Gillespie, Patel bowl NZ A to victory

---

HYDERABAD, Sept 15 (Cricinfo): A polished 75 from Peter Fulton and accurate bowling by Mark Gillespie and Jeetan Patel helped New Zealand A to a 129-run win over Australia A in game one of the Triangular Series in Hyderabad. A target of 236 seemed very achievable at the beginning of Australia's chase, given how they had curbed New Zealand's middle order after Fulton's dismissal, but the bowling and some reckless hitting led to their downfall.
Having opted to bat first, New Zealand's first ten overs yielded just 34 for the loss of Aaron Redmond, but Fulton and Mark Guptill accelerated thereafter. Fulton hit Peter Siddle for three consecutive boundaries in the 11th over. Guptill collected two sixes as well - New Zealand scored 43 runs in the second Powerplay - and took a liking to Shaun Tait. This was Tait's first competitive outing since his Ford Ranger Cup match against Victoria eight months ago but he was erratic and served up eight wides. Guptill fell to Xavier Doherty for 33 and, by this time, Fulton had eased to 60 from 68 balls, repeatedly piercing the gaps in the field.
It took a spectacular catch on the long-on boundary by Phil Hughes - catching the ball, then flipping it back in to the field as he lost balance over the rope and finally diving forward to hold on again - to cut short the dangerous James Marshall, and that cued a collapse.
New Zealand A 235 for 9 (Fulton 75, Doherty 4-34) beat Australia A 106 (Patel 4-16) by 129 runs.