Auckland win the 2008/09 National Provincial A Tournament.
Play finally got underway in the final at 2.45pm. Persistent morning rain had meant no play was possible in the morning and the T20 matches between teams ranked 3 to 6 were called off at lunch with no play being possible. In the 50 over final between ND and Auckland the match was reduced to a 22 over match.
Northern Districts vs Auckland
Auckland; 202/4(Jeet Raval 61, Dusan Hakaraia 88) beat Northern Districts; 188/6(Brad Wilson 100, Cameron Merchant 41, Bhupinder Singh 5-28)
ND won the toss and fielded. Auckland got off to a rollicking start with openers Jeet Raval and Colin de Grandhomme regularly finding the fence. Raval scored 61 off 48 balls and Colin de Grandhomme scored 28 off 13 balls. Dusan Hakaraia continued his fine form of the tournament with a hard hitting 88 runs off 56 balls including 7 x 4’s and 2 x 6’s and he was dismissed off the last ball of the innings. Auckland had scored 202/4 off their 22 overs. All the ND bowlers were on the receiving end of the aggressive batting. Simon Andrews was the most successful of the ND bowlers with 2/39 off his 5 overs. Requiring a run rate of 9.18 ND started aggressively and the game was evenly poised until the 15 over mark. Captain Brad Wilson led from the front with a brilliant 100 off 68 balls including 7 x 4’s and 3 x 6’s. He put on 93 for the 2nd wicket with Cameron Merchant who scored 41 off 28 balls. Bhupinder Singh started bowling in the 15th over and that changed the course of the match. He took 5/28 off 4 overs which effectively ended ND’s run chase. With wickets in hand and 3 overs to go ND needed 40 runs, then 30 runs off 12 balls and 21 runs off 6 to win but kept losing wickets. Wilson was out off the first ball of the last over and with a new batsman at the crease the equation became too difficult. Auckland won by 14 runs.
