At the age of just 20, Muhammad Abbas has his second first-class century after an unbeaten 110* helped bring home a shock five-wicket win for the Wellington Firebirds today at the end of the fifth round of the national Plunket Shield championship - lifting the Firebirds to the top of the table.
Abbas teamed up with Nathan Smith to seal the only outright win of the dramatic round, Smith backing up his superb career best of 6/36 yesterday with an unbeaten knock of
75* this afternoon, in an unbroken 148*-run stand for the sixth wicket with Abbas.
Nathan Smith, again | PHOTOSPORT
Having scored a whopping 526 in their first innings, Canterbury's second innings collapse at the hands of Smith was their undoing at their Rangiora fortress, leaving the Firebirds able to cast a ladder over the parapet with a relatively pleasing second innings target of 328 to win.
Ish Sodhi still managed to cause them a flutter of nerves when he completely bamboozled Callum McLachlan at 180/5 – McLachlan shouldering arms, only to watch the ball cannon onto his off stump. But Smith and Abbas saw the visiting side home, meanwhile a fourth day washout in Bay Oval meanwhile frustrated both the Central Stags and Northern Districts and stopped them from advancing even further up the table.
POINTS TAKEN FROM ROUND 5
Wellington Firebirds: 17
Canterbury: 8
Auckland Aces: 8
Central Stags: 7
Otago Volts: 7
Northern Districts: 5
The Firebirds now boast both the top runscorer (captain Nick Kelly, his 510 runs 40 ahead of Auckland Aces allrounder Sean Solia) and the top wicket-taker (Smith with 28, sitting five ahead of Otago Volt Jacob Duffy) after five rounds, and their 64 points move them one point ahead of ND (63 points) at the tight top of the ladder.
The defending champion Stags were meanwhile denied a chance to net 12 outright points to take them to 62, after having been mostly in control in their match against ND at Bay Oval.
No play at all was possible in Mount Maunganui on the final day where the Stags had held a 213-run overall lead, with eight wickets in hand and Patel sitting on seven for the match ahead of a likely declaration and chance to bowl again at ND on the last afternoon.
That is, until it started drizzling, and just didn't stop. The match was called off after an early lunch, and a lot of sitting around contemplating what might have been.
The Auckland Aces and Otago Volts also had to settle for a draw in Dunedin in their bottom-of-the-table clash, but a remarkable fight from the hosts avoided defeat.
Volts captain Dean Foxcroft was the main saviour, and almost the hero, batting for almost six hours for his new career-best score of 174 - just his second first-class century.
He gave his team the chance of a win. However, his loss at 325/7 was followed by a double strike by Aces spinner Louis Delport in the very next over, to put the Volts on the brink at nine down.
The dramatic last half hour saw an injured Thorn Parkes (1* off 19 balls) and last man Jarrod McKay (0* off 21) fend off Delport and his ring in-field.
But even three slips and five silly positions weren't enough to unnerve tailender McKay who saw off the last over for a draw that leaves both teams still hunting for their first victory of this season's first-class campaign.
The championship is now heading into Friday's sixth of the eight rounds in Palmerston North (Firebirds against the Stags), Hamilton (ND hosting the Aces) and Alexandra (Volts hosting Canterbury) in a round of rivalries with their nearest neighbours.
POINTS TABLE snapshot after 5 of 8 championship rounds
Wellington Firebirds 64
Northern Districts 63
Central Stags 50
Canterbury 44
Otago Volts 27
Auckland Aces 25
