Canterbury Country are making a strong bid to gain a place in the final of the Hawke Cup in their match against Hamilton today.

At the end of the second day, Canterbury Country were 239/4, 141 runs behind Hamilton, but with six vital wickets in hand, and the two batsmen at the crease, Harley James and Peter Fulton both on 74 not out.

Canterbury Country picked up the last four Hamilton wickets this morning for 47 runs with Adil Somani out for 102.

Simon Murphy led the way with the ball, taking 4/65 for the visitors to Galloway Park in Hamilton while Struan George took 3/70.

Canterbury Country did not have the best of starts being 61/3 and 97/4 in their innings before James and Fulton pulled things around in their 142-run stand.

In Napier, Hawke's Bay are calling the shorts against Bay of Plenty.

All out for 149 in their first innings, Bay of Plenty were 86/3 in their second innings, still 41 runs behind Hawke's Bay with only seven wickets in hand.

Hawke's Bay made 276 with Jeff Lusk scoring 83, Paul Whitaker 51 and Ben Absolom 30.

Lusk and Whitaker scored 139 for the third wicket while a 50-run stand between Absolom and Scott Findlay, who scored 23, for the ninth wicket, made life even more difficult for Bay of Plenty. Niven Aldridge took 4/50 for Bay of Plenty and Leyton Hammond took 3/63.

In Bay of Plenty's reply, Matthew Shortt scored 46 and Taraia Robin had 2/22.

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