ROUND TWO
AUCKLAND ACES defeated OTAGO VOLTS by 7 wickets
Kennards Hire Community Oval, Eden Park, Auckland
Auckland Aces: 4 points
Selected milestones
Finn Allen : List A career best score
Finn Allen: second List A century (first for Auckland Aces)
Finn Allen : Auckland Aces' 2nd highest individual List A score
Finn Allen : 2nd, most sixes hit in a Ford Trophy innings (11, NZ record is 14)
Finn Allen : 1500 List A runs (all teams)
George Worker : 6500 List A runs (all teams)
Llew Johnson : second List A half century
Dean Foxcroft : fourth List A half century
Thorn Parkes : second List A half century
Thorn Parkes, Llew Johnson : record 5th wicket partnership for Otago Volts in matches v Auckland Aces (119)
All images courtesy of James McCully, Auckland Cricket Association
Brilliant striker Finn Allen showed off his powerhouse sixes as well as his cricket smarts with a one-day career-best 168 off just 110 balls to set up an unforgettable victory for the Auckland Aces.
Playing for his home city in the white-ball format for the first time since his return to Auckland from the Firebirds, Allen took charge of the chase to help his side overcome the Otago Volts' none-too-shabby total of 268 for seven at Eden Park's Outer Oval.
It was revenge for the Aces who had suffered a first-up loss to the same team in the first round last Saturday. Now the boot was on the other foot - and they were sticking it in.
Volts captain Dean Foxcroft had won the toss on a typically sticky Auckland morning and was one of three batters to raise his bat for a half ton from his side.
With a 73-run stand with young gun Thorn Parkes for the fourth wicket, Foxcroft steadied the ship after Auckland's pacemen chipped off the first three wickets early, at 53/3 in the 17th over.
After the captain's demise, Parkes supported a century partnership with the gung-ho Llew Johnson who smashed an explosive 68 off just 38 rocks.
The big striker hit five sixes and five boundaries in the blink of an eye, until he went to lap Danru Ferns and was caught behind.
But all that was just an entrée for the lucky fans who got to watch one of the biggest knocks in the Auckland Aces' 50+ years of one-day history.
This was the Finn Allen Show. While the tall 24-year-old's ability to slap a ball out of the park is well known - and he did it eleven times today; this was a well constructed and sweetly paced innings where intent and concentration was married to his muscular might.
The butterfly tattooed on his forearm might be a hint that this is one player who can sting like a bee.
Allen's maiden List A hundred had been for the Wellington Firebirds in February 2021: a mere 128 off 59 balls. That lightning knock (also against the Volts) contained 11 sixes, and he equalled that six-tally today.
Only Jamie How (Central Stags) and Colin Munro (Aces) have ever hit more in a Ford Trophy innings.
- Allen's first fifty flew off 39 balls (5x4, 3x6)
- The century came in 86 balls (11x4, 3x6)
- And the 150, as he put the foot down, 105 balls (12x4, 9x6)
As he kept on going, fighting through cramps in his leg, the wind rising up and whipping the sweat off his forehead, people held their breath. Would he break Colin Munro's Auckland Aces record unbeaten 174?
Could he even become just the second man to score a Ford Trophy 200 (after Jamie How's 222 at Seddon Park, 10 years ago)?
What a spoilsport Travis Muller was when he finally trapped him on 168, with the Aces 267/3 in the 46th over.
Allen had almost batted throughout the whole innings, and walked back to an ovation. Robbie O'Donnell (an unbeaten 46) had given him support, and would finish the job with captain Sean Solia just five balls later.
It was the Aces' first win of the season in any format, and what a performance it turned out to be.
