STATISTICS: Milestones and statistics from round five of the round five HRV Cup Twenty20 competition.
Tim Southee's figures of 3 for 16 are the best for the Northern Knights against the Central Stags and are the second most economic after Kane Williamson's figures of 1 for 14 off 4 overs in the same innings.
The difference between the two teams can be summed up by the fact that both teams had two record partnerships in matches between the two teams. Whereas Northern's were 74 for the second wicket and 49 unbeaten for the third wicket, Central's were 23 for the seventh wicket and 18 unbeaten for the ninth.
The eight wicket defeat is the most comprehensive suffered by the Stags when batting first matching their losing margin against the Firebirds in Nelson last season.
The Wellington Firebirds total of 90 against the Canterbury Wizards is their lowest total in the HRV Cup and the third lowest overall. In their six previous matches against the Wizards their lowest total was 148 and they had never lost more than five wickets in a match.
James Franklin was the only batsman to reach double figures and was one of only two batsmen in the innings to have a strike rate of 100 or better.
Rob Nicol with 4 for 21 claimed the best bowling figures for the Wizards against the Firebirds. This was his second four wicket bag against them, the previous being for the Auckland Aces.
This was Nicol's third four wicket bag matching the achievement of Ewen Thompson for the Central Stags. No other player has managed the feat more than once.
Such is the nature of T20 cricket that the three wicketkeeping dismissals made by Reece Young for the Wizards is just the tenth time a wicketkeeper has made three dismissals in the HRV Cup history. Kruger van Wyk has managed it three times while Young has previously made 4 dismissals for the Auckland Aces. Derek de Boorder with 4 catches and one stumping for the Volts against the Wizards is the record holder and the only other player to have claimed more than three dismissals in an innings.
Canterbury have passed 150 in four matches this season including totals of 198 against the Otago Volts and 183 against the Auckland Aces but not one of their batsmen has registered a half-century. On seven occasions players have reached the forties without going past the 45 scored by George Worker in this match and by Peter Fulton against the Aces.
Azhar Mahmood's innings of 79 not out is the highest for the Auckland Aces against the Otago Volts while Martin Guptill with his innings of 65 became just the twelfth player to score consecutive half-centuries or better. His challenge will be to see if he can manage three in a row as no other player has yet managed that.
Roneel Hira with his figures of 3 for 17 bettered the previous best and most economical for the Aces against the Volts. He beat his own figures of 3 for 21 at Dunedin in 2008-09 in both cases.
The Aces push for victory was stalled by a record seventh wicket partnership for the Volts against them as Nathan McCullum and Dimitri Mascarenhas added 56 runs to narrow the margin of defeat for the Volts.
Martin Guptill has now scored 281 runs for the season leaving him well clear of Brendon McCullum with 201 runs in second spot. He must now have a good chance of overhauling Ross Taylor's season record of 383 runs in the 2009-10 season.
Andy McKay is now the leading wicket-taker for the season with nine scalps, heading Michael Bates and Rob Nicol who each have eight wickets. However they all have a bit of work to do to match Graham Napier's season record of 18 wickets.
Derek de Boorder with six wicket-keeping dismissals (3 catches and 3 stumpings) and Rob Nicol with five catches in the field head the fielding effort after six rounds.
