STATISTICS: Milestones and statistics from the first round of HRV Cup.
Brendon Diamanti, in just his second match for the Canterbury Wizards, scored his maiden List A century. Not only did it easily beat his previous highest score of 68 but his century was reached in 78 balls which makes it the seventh fastest in all New Zealand one day cricket. Only Shanan Stewart (76 balls) and Craig McMillan (77 balls) have scored faster centuries for the Wizards.
The margin of Canterbury's win was 6 runs, the margin they lost to Auckland by when the two teams last met in the One Day Final last season. The only difference was that this result was decided on Duckworth/Lewis.
Michael Bates suffered the most expensive bowling figures for the Auckland Aces against the Canterbury Wizards equalling the 79 conceded by Kyle Mills at QEII Park last season. His figures are also the most expensive for a bowler
claiming four wickets in an innings. Seth Rance had conceded 71 runs when taking four wickets for the Central Stags against the Canterbury Wizards in the 2009-10 season.
The Northern Knights total of 327 for 5 was their second highest behind the 332 for 5 they scored against the Canterbury Wizards at QEII Park in 2006-07. It also beat the 299 for 7 they scored at Whangarei in 2007-08 to be their highest against the Wellington Firebirds.
Hamish and James Marshall shared their third century stand for the Knights during the innings. This is just the fifth time that brothers have added a hundred together in New Zealand domestic cricket and on all occasions it has been for the Northern Knights with the Parlane brothers doing so twice. Martin and Jeff Crowe also did so for New Zealand in an ODI against England back in 1986.
It was also the fifth occasion that one brother has scored a century and another a half-century in the same innings. The Marshalls have done it once before with Hamish scoring the century on that occasion. Michael Parlane also scored a
century for the Knights when brother Neal scored a half-century. Wayne Blair and Chris Harris also scored hundreds when brothers Bruce and Ben respectively scored fifties.
This was also the fourteenth occasion that two century partnerships were scored in the same innings in New Zealand one day cricket. The Northern have done so twice before with James Marshall also featuring in both century stands on
the previous occasion they performed the feat.
In the process of Corey Anderson bludgeoning his 74 off just 31 balls to help James Marshall add an unbeaten 105 for the Knights sixth wicket he brought up his half-century in just 22 balls. Only four players have reached fifty quicker in New Zealand. Peter McGlashan and Shanan Stewart lead the way with 19 ball half-centuries while Chris Cairns and Graham Napier needed 20 balls for their fifties.
Mark Gillespie was one of the bowlers to suffer from the Northern Knights onslaught going for 83 runs off his ten overs. This equalled the most expensive bowling for Wellington, Graeme Welch having conceded 83 for the Firebirds against
the Central Stags in 1997-98.
During Wellington's reply to the Northern Knights Graham Aldridge claimed the one wicket needed for him to go ahead of Chris Harris as the leading wicket-taker in New Zealand domestic one day cricket.
Once again the weather played a major part in this round of the Ford Trophy with one match completely abandoned and the other two decided on Duckworth/Lewis. Nelson now joins Wanganui as the venue most likely to be weather affected
with five of the fifteen matches scheduled there having been either abandoned or no result. With New Plymouth being the next most likely venue to be weather affected, the Central Stags are the team most likely to suffer from rain.
In fact of the 283 matches that the Stags have had scheduled 19 have been abandoned and 14 no result matches. This is a staggering 11.7% of matches. The Auckland Aces have had 24 of their 289 matches (8.3%) affected while the team
least likely to have their match washed out is the Northern Knights with 15 of 290 (5.25%) affected.
There have been twenty one matches decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method since its introduction. The 6 run win by the Canterbury Wizards is the third closest with the Northern Knights having beaten the Wellington Firebirds once by 1 run
and on another occasion by 3 runs while the Central Stags have had a 1 wicket win over the Knights. Prior to D/L there was a rather imprecise run rate calculation made to decide matches with ten matches being decided this way.
