Wellington surges into lead
The Wellington Firebirds have moved to the top of the Plunket Shield ladder after a nine-wicket win over the Central Stags at the Basin Reserve.
As the day began, the Stags were mounting somewhat of a fightback, sitting on 124-2 in their second innings and trailing by 78.
But disaster struck almost immediately, as Jimmy Neesham had Greg Hay caught in the slips for 54 two overs into the day.
Neesham went on to take 3-65 to finish with 6-82 for the match as the Stags were dismissed for
254, giving the Firebirds a chase of 53.
Brad Schmulian offered the most resistance of the Stags batsmen, finishing unbeaten on
68 off 77 balls, but only Will Young joined Hay and George Worker, who was out on Monday, in passing 20. Jamie Gibson finished with 3-36 for the Firebirds while Logan van Beek took 2-64.
They were unable to complete their chase without losing a wicket, as Fraser Colson was caught behind for 15. Rachin Ravindra finished unbeaten on 17 while Devon Conway was on 19.
The Firebirds began the round one point behind the Stags but are now 13 points in front after their dominant win inside three days. There are three rounds left in the season.
Auckland will need to chase down 371 runs, with 10 wickets in hand, on the final day at Eden Park Outer Oval today to win a high-scoring contest against Northern Districts.
White-ball Black Cap Mark Chapman added only 12 runs to his overnight score as he reached
143 for Auckland yesterday. In response to Northern’s 438, the Aces declared at 351-5 despite being 87 rounds behind.
Robbie O’Donnell made 65 for Auckland before being caught off the bowling of James Baker.
The risky declaration worked wonders for Auckland who bowled Northern Districts out for
283 in just 74 overs on day three and now hold an outside chance at victory.
Northern’s second innings was highlighted by the in-form Joe Carter who scored 120 from
197 balls to go alongside his 169 in the first innings.
The Auckland captain becomes the first player since former Central Districts star Jesse Ryder (Saxton Oval in November 2017) to score a century in each innings of a Plunket Shield match. With Bharat Popli (56) the only other batsman to pass 50, Northern were bowled out with an overall lead of 371.
Medium-pacer Sean Solia claimed 4-33 for Auckland and Black Caps’ quick Lockie Ferguson got through 12 overs to take 2-47.
Meanwhile, Queens Park in Invercargill proved a happy hunting ground for the Otago Volts who sealed their first win of the first-class season with more than a day to spare.
Beating Canterbury by 62 runs, the Volts moved into interim fourth on the table after they dismissed their southern neighbours for 240 in the evening session.
Pace duo Jacob Duffy (4-46) and Michael Rae (4-75) had a strong influence over proceedings with Rae having had Canterbury No 4 Ken McClure caught on 98 as the visitors began to feel the pressure of lost wickets although No 10 Andrew Hazeldine provided resistance.