The Pink Report

Ford Focus

If nothing else, the Yahoo!NZ Northern Knights went out on a high. They were untroubled in their defeat of the Canterbury Wizards - a finalist in the impending playoffs - after winning the toss and bowling first yesterday in Rangiora.

It started off as a field day for spinner Jono Boult, who took his best one-day figures yet of 3-28 in his 10, all at the top of the order. At one stage he had figures of 2-1, then 3-6. Brandon Hiini chimed in with a couple to keep the Cantabs under pressure before Graeme Aldridge got sick of these upstarts hogging the wickets column and went to work on the lower order, taking a sensational three wickets in four balls, all in the one over. Now that's what I call catching up.

Admittedly yesterday's Cantabs were a weakened side, given the Blackcaps selectors had come in and scooped up half their players. So now they know what it feels like. In the battle of the player depth, Northern Districts won. By four wickets, as it turned out.

Great to see Anton Devcich backing up, too: an unbeaten maiden ton in Hamilton and then straight into an unbeaten 79 off 95 balls here. Hamish Marshall was the other dominant batsman in the innings with 83 off 90.

The only downside was disappointment for Daniel Flynn who, playing his comeback match for the Yahoo!NZ Knights after his recovery from his hip op, was bowled early - in his 50th one-dayer for the team, to boot. Least it was a win though, eh Flynny - and six rounds of the Plunket Shield now await.

Speaking of which, Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Yes, that is joy, in reaction to the news this afternoon that we will no longer have to put up with Radio Sport's emaciated coverage of the said Plunket Shield, with the station switching to occasional score updates instead of ball-by-ball commentary (as detailed in an earlier Radio Goo-Goo blog this summer). Thanks to the thousands of upset cricket aficionados and listeners who thought this wasn't cricket and signed online petitions, contacted Radio Sport and said their bit on Twitter etc, and the less-public grumblings of those charged with running the game and its broadcasting rights in New Zealand, New Zealand Cricket and Radio Sport have come to an alternative arrangement whereby live coverage of the remaining six round of the Plunket Shield will be live-streamed on www.blackcaps.co.nz, as well as on the Radio Sport website.

Great news for everyone who's been missing their fix, this echoes a similar move in England to provide greater coverage of County games. Since NZC say it's only a trial programme at this stage, to be reviewed at the conclusion of the season, make sure you support it so that it stays in place for next summer. The Radio Network's (owner of Radio Sport) broadcasting rights contract with NZC doesn't come up for renewal until September 2015 and the last thing we want is for first-class coverage to be hit for six again. Coverage will alternate between the three grounds during each round, providing a constant steam of commentary.

Ah well. Guess I'll be kicked back out of those nice comfy seats in the hitherto empty radio boxes again now…

Finally, avert your eyes now if you don't want to see how the silly points table for the regular phase of the Ford Trophy finished up. The top two qualifiers, the Central Stags and Auckland Aces, will be playing the 'second life' preliminary final on Sunday at Pukekura Park (televised on Sky from 11am). The next two teams, the Otago Volts and Canterbury Wizards will be playing the sudden-death prelim in Dunedin at the same time.