New Zealand A roll on in low-scoring contest

Friedel de Wet's five-wicket haul was not enough to prevent South Africa Emerging Players from falling to a 30-run defeat over the impressive New Zealand A at Maroochydore. de Wet and Morne Morkel were impressive on a seaming surface as New Zealand were dismissed for 168, but their top order was quickly in trouble at 3 for 14 and could not fight back.

Hamish Bennett, who finished with 3 for 48, found Gulam Bodi's edge with the fourth ball of the innings and Warren McSkimming collected two lbw verdicts as New Zealand continued their unbeaten run in the Emerging Players Tournament. Despite carrying five stitches in his left index finger, JP Duminy made an eventful 31, which included consecutive sixes off Bennett - the first was from a no-ball and the second from the subsequent free hit. Duminy was caught and bowled by Andre Adams, who also beat Heino Kuhn with an offcutter, and it was left to Vernon Philander to add respect to the total with 48.

"If we negotiated the first 15 overs reasonably well that would have been good enough to win," South Africa's coach Kepler Wessels said. "The danger on this surface was if they bowled well we could lose early wickets and unfortunately we didn't show the skill or experience to get through those early overs."

de Wet was outstanding in picking up 5 for 23 off ten overs while Morkel also mixed wicket balls with containment, finishing with 3 for 18. James Marshall, the captain, showed his class with an important 69 and he was pivotal in New Zealand's rise from the problem of 4 for 52. Marshall and Grant Elliott (40) combined in an 84-run stand from 98 balls to push towards 168.

Powerful half-centuries to Luke Ronchi and Craig Philipson set up Australian Academy's comfortable win over Karnataka State Cricket Association XI in the day-night match at Caloundra. The home side raced to a tournament-high 8 for 281 and the bowlers outclassed their opponents, who were dismissed for 210 in the 47th over.

Ronchi exploded at the top of the innings and thrashed 66 of his 79 runs in boundaries, including three sixes. Ronchi's 80-run opening stand with Ed Cowan (25) was built on by Philipson's 80 off 77 deliveries after Mark Cosgrove, Moises Henriques and David Warner fell within 14 runs of eachother, leaving the Academy at 5 for 153.

Philipson worked with Phillip Hughes to regain the momentum and once Hughes went for 37 he ensured they posted a challenging total. Karnataka suffered from some wayward fast bowling and Vinay Kumar, C Raghavendra and S Aravind shared six of the wickets.

Grant Sullivan and Ben Cutting were not an easy proposition under the lights in cool conditions and they picked up the first three breakthroughs. The visitors battled on, with Raju Bhatkal top scoring with 48, but the Academy were never in danger of losing their advantage.