STATISTICS: Milestones and statistics from round three of the HRV Cup.
In Round three the Wellington Firebirds eventually, at the tenth time of asking, have beaten the Auckland Aces. In the nine previous matches they went close a couple of times, losing by just 2 runs on two occasions, but weren't able to get that elusive win until now.
In the time that the teams were on the field at University Oval in the third round match Anton Devcich was able to improve his best bowling figures for the third time in three games this season. His final figures of three for 23 were an improvement on the two for 21 recorded against the Auckland Aces in his previous match and two for 40 in the first round.
Brendan Taylor became the seventh century scorer in the New Zealand domestic T20 competition when he struck a boundary off the last ball of the Wellington Firebirds innings. Rather perversely he is the fourth of those seven players to have ended up on the losing side.
The unbeaten partnership of 124 that Taylor shared with Grant Elliott is the highest for the Firebirds just beating the 123 added by Chris Nevin and Elliott against the Central Stags back in the 2006-07 season. It equals the seventh highest of the twenty two century partnerships that have been scored in the HRV Cup and its predecessors.
The 38 runs conceded by Jeetan Patel off his two overs in Queenstown are the most off a two over analysis. Ross Taylor had given up 37 and Mark Houghton 36 to have previously been the most expensive off two overs.
Brendan Taylor leads the runscorers after Round 4 of the HRV Cup with 175 runs closely followed by Brendon McCullum with 168 runs. Ross Taylor (132) and James Franklin (107) are the only other batsmen with more than a hundred runs.
Anton Devcich is the leading wicket-taker after four rounds with seven scalps, ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan (six) with Michael Bates and Andy McKay each on five wickets.
The Central Stags matches against the Canterbury Wizards and Auckland Aces in New Plymouth were the tenth and eleventh matches to be completely abandoned out of 138 scheduled matches since the inception of the T20 competition in the 2005-06 season. In addition two matches were abandoned with no play after the toss was made. The match between the Otago Volts and Northern Knights in Dunedin is just the second to have been started but finish with no result. Of the 123 completed matches four have been decided using the Duckworth/Lewis method while another five have been decided on shortened overs including the just completed five over match between the Northern Knights and Canterbury Wizards at Mt Maunganui.
The Otago Volts have been the team worst affected by the weather with six matches completely abandoned and four no result matches. The Northern Knights have had just three matches not reach a decision while the Auckland Aces,Central Stags and Canterbury Wizards have had four and the Wellington Firebirds five.
