Jesse Ryder scored his 11th first-class century and was unbeaten on  117 when his Wellington side were bowled out for 340 today in Napier.

Wellington trailed by 43 on the first innings on their Plunket Shield cricket match with Central Districts, but had it not been for the seriously in-form Ryder, it would have been so much worse for the team from the capital.

When Ryder walked out to the crease, his side was 110-2, but lost regular wickets leaving Ryder to nurse the tail through to a handy score.

Not that they all needed that much help; Mark Gillespie his five fours and a six in his brisk 38.

Ryder was his normal aggressive self, reaching three figures off 101 balls.

This hundred follows up two in the last week in warm-up games.

He hit 13 fours.

CD have reached lunch on day three of the match at 34-1 and lead by 77 with five sessions to play.

In the other match, Otago have made a comfortable start in their chase of 267 to win against Canterbury in Rangiora.

With Aaron Redmond (26 not out) and Michael Bracewell (10 not out) at the crease, Otago reached lunch at 65-1 - 202 shy of their target.

Otago led by 86 on the first innings, but a 108 run ninth wicket partnership by Canterbury's Todd Astle (78) and Ben McCord (47) helped the home side reach 352 in their second innings and a lead of 266.

Neil Wagner only bowled 10.3 overs in Canterbury's second innings after missing most of day three after being hit in the face by a stray cricket ball in yesterday's warm up.

The feisty left armer still took 3-30. But Otago's best was hard working offspinner Mark Craig.

Playing in just his sixth first-class match, Craig bowled a mammoth 45.3 overs and his last wicket, that of Astle, left him with career best figures of 5-120.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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