Adrian Seconi

Otago opener Aaron Redmond picked up where he left off last season, posting a century in a three-day warm-up game against Canterbury in Lincoln yesterday.

Otago shooter Olivia Bates is ditching the crutches for a wheelchair and will get to play with her team-mates after all.

The Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, will retire next month following what will be his 200th test. The game will lose a genius and the most prolific scorer of all time. But is he really the best test batsman since Don Bradman?

Otago has a new opener, with Neil Broom joining Aaron Redmond at the top of the order this summer.

If he had only paced himself, Liam Eathorne might have got to celebrate a remarkable twenty20 double hundred.

There is hard slog and then there is real work.

Otago has named its first team of the season and there are two new faces.

There have been no offers yet but Otago all-rounder Jimmy Neesham certainly impressed during his Champions League debut and it would not be a surprise if he pops up in the Indian Premier League next year.

At face value, the national championships in Dunedin last week were a fabulous success.

There are bound to be some future Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns in action at the under-13 national championships in Dunedin this week.

Usually, her arms only come in handy for steering her bike. World champion cyclist Alison Shanks has been brushing up on her rowing skills, and sailing for that matter, ahead of a unique challenge later this month.

Otago shooter Te Paea Selby-Rickit was just losing it on the inside.

The Otago Boys' High School First XI will play in the senior grade this summer and is not there just to make up the numbers, coach Ken Rust says.

Forget the form book. Otago and Hamilton will contest the final, not Christchurch and Auckland as most expected.

Surpeise. Auckland and Christchurch will playoff for third place after the previously unbeaten sides were bundled out by hungrier opponents in the semifinals at the national championships in Dunedin today.

It will have become clear overnight whether Otago is the first New Zealand team to reach the semifinals of the Champions League twenty20 tournament.

Auckland will play Otago in one semifinal with Christchurch and Hamilton meeting in the other at the national championships in Dunedin tomorrow.