Centurion Vala dominates on first day against Northern Territory

In-form EAP batsman Assad Vala smashed a century on the opening day of the two-day match against Northern Territory (NT) in round six of the Australian Country Cricket Championships (ACCC) on Sunday.

NT leads the ACCC after an outright win against ACT earlier. Winning the toss, it decided to field on an unusual looking pitch at Scots School in Albury.

EAP openers M Kobyashi and J Rika were dismissed early with the score at 30-2 after the 11th over. However, a 95-run stand between skipper Andrew Mansale (45) and Vani Vagi Morea (76) steadied the ship, with EAP going into lunch at 125-3.

Vala then began slowly but built a valuable partnership of 65 for the fourth wicket with Morea. He went into tea with his score at 97 not out well-supported by Vice-captain Chris Amini on seven not out to have EAP at 246-4 going into the last main break.

Vala then brought up his hundred off 123 balls which included three sixes and nine fours, before he was caught the following ball at point for a superb innings of 103.

The last six wickets fell for only 87 runs to have the EAP score at 337 all out - the second highest score the team has made in the seven years it has entered the ACCC.

EAP looked certain to make 400 at one stage and the possibility of a huge upset against the favourites for the 2010 ACCC became evident, before NT tightened the screws on the batsmen after tea.

In the next innings, NT batsmen faced five overs and got off to a flying start to its run chase going into stumps on day one at 32-0.