STATISTICS: A summary of the statistics and milestones following the third round of Ford Trophy cricket.
Steve Smidt (Central Stags) and Anurag Verma (Northern Knights) made their List A debuts bringing to 13 the number of players who have debuted in the one day format so far this season.
Andre Adams became the first player to reach 100 List A wickets for the Auckland Aces passing the New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan who retired with 99 wickets to his name.
Gareth Hopkins, in taking two catches and making two stumpings for the Aces against the Knights, took his career List A wicketkeeping tally to exactly 200 made up of 173 catches and 27 stumpings. He also took his dismissals for the Aces to 51 (48 catches, 3 stumpings) and is now second only to Reece Young who made 63 catches and 13 stumpings for the Aces before moving to the Wizards.
Michael Pollard scored his maiden List A century for the Wellington Firebirds as their match against the Central Stags ended in a washout. Brad Cachopa, in just his second match, also went close but was dismissed for 91 as he helped the Auckland Aces claim the 4 points against the Northern Knights.
Anton Devcich struck his best List A score of 55 not out as he tried to carry the Northern Knights to a competitive total but Colin de Grandhomme blazed 38 not out to carry the Auckland Aces to victory. Rather surprisingly this equals de Grandhomme's highest one day score in his 32 matches for the Aces.
Unfortunately the weather once again played a big part in this round of the Ford Trophy. For the first time a match in Rangiora was not completed. The previous nine matches at Mainpower Oval and seven matches at Dudley Park had all been played to a conclusion but on this occasion, although the weather fined up, the pitch surrounds were found to be unplayable. Nelson Park in Napier was hosting its first List A match but the match finally had to be abandoned with less than one innings completed.
