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Round six Plunket Shield action has concluded with wins for ND and Otago whilst the Stags and Firebirds drew in Palmerston North.
Central Stags vs Wellington Firebirds:
Wellington had multiple contributions throughout their batting lineup in Palmerston North with Nick Greenwood’s 54 at the top of the order and Callum McLachlan’s 51 showing that once you were able to get in runs were on offer.
Muhammad Abbas’ 46 was partnered with Logan van Beek’s 34, Gareth Severin’s 32, and Nick Kelly’s 31 to push Wellington to 295 in their first innings.
Liam Dudding bowled well for the Stags with his 4/67 and Ajaz Patel (2/51), Josh Clarkson (2/58), and Blair Tickner (2/95) were the other players to grab wickets.
The Stags’ innings was built around a massive 191-run stand between Curtis Heaphy’s maiden first-class century (131) and Brad Schmulian’s 186.
Josh Clarkson added some lower-order support with 46 and Greg Hay made 45 at first drop.
Tickner smoked a quick 28* from 13 as the Stags posted their fourth-highest first-class total of 572/9 declared.
Iain McPeake (2/79), Jesse Tashkoff (2/80), van Beek (2/115), and Peter Younghusband (2/160) were the wicket takers for Wellington.
In their second innings, Wellington showed their defensive batting total as they managed to bat out 118 overs to draw the game.
Tim Robinson’s 50 opening the batting was the highlight out of the top four with Greenwood (14), Severin (10), and Kelly (9) all falling.
McPeake, who was sent out as night watchman, managed to push on for 44 along with McLachlan making 36.
van Beek pushed on to get a 9th first-class 50, finishing on 52* with the players shaking hands with three overs left in the match.
Northern Districts vs Auckland Aces:
Northern had their first innings of 247 set around Joe Carter’s 124 and Bharat Popli's 43.
Ben Lister bowled extremely tight for the visitors going for 15 from his 16 overs, while Danru Ferns picked up 6/62.
Henry Cooper added 19 runs opening the batting whilst Brett Hampton got 18 and Freddy Walker 16, as the only batters to score over ten runs.
Auckland’s first innings went horrible after an all right platform that was led by Will O’Donnell’s 23 and Louis Delport’s 22 as night watchman.
From 45/1 they went to 61/8 with Kris Clarke (3/76), Matt Fisher (3/23), and Hampton (3/18) ripping right through Auckland’s middle order.
Harjot Johal came out and smashed a career-best 65 to go alongside Ferns’ 29 with Auckland posting 158.
Auckland managed some early success with the ball as Lister had Cooper for four and Popli for 24.
The rest of the batters, however, all managed to push on and contribute to the total with Joe Carter (68), Jeet Raval (60), Peter Bocock (36), and Brett Hampton’s maiden first-class 100 getting Northern to 334/9 declared.
Auckland were set a mammoth total of 424 for victory and got off to a woeful start with Sean Solia (2), Mark Chapman (16), and Robbie O’Donnell (6) all falling before the end of day three.
If Auckland had any chance of either chasing down the total or drawing the game, it would be down to George Worker and Will O’Donnell.
Worker and O’Donnell showed grit and strength through a 163-run stand being at the crease together for 75.2 overs. Worker managed to put on 72 runs from 226 balls during his time in the middle whilst O’Donnell faced 258 in his 93 runs.
Cam Fletcher went steady and managed to stay in the middle with the rest of the lower order after the fall of Worker and O’Donnell.
Louis Delport came out and smashed 38 from 36 to go along with Fletcher’s 58.
Going into the last hour, Auckland had two wickets remaining and soon became one after Fletcher went to Clarke.
Just as it looked like Johal and Lister would save Auckland and secure the draw, Cooper came up trumps as he bowled Johal for 19 and Northern took a 63-run win with just two balls left in the game.
Otago Volts vs Canterbury:
17 wickets fell on the first day in Alexandra and that showed that the game between the two Southern sides was going to be a very bowling-heavy match.
Luke Georgeson carried on his immense efforts with the ball this season as he grabbed his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
Chad Bowes’ 25 and Mitch Hay’s 27 were the one scores over 20 in Canterbury’s first innings of 144 in just 38.5 overs.
Sean Davey, was Canterbury’s trump card as he replicated Georgesn’s five-wicket bag with one of his own.
Georgeson did manage to show that he wasn’t just in good bowling form, but batting too, top scoring with 45.
Max Chu’s 40 and Dale Phillips’ 40 also showed great resistance as Otago made 188.
Wickets once again fell in Canterbury’s second innings as they scraped their way to 180.
It was Jacob Duffy this time to stand up with the ball as he grabbed a four-wicket haul while Luke Georgeson and Ben Lockrose got two wickets each.
There was a bit more batting fight led by the Canterbrians as Hay (35), Michael Rippon (26), Ish Sodhi (25), and Angus McKenzie (42*) all showed some promise in their time in the middle.
They set Otago 137 runs to win, on a pitch that Canterbury would have hoped they had the skill to bowl them out for.
Whatever plan they had come up with didn’t work as Jacob Cumming (45) and Dale Phillips (70*) showed real fight in a 102-run opening stand.
Dean Foxcroft added 14* as Otago picked up a nine-wicket win.
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