Firebirds reign as rain falls
Wellington are the Plunket Shield champions of the summer, after rain won the day in Hamilton yesterday.
The scene could not have been scripted any better for Seddon Park. The two top teams going head-to-head on the final day of the season, with both Northern Districts and competition leaders the Wellington Firebirds a chance at Plunket Shield supremacy.
But it wasn’t to be, as Northern’s season came to a close in a rain-wreck.
The Firebirds, who last won New Zealand’s first-class domestic competition in the 2019-20 season, needed only to grind out a draw, while Northern needed to force the issue for an outright victory.
The covers never came off the block as steady rain fell throughout the day. And that’s how the season, which began way back in October, finished, with a mid-afternoon handshake between Northern Districts captain Jeet Raval and victorious Wellington skipper Tom Blundell.
Just three points separated the teams, with Wellington finishing on 94 points, ahead of Northern Districts (91) and then a gap back to last year’s winners the Central Stags on 85.
In what might have been a tantalising final day, the Firebirds would have resumed with a lead of 88 runs and six wickets left in the competition-defining match.
Northern Districts were not only hunting the outright victory but also a drought-breaking win, after not lifting the Plunket Shield since the 2011-12 season.
Meanwhile, Central Stags captain Greg Hay brought the curtain down on his career as a winner yesterday.
The Stags finished off their season with an innings and 40-run win over the Otago Volts in Napier.