ROUND ONE OF EIGHT
CENTRAL STAGS drew with CANTERBURY
Saxton Oval, Stoke, Nelson
18-21 October, 2022
Toss: Central Stags who batted
First innings bonus points (completed):
Central Stags 3 batting, 2 bowling
Canterbury 4 bowling, 4 batting (maximum achieved)
Total points this round: Central Stags 5, Canterbury 8
Selected Milestones
Tom Bruce: Central Stags first-class captaincy debut
Brett Randell: first-class debut for Central Stags (previously Northern Districts)
Blair Tickner: 50th Plunket Shield appearance (Central Stags)
Brett Randell: Career best batting (90 not out)
Doug Bracewell: 350th first-class wicket
Tom Latham: 24 first-class century, 8th for Canterbury
Mitch Hay: Career best batting
Tom Bruce - 4000 first-class runs
DAY FOUR
A day that began with a Canterbury declaration turned into one of the great get-of-of-jail acts by the Central Stags as they defied the odds to avoid an innings defeat and save the match.
Cole McConchie had decided to declare at nine down overnight, pocketing a 114-run first innings lead. The action started almost immediately, Canterbury making the better start to the business end of the match.
Matt Henry trapped fellow BLACKCAP Will Young early doors, a wicket that was followed by a brief interruption for a light rainshower.
All images: PHOTOSPORT
By lunch, Canterbury had made it four wickets as the new ball continued to do the business for Will O'Rourke (who took care of experienced duo Ben Smith and Dane Cleaver) while fellow paceman Fraser Sheat had picked up Brad Schmulian's wicket as he tried to hit him to the fence.
The Stags resumed at 70/4 after the break, needing captain Tom Bruce to take charge alongside number six Bayley Wiggins (who had taken over the wicketkeeping duties for the Stags at lunch on the previous day).
Canterbury had their tails up, gathering momentum with every session, sniffing wickets. Wiggins was bowled by Sheat on 14, and Doug Bracewell departed scoreless as spinner Theo van Woerkom swooped for a good return catch.
The chance of a viable Stags declaration had evaporated and a more circumspect home side tried now to save face and stymie any further advantage for their visitors.
Birthday boy Ajaz Patel found himself walking out to the middle with his team in a real spot, six down and still needing to tick off 18 runs to make Canterbury bat again.
Patel dug in for almost 40 minutes to level the scores before Canterbury went bang-bang again - Patel also departing caught and bowled to his opposing spinner.
Then Matt Henry ensured Brett Randell's stay was a short one this time around, at 123/8.
Stags captain Tom Bruce remained at his post as the team's last genuine batsman, but he was rapidly running out of support in his debut match as red-ball skipper.
Bruce was on the way to causing the Canterbury attack a great deal of frustration, with an unlikely ally in Blair Tickner.
Tickner stuck around for Bruce to patiently prod his way to a half century and by 5.30pm the pair was still in the middle... with a 54-run lead. Tickner was still unbeaten after more than two hours against Will O'Rourke (below), Matt Henry, Fraser Sheat et al.
The ninth-wicket stand had reached 48 when finally Henry had the big wicket of Bruce (74), bowled when the Stags led by 57 with 20 minutes left in the regulation day - the extra half hour taken.
Tickner had batted for 137 minutes for 9* by this stage, and would keep going to deny Canterbury an outright win in his 50th game for his side, finishing on his playing shirt number: 13 not out, off exactly 100 balls.
DAY THREE
For two and a bit sessions, the day belonged to Canterbury - and especially, to Canterbury BLACKCAP Tom Latham who had been batting since the previous afternoon.
The pitch was docile, scuffed but without much in the way of cracks or purchase, and the senior batsman settled in for the long haul.
In all, Latham batted for almost seven and a half hours. He reached his century just before lunch, glided past 150 just after tea and was looking on for a double ton when the unthinkable happened: the Stags finally took a shutter-burst of wickets.
For the hosts, it had been a day of hard yakka with just one wicket in the overcast morning session, Ray Toole bowling captain Cole McConchie on 78. McConchie and Latham had shared a damaging 149-run stand for the third wicket.
Leo Carter picked up where McConchie left off, two left-handers now joining forces for the fourth, against left-armers Toole and Ajaz Patel.
The tirelesss Test spinner twirled and toiled away, 31 overs' worth by the days end, when the rewards finally came.
Carter and Latham put on another century stand, 112 runs for the fourth before paceman Brett Randell broke through with his first wicket for his new team at 272/4.
The catch was a spectacular effort, Carter skying the ball high off the toe of the bat, the ball with snow on it before the experienced Stags veteran Ben Smith, circling below, safely got it in his hands.
