Game Sitch (Situation for those who aren't cool)

• Wellington did well to manage 167 with Michael Papps knocking 44. That was until Auckland perhaps the most up and down side,  went on to win by 8 wickets with Rob Nicol hitting 71 off 43. Anaru Kitchen 43 off 31 and Craig Cachopa 37 off 24 - basically their top order went boom.
• Wellington followed that up with another solid effort with the bat, ending with 178. But this time they managed to hold Canterbury to get the win. For the Firebirds Michael Pollard got 54 off 39 and the Vet, Grant Elliot got 52 off 23. The Cantabs ended up on 153 with another Vet, Brendon Diamanti (73 off 48) swinging the willow hard in the middle order without reward.
• Central Districts battled their way to 146 with a few lads chipping in, however they won the game with the ball, bowling Auckland out for 90. Good from the Aces. Ben Wheeler was the chief destroyer with 4/8 off 3.
• Central Districts then got a bit of a return of serve, being bowled out for 109. Jeetan Patel aka Dave did the damage here with 4/11 off 4. Wellington chased it down easily.
• Northern Districts worked their way to an ok 141 with Daniel Flynn hitting 49 against Otago. It wasn't enough with the Volts chasing it down with 4 bowls spare, Ryan TenDo who oozes class, hit 44 off 30 to get the win for Otago.

He Deserves A Mean Dinner

• Rob Nicol kinda went bizzerk so he deserves a bit of a sausage sizzle in his honour. Maybe the Aces should try figure out how to put together good performances instead though.
• Brendon Diamanti the old fella, oi youngster go get this man a roast will ya!? Diamanti sporadically appears in the T20 format and it's good to see him do some damage.
• Ben Wheeler and Jeetan Patel should go out on a little date, maybe to the local all you can eat Pizza Hut (if they can find one). It's been kinda sad how bowlers haven't done much damage, but these two did plenty.

Observations From The Observatory

• Craig Cachopa has returned offering a very interesting wee story line here. He left to go play in England, which could have been viewed as him giving up on New Zealand. I'm not so sure, he's one of the best young batsmen in the country and if he continues to get runs then there'll be a few decisions to be made.
• The Knights are level with the Firebirds at the top of the table on 22, but the Firebirds have played 9 games to ND's 8. The real story is below them with Canterbury having played 7 on 16 points and the Aces played 7 on 14. The Aces could easily get hot for a few games and climb the table, but they could equally not.