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Round five Plunket Shield action has concluded with a win for Wellington. The other two fixtures were draws.
Otago Volts vs Auckland Aces:
Otago had early success with Will O’Donnell falling for seven to Travis Muller.
The rest of the Auckland top and middle order did manage to all succeed with the Otago bowlers not able to pick up wickets at regular intervals.
Sean Solia’s 62 and Mark Chapman’s 123 were the knocks that laid down the platform for the Auckland batters and they were assisted by George Worker’s 44.
Cam Fletcher’s 36 also was a great assistance in ensuring they managed to make their way close to the full quota of batting points.
Some rain early on day two didn’t stress Auckland out with Jock McKenzie’s 74* on debut and Louis Delport’s 44 getting Auckland to a quality total of 410/10 from 107.2 overs.
Both the Otago openers of Thorn Parkes (67) and Jacob Cumming (47) got starts as they made their way to 82 without loss.
The wicket of Cumming did lead to a collapse in the batting with debutant Harjot Johal (4/53) and Delport (3/87) putting the breaks on the Volts scoring.
Some lower-order 40s from Max Chu (48) and Ben Lockrose (48) managed to push the total to 319.
Contributions in the second innings for Auckland from both the O’Donnell brothers put pressure on the Otago side with Will’s 70 and Robbie’s 151* (146).
George Worker’s 52 from 57 pushed Auckland up to 295/4 declared in just 61 overs, leaving Otago with seven overs left of the day plus all of day four in a chase of 387 runs for victory.
Cumming (5), nightwatchman Muller (18), Dale Phillips (6), and Jamal Todd (20) all fell cheaply with Otago having just over 100 runs on the board,
Dean Foxcroft’s 174 and Luke Georgeson’s 64 meant that Otago could get right back into the game as they pushed for victory with around 160 runs required in the final session.
With Thorn Parkes looking unlikely to bat due to injury, it would be down to Chu and Foxcroft when Georgeson fell.
The game was ever so slightly slipping away from an Otago win with Delport’s 3/97 and Johal’s 3/64 ensuring they stayed in the fight.
Ferns had the big wicket of Foxcroft in the 96th over and with both Lockrose (4) and Duffy (0) going in the next one, it would be down to an injured Parkes and Jarrod McKay to see out the rest of the innings, which they did.
McKay made 0* from 21 balls and Parkes 1* from 19 to defend the game to a draw.
Canterbury vs Wellington Firebirds:
Chad Bowes and Rhys Mariu’s excellent 197-run stand in just 34.5 overs set up the game fell for the home team.
Bowes made his century in just 91 balls as he raced from a 59-ball 50 to a 91-ball ton.
Ken McClure only made 26 at number three, but an 82 by Cole McConchie and Mariu’s 145 pushed Canterbury up to 399/4 by the time both of them had departed.
Quick wickets for the Firebirds with Leo Carter (15) falling to Nathan Smith and Zak Foulkes (0) falling to Logan van Beek had the Canterbury side on the back foot.
Mitch Hay’s 32, Ish Sodhi’s 29, and Angus McKenzie’s 24 pushed their side to 526 all out.
Peter Younghusband’s 3/99 and van Beek’s 3/121 were the highlights for the Wellington bowlers.
Sean Davey and Ed Nuttall had the opening two wickets in quick succession with Tim Robinson and Nick Greenwood both falling for four runs each.
Some resistance by Gareth Severin (61) and Nick Kelly (138) was hopefully going to lead by some runs by the middle order of the Firebirds.
Muhammad Abbas’ 30 was the only score of note from numbers five to 11, but Younghusband’s 21 and van Beek’s 17* did push the Firebirds to 308.
McKenzie grabbed 4/64 and Nuttall 3/62.
If Wellington had any chance of winning the game, they would need a quality bowling and batting performance in the second half of the game.
Smith bowled superbly as he reduced the home team to 33/5 (McClure had been concussed whilst batting with Michael Rippon replacing him).
Bowes (0), Mairu (8), McConchie (2), Carter (10), and Rippon (0) were all Smith’s victims early on.
Hay’s 35* did manage to push Canterbury just past the 100-run mark, but the tail was quickly wrapped up with all four bowlers taking a wicket.
Smith finished with best figures of 6/36.
Robinson (0) and Greenwood (6) once again both fell early for Wellington.
A spirited effort by Kelly (56) and Severin (53) was able to knock some runs off the required total.
But they both fell within forty runs of each other and Wellington was soon 180/5 as Callum McLachlan was bowled by Ish Sodhi.
Abbas (110*) and Smith (75*) came to the rescue for Wellington as they managed to get home and take a five-wicket win.
Northern Districts vs Central Stags:
There were highlights throughout the Stags first innings total of 427 runs with three fifties and a maiden hundred.
Curtis Heaphy’s 74 and Greg Hay’s 53 were vital in the Stags batting innings as they were surrounded by Jack Boyle’s 6, Brad Schmulian’s 9, and Dane Cleaver’s 20.
When Will Clark came to the crease at 155/4, he found himself soon being joined by debutant Angus Schaw.
Schaw and Clark then showed some great batting skill with a sixth wicket start worth 90 runs before Clark was dismissed by Matt Fisher for a career-best 57.
Schaw then carried on his work and passed 50 just before the end of the first day.
Blair Tickner and Schaw managed to put on 75 runs for the eighth wicket with Schaw bringing up his maiden First Class hundred on debut from 175 balls.
He was the last man out for 114 with Fisher taking figures of 4/100.
Henry Cooper’s 83 at the top of the order for Northern and Bharat Popli’s 111 at number three were the only two scores over 22 from the home team.
Ajaz Patels’ seven-wicket haul in Northern’s first innings was crucial as he was able to regularly work his magic and spin to dismiss the majority of the Northern middle order.
Most of Northern’s batters got starts with Jeet Raval (11), Joe Walker (18), Joe Carter (19), Peter Bocock (20), Brett Hampton (22), and Tim Pringle (22*) all managing to get into double digits but not quite push on.
Northern were all bowled out for 331 in 126.5 overs.
Heaphy once again showed composure at the top of the order as he struck a fourth first-class 50.
Boyle managed 38 and Hay worked his way to 16 before falling to Fisher.
Schmulian made 4* by the end of day three with Heaphy on 58*.
Rain was ever present on day four with the players never getting onto the field and the match ending in a draw.
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