Jayawardene stars as Central Stags defeat Firebirds

Mahela Jayawardene steered the ship as Central Districts defeated Wellington by six wickets at the Basin Reserve on Boxing Day.

With 149 test matches and nearly 12,000 test runs behind him, it makes sense for the Central Stags to rely heavily on their star Sri Lankan import.

The 39-year-old delivered as a constant ideas man in the field, and then his classy, effortless batting saw Central off to a flier in chasing down Wellington’s 134 for victory.

He’s not the captain. That job is before Will Young’s name, but Jayawardene was a clear influence in a fine bowling performance, always in the ear of the bowlers as

they set plans to restrict and frustrate the Firebirds.

Then with the bat, Jayawardene was able to place the ball into gaps his counterparts struggled to find, mixing classical cover drives with lofted flicks off the legs and brutal cut shots over the field.

When he fell for 40 in Central’s chase, with the score at 52, wicket taker Hamish Bennett was rightly happy to have removed the danger man.

But with more than a third of the target gone in only five overs, and the likes of Tom Bruce and Dane Cleaver still waiting to bat, the damage had been done.

Wellington were forced to pull an extra man into the circle in order to stop the flow of easy singles, but Central were happy to take the odd boundary as a result.

George Worker, Will Young and Bruce all fell for starts, but Cleaver guided the team home with 19 not out.

Wellington made a stuttering start after winning the toss and electing to pad up, with Michael Papps gone within three balls and boundaries proving hard to come by.

Having kept the runs from flowing early, Wellington collapsed through the middle overs as Tom Blundell (20), Stephen Murdoch (32), Michael Pollard (2) and Matt Taylor fell in quick succession.

In a team filled with veterans, Grant Elliott and Luke Woodcock are two of the older heads, and it was left to them to rescue what could have been a dire effort.

Elliott’s innings of 39 was vital in seeing Wellington through to 133. They were all out in the final over.