CD still unbeaten after forcing draw

The Central Stags remain on top of the Plunket Shield table after maintaining their unbeaten record with a draw against the Wellington Firebirds in Nelson yesterday.

In the other matches, Canterbury needed only a few minutes yesterday morning to beat the Otago Volts by nine wickets, while the Auckland Aces also won by the same margin, having cleaned up Northern Districts inside three days on Sunday.

The competition will resume on February

21, after the upcoming Super Smash competition. The Stags lead the competition on 57 points, from Auckland and Northern Districts, both on 46.

The Stags were in trouble early in the match, scoring only 158 in their first innings and then having to endure the Firebirds amassing 429.

The Stags resumed their second innings at

184-3 at Saxton Oval yesterday morning, hoping to stave off the Firebirds’ attempts to end their unbeaten run.

No wickets fell in the opening session, as Kieran Noema-Barnett reached his half century before the break and Dane Cleaver was just three runs short of his own 50 with the hosts at 271-3.

The pair continued after lunch, putting on

137 together before Malcolm Nofa finally had Noema-Barnett caught behind for 76, at 300-4. Cleaver, batting more than six hours, was unbeaten on 75 when the captains agreed at the tea break to call stumps.

The result extends Central’s record for most first-class matches without a loss to 21, keeping alive the possibility of reaching the national record of 24 when the business end of the competition resumes later this summer.

For the Firebirds, Hamish Bennett’s storming summer in both red-ball and whiteball formats had continued, his five-wicket first innings haul elevating him equal with Auckland’s Matt McEwan on 15 wickets

At Saxton Oval, Nelson: Central Stags

158 and 336-4 (Kieran Noema-Barnett 76, Dane Cleaver 75, Brad Schmulian 60) drew with Wellington Firebirds 429 (Michael Bracewell

98, Rachin Ravindra 82).

It didn’t take long for Ken McClure to secure victory for Canterbury over the Otago Volts in Dunedin yesterday morning. The Cantabrians only needed six runs to win when play resumed and McClure duly obliged, with a boundary and a two, to give his team a nine-wicket win.

It was Canterbury’s first win for the season, midway through the eight-round competition, but the Volts remain winless, having suffered four losses in a row.

Highlights of the match were a century to in-form batsman Cam Fletcher and maiden five-wicket bag to pace bowler Andrew Hazeldine.

At University of Otago Oval, Dunedin: Otago Volts 206 and 246 (Cam Hawkins 76, Hamish Rutherford 63; Kyle Jamieson 3-38, Will Williams 3-6) lost to Canterbury 438 (Cam Fletcher 107; Matt Bacon 4-97) and 15-1 by nine wickets.