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Auckland, Northern Districts, and Central Districts all picked up wins in round one of the Plunket Shield for the 2024/25 season.
Wellington Firebirds vs Auckland Aces
There were special moments throughout the opening round, but it was Logan van Beek’s five wickets and century against Auckland that was the moment that stood out.
Liam Dudding, in his first first-class game for Wellington and van Beek, caused havoc for Auckland in their first innings as they fell to 66/7 inside the first session.
However, Auckland youngster Bevon-John Jacobs was able to stand up on debut for the Aces, smashing ten fours and three sixes in his innings of 75 from 100 balls. Combined with another youngster in spinner Adi Ashok in an 87-run stand when Jacobs departed to van Beek.
The five-wicket bag for van Beek came when he grabbed Ashok, caught behind by Tom Blundell for 25 and Auckland soon out for 184.
Wellington, too, found themselves in trouble at 82/5 and then 112/6, with the top six being all those back in the shed.
Once again, it was the efforts of van Beek and, with assistance from Peter Younghusband, who fought their side out of a hole and pushed them close to an eventual 86-run lead heading into the third innings.
The efforts of van Beek, with his century (101) and five-wicket haul (5/53), meant he became the first person since John Morrison in the 1977/78 season to score a century and take five wickets in the same match for Wellington.
His efforts meant that he also became the fourth player to achieve the feat twice and the second to do it for two different provinces, having earlier done it for Canterbury.
Auckland ended Wellington’s innings with Jordan Sussex’s four wickets leading the way for the visitors.
Finn Allen showed his power at the top in Auckland’s second innings with a quickfire 49 from 29 balls, taking to van Beek particularly early on. Will O’Donnell (54) and Sean Solia (31) also stood up with the bat in the innings for the visitors.
However, Jacobs showed his prowess with the bat with his second first-class 50 for Auckland, following his earlier one in the match. The knock by Jacobs was the crucial key in the win for Auckland.
Simone Keene (39) and Jacobs (79) took Auckland to 317 and a lead of 230 runs. Dudding’s four wickets and Michael Snedden’s three wickets were the best performances with the balls.
In the chase of 231 for victory, the Wellington top order slumped to 58/5 with wickets to Keene, Danru Ferns, and Samrath Singh, who had replaced Cam Fletcher due to concussion.
Captain Tom Blundell led the fightback for the home side with his knock of 63 and support from van Beek of 27 runs, giving Wellington a chance at snatching victory, but it wasn’t to be as Ferns’ three wickets ensured his side gained victory.
Canterbury vs Northern Districts
Northern Districts went down south to Christchurch for their opening fixture of the Plunket Shield and managed to pick up a seven-wicket win off the back of Jeet Raval’s 93 and fifties from Brett Hampton, Sandeep Patel and Bharat Popli with the bat.
Chad Bowes set the scene with his 10th first-class century, bringing it up in 106 balls. He was provided with support at the top of the order by Blackcap Tom Latham.
There was little support from Canterbury’s experienced number three and four of, Daryl Mitchell (10) and Cole McConchie (16), but Matt Boyle’s 59 made up for it.
Kristian Clarke’s efforts with the ball did help to break through Canterbury’s middle order. However, Angus McKenzie’s 36 and Sean Davey’s 45* helped to get the home side past the 350-run mark in their first innings.
Northern’s first innings with the bat were led by Raval’s 45 at the top of the order, whilst the middle-order contributions from Robbie O’Donnell (32), Patel (56) and Brett Hampton (50) provided stability throughout.
Lower-order contributions from Ben Pomare (36*), Clarke (31) and Neil Wagner (20) got their side past the 350-run mark as well and just nine runs short of Canterbury’s first innings total when they declared.
As the third day came upon both sides, there was always going to be one team that would manage to push ahead in the game, and in this fixture, it was the visitors.
With Chad Bowes under an injury cloud, he was bumped down to number ten in the order and wicket-keeper Jesse Frew was pushed up to the opening spot.
Success came to all Northern bowlers throughout the innings as they regularly picked up wickets, especially when it looked like the Canterbury batters were getting set.
McConchie’s 43 was the top score in their innings of 193. Mitchell’s 39 and Michael Rippon’s 36* were also of assistance, whilst Matt Fisher’s three wickets led the way for Northern.
Northern had great success throughout their chase of 203 for victory, with the 172-run second wicket stand between Raval (93) and Bharat Popli (74) guiding them to a seven-wicket win.
Canterbury tried eight bowlers throughout the Northern chase, but only Matt Henry (1/34) and McConchie (2/20) were able to take the three wickets that fell.
With their seven-wicket win, it meant that Northern picked up all 20 points from the match and started the season at the top of the table.
Central Stags vs Otago Volts
The Central Stags and the Otago Volts both came to Napier with new full-time captains at their helm, with Tom Bruce leading the Stags and Luke Georgeson the Volts.
Brett Randell and Blair Tickner caused the damage early on, with debutant Hunter Kindley falling on the second ball of the match in a strong first session for the hosts with five wickets falling.
There was little success for Thorn Parkes (1), Dale Phillips (10), and Llew Johnson (7) as well, whilst Georgeson had a start with 20 runs to his name before Tickner bowled him.
Resistance from Max Chu (85) and Leo Carter (38) were the only two players to perform with the bat, whilst a lower-order contribution of 31 from Travis Muller managed to squeak Otago past the 200-run mark.
Central, too, faced issues early on with the bat, falling to 56/4 by the end of day one before Jayden Lennox, as the night watchman, pushed on for 35 runs to start to get Central out of a hole alongside wicket-keeper Dane Cleaver.
Cleaver ended up pushing on to make 151*, and this was supported by Will Clark’s 41 and Brett Randell’s 40 as the Stags made their way to a lead of over 150 runs.
Muller ended up with three wickets whilst the other wickets were shared between the other bowlers.
Otago again faced struggles with the bat for their top and middle order, slumping to 29/6 with wickets to spinners Lennox and Brad Schmulian, along with the pace of Tickner and Ray Toole.
There was a level of fightback shown by Chu, who for the second time in the match made a score over 50 (66) and Jake Gibson, who made 62*.
The work of Chu and Gibson allowed Otago to get a lead and have the Stags needing 31 runs for victory.
While they did lose Curtis Heaphy for five and Jack Boyle for 12, Schmulian and captain Bruce got their side home to an eight-wicket win.
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