury, while Theo van Woerkom chipped in with two.
Earlier, inconsistency had cost Canterbury a big total, with not enough batsmen getting a start.
Openers Joel Abraham (29) and Keryn Ambler (36) got their side off to a reasonable start, while Nicholls came in and played sensibly to keep the momentum flowing somewhat.
At the other end though wickets began to tumble and Canterbury looked in danger. At 120 for five a full collapse looked possible, but Nicholls led them out of trouble, before falling himself in the 48th over.
It was a much needed and mature innings from the young batsmen and gave Canterbury something that resembled a defendable total.
Crippling the home side was Northern's Joe Walker. Walker put in a master-class with the ball and claimed a five wicket bag in his 9.3 overs for 44 runs. Mitchell Santer was also useful, adding three wickets to his half-century.
Northern now go into fourth with the victory, just one point behind Otago in third.
