State Northern Knights paceman Trent Boult kept the State Otago Volts on the back foot on the rain-interrupted third day of their State Championship match in Dunedin today.
The 19-year-old collected his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket as Northern fought back to have Otago 256 for nine in their first innings chasing 275 when first rain, then bad light stopped play.
Boult easily eclipsed his previous first-class best of 2-34 with impressive figures of 5-53 off 17 overs, adding to his overnight tally of two with three well-timed wickets late in the afternoon.
A national under-19 and New Zealand A representative, Boult struck to take the last three wickets of the day in the space of just 16 balls.
Derek de Boorder was the first to go, trapped leg before wicket on 16, followed by Neil Wagner caught behind by keeper Peter McGlashan for two. Three balls later, Mathew Harvie completed Boult's five-wicket haul, caught by BJ Watling without scoring.
The Volts resumed today handily placed on 116 for two, with former test opener Craig Cumming solid on 69 and Neil Broom ominously stubborn on four from 71 balls.
The pair put on 72 runs for the third wicket, before Cumming fell with the total on 142, caught by McGlashan off the bowling off Brent Arnel on 85.
Although Broom battled on, he lost batting partners with regularity. Shaun Haig managed barely 10 minutes out in the middle for two runs before he was caught by Boult off spinner Bruce Martin to leave Otago 145-4.
Nathan McCullum (23) was dispatched leg before wicket by Graeme Aldridge with the score on 191, and once Northern took the new ball with the score on 217 for five, Otago struggled for every run.
Arnel swept Broom aside 10 runs later, bowled for 54 in an innings which took 234 balls and last eight minutes shy of five hours which included just three fours.
Then Boult stepped up with his last three wickets in quick succession to leave Otago 20 astray of vital first innings points with just one wicket in hand.
