It was one from two for the Northern Districts teams in last night's Burger King Super Smash double-header at Bay Oval, as in last Saturday's competition opener in Hamilton, but this time it was the Spirit who left with the bragging rights over the Knights.

The women were five wicket winners over the Central Hinds, while the men, looking to get a roll on in cricket's domestic Twenty/20 frolic after their handsome opening win over the Wellington Firebirds at Seddon Park, found themselves a handful of runs and a frontline bowler short to go down to the Stags by the same margin.

A total of 156 for the Knights after being invited to bat first by Central captain Tom Bruce looked below par, though defendable. And for that they can thank a well-made 55 from opener Tim Seifert, celebrating his selection in the Blackcaps squad for the One Day International series against Sri Lanka beginning January 3 at the Bay Oval.

The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman will be looking forward to making his ODI debut in familiar surroundings after smashing three sixes and four fours in his total.

Anton Devcich launched the Knights' innings with 23 off 18 balls

After his memorable 99 last Saturday in Hamilton skipper Dean Brownlie returned to earth with just 11, and aside from moderate contributions of 23 from Anton Devcich, 27 from Daniel Flynn and Daryl Mitchell's 20 the Knights' batting effort won't have left them satisfied.

Stags' fast bowler Blair Tickner enjoyed his return to the ground where he impressed for New Zealand A against India A last month with the wickets of the top three in the Knights' batting lineup.

Perhaps knowing their 156 was a handful of runs short of a winning total the Knights went on the hunt for early Stags' wickets, and were well rewarded with four inside the first eight overs, reducing the visitors to 41/4. That included the scalps of New Zealand A's George Worker and newly-named Blackcap Will Young for six and one respectively.

However, that was the cue for Stags' skipper Tom Bruce, with his side down-and-out, to produce the perfect composed captain's knock of 88 not out off just 55 balls to turn the match on its head and steer his team to victory with four balls to spare.

It was also about that time the home side found themselves short of one more bowler who could keep the clamps on the Stags' scoring.

Ish Sodhi went for 29 runs off his four overs

Their first four bowling options – Devcich, Scott Kuggeleijn, Ish Sodhi, and Mitch Santner – all bowled their permitted four overs at reasonable economy rates, but the visitors were able to help themselves to 43 runs off the three overs and two balls bowled by a combination of Brett Randall and Daryl Mitchell.

Earlier the Northern Spirit did a good job of restricting the Central Hinds, who had decided to bat first after winning the toss, to a modest total of 113 in their 20 overs.

Stars with the ball for the home side were spinners Kate Anderson and Irish international Eimear Richardson with identical figures of 2-17 off four overs.

The Spirit then reached the target on the fifth ball of the 19th over.

Caitlin Gurrey opened the chase with seven fours in her total of 36, while Anderson capped off a strong all-round game with 27 runs, including the only six of the innings.

Kate Anderson on the drive for the Northern Spirit in their win over the Central Hinds

It was the Spirit's second win in seven rounds of the competition, after picking up their first win over the same opposition in the first round-robin phase in October, and although they remain fifth out of the six teams they have kept alive their chances of progressing up the table in the remaining rounds.

The two teams are next in action in a double-header against Otago in Alexandra on Sunday.

South African import Bernadine Bezuidenhout made 16 opening the Spirit's innings