Wellington dig in against Canterbury

Canterbury will be hoping Central Districts can do them a favour as they look to wrap up the Plunket Shield.

Needing an outright victory in the final round to secure their third f title in four seasons, Canterbury’s match against Wellington is in the balance after two days at Hagley Oval with the Firebirds 117-5, 80 runs behind the home team’s first innings total.

Resuming the day on 143-7, the Canterbury hung around long enough for Logan van Beek to score 66 valuable runs before the home team was dismissed for 197.

That was made to look good as Wellington were left reeling at 74-5 in reply, but a 43-run stand between Tom Blundell (48 not out) and Peter Younghusband (22 not out) carried them through to stumps.

Canterbury’s road to the title will become a whole lot easier if Central Districts can kick on against their closest challengers, Auckland.

At stumps on 63-1 on day two in Napier, the Stags have the chance to take the upper hand after the Aces declared on 200-9.

Stags paceman Navin Patel equalled his career-best first-class bowling figures of 5-71, his third five-wicket bag.

In reply CD batted for 27 overs and only lost one wicket by the close of play.

Northern Districts also have an outside chance to claim the title but two late wickets have left them with it all to do against Otago in Dunedin.

Otago batsman Anaru Kitchen picked up where he left off on day one, scoring his first double century after resuming on 141 not out. He was eventually dismissed by Ish Sodhi for 207 off 250 balls, having blasted 17 fours and nine sixes, with Otago declaring on 432-8.

After being 57-3 at one stage, ND looked to have recovered courtesy of a 100-run partnership between Dean Brownlie (87) and Daryl Mitchell (47).

But both batsmen departed in the final five overs before stumps to leave ND at 162-5.