Papps and Newton star as Wellington take control
It was a day for the bowlers on the first day of the opening Plunket Shield domestic four-day cricket competition round - with Wellington debutant Ollie Newton making a statement.
Auckland and Canterbury found themselves at the mercy of the opposition’s bowling attack and have plenty of work to do over the remaining three days if they want to score a first-up win.
WELLINGTON V AUCKLAND at the Basin Reserve, Wellington.
First game nerves? Safe to say Wellington Firebirds seamer Ollie Newton is pretty unfamiliar with them.
Making his Plunket Shield debut, Newton claimed three wickets in his first over and finished with 4-26 from eight overs as the Wellington attack dismissed the Auckland Aces for just
62 runs in their first innings.
The Wellington seamers had it all going on the first of four days at Wellington’s Basin Reserve, with Hamish Bennett also getting in on the action with 3-2 in five overs which included four maidens.
Being sent in to bat, it was an ugly looking scorecard for the Aucklanders, featuring five ducks from their first seven batsmen. Tarun Nethula (23) and Raja Sandhu (11) did what they could for the struggling Aces, but the Firebirds needed just 23 overs to knock them over.
There were no such troubles for the Firebirds batsmen, though, as Michael Papps (163no) and Luke Woodcock (64no) put on a clinical 246-run partnership to have their team ahead by
184 runs at the end of the day’s play. Auckland 62 (Ollie Newton 4-26, Hamish Bennett 3-2, Logan van Beek
2-19) met Wellington 246-0 (Michael Papps 163no, Luke Woodcock 64no).
CANTERBURY V OTAGO at Hagley Oval, Christchurch
In Christchurch, a 54-run knock from Canterbury No 3 Michael Pollard in his debut for the side saved them from similar blushes as they were all out for 155 in their first innings against Otago at Hagley Oval.
It was slow going for Canterbury, as they could only score one run before losing opening batsman Chad Bowes in the fifth over to be 1-1.
While they were able to have a few players get starts, they were unable to go on with the job. Jacob Duffy led the Otago attack with the ball, collecting figures of 3-24 from 15 overs, while Michael Rae, Neil Wagner and Mark Craig all picked up two wickets each.
In response, Otago got off to a decent start as they looked to make early ground on Canterbury’s firstinnings total. A lot of the scoring came by way of boundaries in their opening
10 overs as they worked their way over the 30-run mark. However, the
10-overs mark caused some trouble for Otago, as Hamish Rutherford (23) and Rob Nicol (0) fell in consecutive deliveries to Fraser Sheat with Otago on 34.
Otago were struggling for runs, scoring just 23 over the next 10 overs, before Blake Coburn collected the wicket of Neil Broom (13) with just his second delivery in first-class cricket.
At the end of the day’s play, Otago were 63-3 and trailing by 92.
Canterbury 155 (Michael Pollard 54; Jacob Duffy 3-24, Michael Rae 2-23, Mark Craig 2-32, Neil Wagner 2-47) met Otago 63-3 (Fraser Sheat 2-12).
NORTHERN DISTRICTS V CENTRAL DISTRICTS at Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui
At Mt Maunganui, Northern Districts and Central Districts were unable to play due to rain.