Rae, Phillips combine to snare rare hat-trick
Otago seamer Michael Rae has joined a rare hat-trick club in world cricket.
Rae became the eighth Otago bowler to take a first-class hat-trick yesterday in the Plunket Shield against the Central Stags in Dunedin, and the 49th in New Zealand firstclass history.
What set Rae’s hat-trick apart from the other 48 was that it involved the same bowlerfielder combination.
All three Central batsmen were caught by Dale Phillips at short leg from Rae’s bowling as they tried to flick the ball onto the leg side.
Dane Cleaver was the first to go, falling for 99 at 322-6, with the second ball of the sixth over of Rae’s third spell in the innings.
Rae then removed Josh Clarkson next ball with Blair Tickner the hat-trick victim – ironically one of the small group of other current New Zealand domestic players to have taken a Plunket Shield hat-trick.
The Rae-Phillips combination wasn’t done there, with Jayden Lennox also going the same way as the Stags declared at 353-9 in their first innings, in reply to Otago’s 393.
A 15th first-class ton (10th for Otago) from Hamish Rutherford saw the Volts end day three at 222-4 in their second innings, leading by 262.
Rutherford fell for 111 with Nick Kelly unbeaten on 69.
Rae finished with his sixth first-class fivewicket bag, capturing 5-62.
He is the third bowler to take a New Zealand first-class hat-trick this summer joining Auckland duo Kyle Jamieson and Louis Delport.
Bowler-fielder hat-tricks are unusual in first-class cricket.
In 2018, former England fast bowler Craig Overton achieved the feat for the first time in a match in England since 1914.
Playing for Somerset against Nottinghamshire, Overton nabbed a hat-trick with ex-England opener Marcus Trescothick being the fielder to complete all three catches at second slip.
Meanwhile, in the other two matches, which started a day later on Saturday, Wellington and Auckland are both in dominant positions in the Shield’s penultimate round.
Bottom-placed Wellington racked up the runs at the Basin Reserve against Northern Districts having been sent in, posting 414-4 declared.
Their innings was built around centuries from Rachin Ravindra (138) and test opener Tom Blundell (103 not out) with young opener Luke Georgeson (70) and Troy Johnson (58 not out) also feasting.
Highly-rated 21-year-old Ravindra was playing in his first domestic match since dislocating a shoulder on January 25 in a Super Smash match.
Northern Districts were struggling at stumps in their first innings at 97-4, trailing by 317 runs.
Auckland are on top against Plunket Shield champions Canterbury, leading by 235 runs with eight second innings wickets left.
Canterbury were skittled for a meagre 131 in their first innings with Auckland 131-2 in their second dig.