ND recovers well

Northern Districts soon put any fears that it might be struggling against Auckland well behind it on the second day of Plunket Shield play on Saturday.

Spearheaded by the continuingly impressive Kane Williamson ended the day 121 runs in front with three wickets in hand.

That was largely due to an innings of 163 not out in 393 minutes of batting by Williamson. He might have struggled during the first stages of the Plunket Shield but he has made the second half of the season a personal statement of his worth for international consideration.

Hamish Marshall gave him early support by scoring 57 as they added 123 runs for the fourth wicket, and later he had the support of James Marshall who scored 40 and Peter McGlashan who was 25 not out at stumps.

Michael Bates took 2-40 from his 22 overs while Gareth Shaw was among the wickets again with 2-71. Anaru Kitchen took 2-31.

At Queenstown, Canterbury finished its innings with 315 with Dean Brownlie's 63 dominating the latter stages of the innings. Anthony Bullick took 3-57 for Otago with Nick Beard having 2-47.

Otago in reply was battling at 178-6 with Greg Todd top-scoring with 46. Derek de Boorder was 31 not out with Chris Martin sharpening up for the first Test with 3-38.

Central Districts failed to put a big innings together against Wellington at McLean Park and ended up 18 short on the first innings as it reached 232. Ili Tugaga achieved his first five-wicket bag, taking 5-77 for the capital-city side. Brendan Diamanti's 40 was the highest effort for CD with Tim Weston hitting 34.