Round three Ford Trophy: Mondiale Auckland Aces 344 in 50 overs (Guptill 108 off 114, Craig Cachopa 110 off 100, Grobbelaar 30; Jacob Duffy 5-58, Scott 3-71) beat the SBS Bank Otago Volts 247/9 in 46.1 (Wells 47, Robertson 74, Jacob Duffy 39; McClenaghan 4-34) by 97 runs at Eden Park Outer Oval, Auckland.
The unbeaten Mondiale Auckland Aces marked their third home game in a row at Eden Park outer oval by notching up more or less an action replay of their previous two victories — familiar faces pouring on the runs before the Mitchell McClenaghan-led attack hobbled the opposition by nearly 100 runs.
Although it wasn’t Rob Nicol’s day — the Aces’ captain out to a first-baller — the sight of Martin Guptill smashing it around a crowded, sunny park for the third game on the trot had Aces fans oohing and aahing in admiration — not the least when Guptill picked up a short ball off Jacob Duffy and pelted it onto Sandringham Road to hoist his second Ford Trophy century in three rounds.
The Aces had lost two early wickets, both falling to Duffy (who ultimately picked up his maiden five-for, 5-58, including a maiden), but Guptill and his more pugnacious ally Craig Cachopa made them pay handsomely. Cachopa punched one of his five sixes off Nathan McCullum to move to 80, and brought up the second Ford Trophy century of his career off 95 balls.
Guptill’s century was his sixth for Auckland and the 14th of his overall one-day career, and his stand with his loyal foil reached a cracking 222 for the third wicket — ending with the fall of Guptill, caught off Bradley Scott for 108, just 20 runs shy of breaking the Aces’ third wicket and all wickets record (held by Nicol and Richard Jones, 242 v Northern Knights set in the 2007/08 season).
Dismissing the pair didn’t do the Volts much good, however, as the unfettered Aces continued pumping out the boundaries towards the close, passing 300 on the board with five overs still to go. Donovan Grobbelaar monstered a six as he raced to a quick 30 before he was run out.
Scott had done a good job of trying to contain Cachopa and Guptill whilst they were hard at it, but the popular Volts veteran was dramatically taken out the attack and the game when Tarun Nethula smashed a ball into his mouth, costing Scott a couple of his teeth and a fair splash of blood.
Heading off to Middlemore Hospital to be stitched up and repaired, the unfortunate exit of Scott meant the Volts had only 10 men with whom to attempt to hunt down 345 — and they started disastrously. A pumped-up McClenaghan continued his dangerous wicket-taking form, having Aaron Redmond caught, Michael Bracewell caught behind off a feather and then Derek de Boorder bowled. All three of them had been mopped up for ducks inside the first five overs.
The defensive position became 66-4 when Nathan McCullum couldn’t repeat his Queenstown heroics and fell to a nagging Grobbelaar — and from there, the Volts were destined to pick off what they could without really getting on top of a the mounting climb, Iain Robertson the best of the bunch, backing up with a run-a-ball 74 at six.
The Volts’ first loss of the season was cemented with a handful of overs to spare. At the same time, they slipped to third place on the table thanks to the Devon Hotel Central Stags having concurrently roasted Canterbury down south, while the Aces revelled in widening the gap in top spot.
