After Jamie Stephens threatened to take a stranglehold of the match against University, but it’s left delicately poised heading into Saturday’s second day.
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Stephens scored 67 off 115 balls, as Northern Districts recovered from 3-67 to be on 156 when he was stumped by Andrew Page off left-armer Swapnil Bhatnagar.
Later Patrick Reed (43) and Jamal Banfield (27 off 21 balls) took control with a 48-run eighth-wicket stand, but Uni struck back, taking the last three wickets for just six runs, to restrict the Butchers to 256 off 77.3 overs.
Stand-in captain Lachlan Dunn was also a stand-out for Northern Districts, scoring 43 in the only Illawarra match which went ahead after Friday’s rain.
Opener Rhys Voysey led Uni’s charge, bowling 22.3 overs for 3-57, while Bhatnagar toiled for 3-64 off 21 overs.
Uni will take confidence into Saturday’s run chase, having piled on 6-293 in a one-day victory over champions Dapto at home last week.
The other Illawarra matches will now be one-dayers.
