It was a case of keeping up with the Joneses' today at Christchurch Village Green for Wellington captain Matthew Bell.

Richard Jones in particular. The 27-year-old ex-Auckland right hander hit a maiden career century and went on to 145, with 24 magnificent boundaries off 218 balls.

Bell rang up his fifth century of the season, but his was of a different complexion to Jones'. The pair added 220 for the first wicket to provoke a dressing-down from the Canterbury coach for his bowlers, who sprayed the ball about on both sides of the wicket and failed to exploit early dampness in the pitch.

Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson told CricInfo, "We had a particularly bad day in Hamilton a couple of days ago when we fell off the horse." The Firebirds lost top spot in the Shell Trophy that day when Northern Districts, and in particular Daryl Tuffey bowled Johnson's men out twice in two days to win by an innings.

"One of the things we talked about for this game was getting back on it. If you bat badly in a game the best way to put that right is to get back on the horse and do what we did today. That was one of the ways to do it. I'm very pleased with the ways the guys batted," he continued.

When asked what had improved the performance, the former Otago coach said "I think the conditions have changed. Hamilton was a wicket that bounced and seamed and we had heavy hands and didn't move our feet. We showed poor technique really."

Referring to the day's 324/2 in 104 overs Johnson enthused, "here the wicket's a lot flatter, it's a good batting deck and one that we cashed in on."

"As for winning the game, we're still miles away from that. We need to make sure we bowl well enough to get twenty wickets," he said. Andrew Penn's dropping by the sorry Black Cap team, after his anxiety attack in the first One-Day International against Sri Lanka, ironically to be replaced by Tuffey, should help the capital men in their quest to return to the top.

Regarding Jones, Johnson remarked, "We're just very pleased he's got his first first-class hundred for Wellington. Since he's come from Auckland, (at the start of this season having made his debut for the Aces' in 1993/94) he's been a real revelation in our camp. He's been a guy who's been very professional in the way he's gone about things and he's got some steady scores for us."

Indeed he has. Jones and Bell put on 103 for the first wicket in the Wellington home Trophy fixture in November, when Jones scored 67. He bettered that with 68 against Central Districts in January, but a season average of 25.50 from 255 runs did not suggest today's dominant display.

His previous best score was 99, and he made 98 run out in 1997/98 for Auckland, but did not play Trophy cricket for them in 1998/99 or 1999/2000. He did not even make the one-day team in his final year there.

He now has 400 runs for the season, while Bell has 716, including five centuries. He had just three in his whole career prior to this prolific campaign. His 112 today came off 265 balls.

Both openers (Jones prefers No 3) failed against ND, with 24 runs between them in four innings.

Now Bell must be seriously considered for Test recall, and Jones, after a day to remember, has finally established himself in the game after showing promise as an age grade national representative nearly ten years ago.

© CricInfo