𝒫𝐿𝒰𝒩𝒦𝐸𝒯 𝒮𝐻𝐼𝐸𝐿𝒟 🔴
— Central Stags 🏏 (@CentralStags) October 20, 2022
And there it is: Leo Carter sends up a skier & BRETT RANDELL has his first wicket as a Central Stag! ☝️🦌🏔
SCORES | https://t.co/Cc6WQf5nia
🟩🟩🟩 #LOVETHESTAGS
🟩🟩🟩 #PLUNKETSHIELD
🟩🟩🟩 #BRETTRANDELL pic.twitter.com/toYrKeOhQs
Canterbury wasn't done with the solid partnerships, Mitch Hay in an 88-run stand with Latham for the next wicket.
At 360/4 with the afternoon sun shining, the visitors were in a powerful position to press on and grow a big lead. But on 167, suddenly Latham played on against Doug Bracewell.
Hay (above) reached a career-best half century (64) and Sean Davey found an unbeaten 22* in the lower order, but Hay's undoing was attempting to reverse sweep Patel as the bowlers started to rejoice more regularly.
By stumps, Canterbury had just one wicket left in the first innings at 416/9, and a lead of just 114. Bracewell had bowled well for his 3-82 while Toole had a tidy 2-52 off his 24 overs, getting the ball to jag bag sharply to dismiss Matt Henry for no score.
DAY TWO
It was a see-sawing day with ups and downs for both sides as cricket weather returned on time for Day Two - with a brisk breeze in the mix to add some interest.
Canterbury began their renewed push for wickets in the morning. The ball swinging, Matt Henry soon found himself in amongst it - three big strikes in his second, third and fourth overs of the morning.
He started by bowling set batsman Will Young (57), followed by the quick departures of Tom Bruce and Bayley Wiggins to put Henry on four wickets.
Through it all, overnight batsman Dane Cleaver watched on until he finally found some support from Doug Bracewell on a testing morning.
After 11 overs, the pair had picked off 25 runs for the sixth wicket but Fraser Sheat dealt a timely blow for Canterbury by trapping Bracewell on 18 for his first wicket of the summer.
Cleaver had batted for almost an hour for his 10* when he was joined by Ajaz Patel, the latter fresh off an unbeaten half century for Glamorgan in County cricket. But Patel soon fell to a stunning, flying catch by Will O'Rourke to give Sheat another victim at 178/7.
Cue Brett Randell's first entrance as a Central Stag - and what a debut innings it would be for the former ND bowler. He not only helped guide the Stags to the first bonus point at 200, but on for a third and fourth bonus point during a career-best unbeaten 90*.
He brought up his half century in brazen style, hooking Sheat to fine leg just after the new ball had been taken. The fieldsman tumbled over the boundary in an attempt to reel it in: sealed with six runs.
Earlier, at lunch, the hosts had been 192/7 and Cleaver had departed just three balls after the break: Randell's innings was crucial. After a 39-ball cameo from Blair Tickner, he was joined by Ray Toole and the last pair put on an admirable 81 for the 10th wicket as the cross-breeze finally abated.
Sheat's 3-65 and Theo van Woerkom's 2-22 - wrapping up the Stags innings on 302 after 106.3 overs, meant Henry's potential bag went begging. Canterbury then lost two quick wickets in reply as Doug Bracewell struck twice in the space of three balls, dismissing Henry Nicholls for a duck in the double wicket maiden.
But the Stags' attack was somewhat reminiscent of Canterbury's a day earlier, getting early movement with the new ball before lapsing into errant length.
Opener Tom Latham had got off the mark quickly and bided his time waiting for the boundary balls, forming a third-wicket partnership with Cole McConchie that reached 92* by stumps.
Latham will resume on 52* and McConchie on 48* on the third morning.
DAY ONE
Tom Bruce was last summer's joint winner of the NZC Men's Domestic Player of the Year trophy and the honours continued on the first day of the new summer with Bruce leading the Stags at first-class level for the first time.
Bruce was captaining the home side after regular skipper and veteran Greg Hay had broken his arm during preseason practice, and promptly won his first toss on a sunny Stoke morning.
Bruce was the only round one skipper to elect to bat, and by lunch the hosts has made a good start at 110/1.
All images: Photosport
Matt Henry got early swing and had been the first to strike for visitors Canterbury but Will Young batted throughout the session and raised his bat for a fifty shortly after the lunch break.
Cloudless cornflower skies had by now been wiped away by grey clouds, and at 123/2 in the middle session play was interrupted for light rain.
Sean Davey had stopped Brad Schmulian (24) just before the interruption, the first drop joining Ben Smith (32) back in the pavilion.
The rain may have been light, but it had decided to stick around for the afternoon and play was called for the day at tea - with Will Young set to resume on 52* and Dane Cleaver yet to score at 123/2 after 39.5 overs of play.
