North Otago kick-started its Hawke Cup season with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Otago Country at Molyneux Park at the weekend.
Making good use of the conditions after winning the toss and batting first, it progressed through to 288 all out.
At stumps on day one, Otago Country had limped through to be 112 for seven.
The visitors took only eight and a-half overs on the second morning to dismiss their hosts for 126 and then enforced the follow-on.
Batting for a second time, Otago Country only just managed to make North Otago bat again, scoring 182.
This left North Otago 21 runs to win, a task it completed for the loss of only one wicket with about three hours of the day remaining.
Ben Cant (65), Nathan Smith (64 not out) and Francois Mostert led the batting for North Otago.
Peter Borren (three for 77) led the bowling effort for Otago Country.
The home side was disappointing in its first turn at the crease and took 46.5 overs to compile 126.
The captain, Fraser Wilson (24 not out), and Michael Goldstein (22) were the only batsmen to get into the 20s.
North Otago captain Jordan Horrell (four for 17) and Stefan Grobler (four for 16) effectively took the game away from the hosts with some accurate slow bowling.
The Otago Country second innings was the Peter Borren show.
The Netherlands captain scored 135 of the home team's 182.
In a masterly display of batting, Borren collected his runs off 116 balls and he hit 15 fours and three sixes.
The other 10 Country batsmen could score only 40 runs between them, with extras contributing five.
Cant completed a fine double for the match with his five-wicket bag coming at the cost of 44 runs off one ball shy of eight overs.
North Otago completed a great weekend scoring the required runs with the loss of a solitary wicket.
• South Canterbury fought back to beat Mid Canterbury by four wickets at Aorangi Park yesterday in a Hawke Cup qualifying game.
Mid Canterbury scored 264 in its first innings and South Canterbury was dismissed still 135 runs behind.
But in its second innings, Mid Canterbury could muster only 112, leaving South Canterbury the task of scoring 248 runs to win in 65 overs.
Prabodha Arthavidu (67) gave South Canterbury the necessary momentum, with captain Sam Carlaw (61 not out) and Willie Wright (25 not out) adding the icing on the cake with an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 79 to carry their team through for maximum points.
- Malcolm Jones and Terry O'Neill
