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De Grandhomme brute force too much for Canterbury
- Updated: December 18, 2016
Colin de Grandhomme hit an unbeaten 72 off 35 balls to take Auckland to victory against Canterbury, after they had lost half their side within the 12th over of their chase at Eden Park.
Auckland were reduced to 75 for 5 after medium-pacer Ed Nuttall ran through their top order with a career-best 3 for 17. What followed was an unbroken partnership of 81 between de Grandhomme and SM Solia (29 off 21), that came off just 42 balls, and took Auckland past their target of 151 with ten balls to spare. 21-year-old left-arm spinner Jeremy Benton was taken for 30 runs in his solitary over during the course of Auckland’s chase.
Earlier, Cam Fletcher’s 37 and a 16-ball 35 by Andrew Ellis were the only significant contributions for Canterbury as they folded for 150 after electing to bat. Canterbury lost regular wickets, with legspinner Tarun Nethula returning career-best figures of 4 for 18, while pacers Donovan Grobbelaar and Tymal Mills took three wickets each in an innings where only five batsmen got into double figures.
The win – their fourth in as many games – kept Auckland at the top of the table.
Tom Bruce continued his fine domestic form with an aggressive 74 off 41 to lead …
