Kitchen and Guptill keep Aces on track
Half centuries from Martin Guptill and Anaru Kitchen have put the Aces into a solid position at the half way stage of the Plunket Shield match against the Canterbury Wizards at the Hagley Oval.
After restricting the hosts to 255/7 on day one the Aces bowlers were left frustrated on the second morning as lower order batsmen Todd Astle (44) and Andrew Ellis (35) combined for an 82 run eighth wicket partnership.
Colin Munro was the man to eventually break the partnership and when he picked up a second shortly after, his third of the innings, the Wizards resistance came to an end with a first innings score of 328 on the board.
The Aces lost Jeet Raval in just the sixth over of the response but Guptill and Kitchen combined for a 107 run second wicket stand before the former was dismissed for 50.
Kitchen departed soon after for 72 but an unbroken 42 run partnership between Craig Cachopa (28no) and Munro (21no) took the Aces total to 180/3 at the close of play.
Canterbury Wizards 328 (R Nicol 66no, T Astle 44, D Brownlie 41, C Munro 3/60, C de Grandhomme 3/66) plays Auckland Aces 180/3 (A Kitchen 72, M Guptill 50) after day two.
