ROUND THREE OF EIGHT
CENTRAL STAGS beat NORTHERN DISTRICTS by 279 runs
Saxton Oval, Stoke, Nelson
5-8 November, 2022
Toss: Central Stags who batted
First innings bonus points:
Central Stags 2 batting, 4 bowling (maximum achieved)
ND 4 bowling (maximum achieved), 0 batting
Total points this round: Central Stags 18, ND 4
Selected Milestones
Northern Districts: 500th first-class match
Curtis Heaphy: Central Stags and first-class debut, maiden half century
Freddy Walker: maiden first-class wicket
Dane Cleaver: 200 first-class dismissals (wicketkeeping)
Brad Schmulian: fourth first-class century and 2000 first-class runs
Brad Schmulian: second first-class double century
Ajaz Patel 21st 5-wicket bag, 17th for Central Stags
DAY FOUR
Northern Districts pair Jeet Raval and Joe Carter made a solid start to a big morning at Saxton Oval, in which their side would need more than 100 runs per session if they were to bag a shock win.
From 92/2 overnight, they took the visiting team through to 147/3 with a 131-run partnerships before Stags maestro Ajaz Patel finally got a breakthrough, Carter caught in the slips for 61.
Patel went on to make it three in the session in the short period before lunch, a double wicket maiden taking out Tim Seifert and Colin de Grandhomme. Watching on was Raval, now in the 90s after more than four hours grinding it out in the middle.
Straight after lunch the Stags were wooping and hollering once more as Blair Tickner removed new man Scott Kuggeleijn, the third batsman of the innings to be dismissed for no score. Now, just four wickets stood between the Stags and victory, Raval still stoic on 96*.
Raval would still be on 96* when the next wicket fell as well, Patel snaffling his fourth as Kristian Clarke was stumped.
Patel was revving up for his 21st five-wicket bag on a detriorating deck, and he soon had it.
Then Brad Schmulian, the double centurion of the previous day, fittingly wrapped up the ND innings with the ninth wicket, the visitors a man down with Joe Walker unable to bat.
Raval was left high and dry on a fighting unbeaten 103*, just the second ND player in history to carry his bat through a complete innings, but to no avail as the Stags stayed unbeaten with a 279-run victory.
DAY THREE
The Stags' runfest carried on from where it had left off the previous evening, Brad Schmulian and Curtis Heaphy batting through most of the morning session together to take their side through to 178/1.
Debutant Heaphy continued to fend off a frustrated Neil Wagner and reached his maiden first-class half century in just his second innings in the Plunket Shield cauldron, off 137 balls, after 216 minutes, and including seven boundaries.
All images: PHOTOSPORT
Surviving several close shouts against Wagner, reaching the maiden milestone seemed to loosen up the busy teenager who then galloped to 80 before the umpire finally raised the finger for Colin de Grandhomme.
Heaphy and Schmulian had put on 178 for the second, Central already holding a substantial overall lead. But Schmulian was by no means done.
ND had a little flurry before lunch, de Grandhomme nipping a 31-run stand between Schmulian and Dane Cleaver in the bud at 209/3. But by then, the indefatiguable scuttler Schmulian had raised the bat for his fourth first-class century.
Tom Bruce quickly settled in after the break, and the pair built a further century stand in the middle session.
Like Schmulian, form horse Bruce made it twin half tons in the match, and got there smartly as Schmulian neared a potential second double century in his career.
At 350/3, the Stags held a thumping overall lead now of 462 runs, with more than four sessions left in the match and all the balls in Bruce's court, in benign, albeit breezy batting conditions.
The duo had just reached a 150-stand for the fourth wicket when the captain was stumped off Freddy Walker, Schmulian meanwhile on 190*. Schmulian's Hawke's Bay teammate Bayley Wiggins joined him in the middle and ushered him through to his second first-class century, and second against Northern Districts after having set a New Zealand record 203 on debut at Bay Oval a few years ago.
Now Bruce declared at 371/4, Schmulian walking in to more applause and 200 not out by his name, and the Stags with a massive lead at tea on the third day of 484.
A double wicket maiden to Doug Bracewell rocked ND's reply in just the fifth over, but opener Jeet Raval (39 not out) and captain Joe Carter (48 not out, below) drew on all their experience to settle things down for the rest of the session.
It had been a long day in the dirt for ND and now a big challenge lay ahead on the final day, with 392 further runs required and eight wickets in hand.
DAY TWO
The Stags' last pair added a further 15 runs to the overnight total before Kristian Clarke wrapped up the first innings with his third wicket, finishing with 3-52.
Taking maximum bowling points, Northern Districts' first job now with the bat was to look to haul in the Stags' 273, but they lost form batsman Henry Cooper early to consistent threat Doug Bracewell.
That brought the two most patient rocks of the top order, Bharat Popli and Jeet Raval, together, and second change Blair Tickner made an important blow for his team when he has Raval caught cheaply at 37/2. Just two balls later, he had Joe Carter in the same over.
At six down, Popli would still be there for his side, and would have a half ton by his name. But there was a massive problem for Popli and his teammates, given his side was now 75/6.
After Tickner's double strike, Bracewell had returned after lunch to add another three quick wickets, the allrounder sitting on a sharp 4-14 all of a sudden.
Popli had Kristian Clarke at the other end for company as they fought to defend their seventh wicket - for which they would add an invaluable 80 runs together, in almost as many minutes.
But when Ray Toole (3-26) had Clarke caught just one good hit away from a half century, the wickets began tumbling again.
Bracewell missed out on a bag as Dane Cleaver took his 200th, then 201st first-class dismissals off Ray Toole and Ajaz Patel respectively to wrap up the ND innings on 161 - Popli the last man to fall for a 198-minute 75.
The Stags had taken a 112-run first innings lead, and by stumps that margin of advantage had increased to 199.
Brad Schmulian has clocked up his second half century of the match and will resume Day Three on 53* with debutant Curtis Heaphy having batted through the session for 23*.
DAY ONE
For a brief moment in time, Saxton Oval punters might have sworn they were seeing double. Opening the batting for the hosts was Test batsman Will Young and a 19-year-old new face in the Central Stags, Curtis Heaphy, on debut and straight into it after the Stags won the toss and batted.
Of similar height and build, it would soon become apparent that Heaphy had more than that in common with his senior opening partner.
The punchy back foot drives, crisp strokeplay and mature manner in which he went about his business against Test bowler Neil Wagner and slippery Scott Kuggeleijn countered any first-match jitters as the young man proceeded to bat through the first session.
Unfortunately for the Stags, Young had been an early victim, caught for no score off Kuggeleijn's first over. The intriguing double act hardly got going.
Brad Schmulian provided Heaphy with the support, however, as the pair's 93-run stand for the second wicket took the hosts through to the middle session for no further loss, 79/1 at lunch.
A man who knows a thing or two about debuting against Northern Districts, Schmulian (55) fidgeted his way to a half ton, but would depart after being lured into hooking Kuggeleijn once too often at 94/2.
Heaphy (43) was joined by a fellow Manawatu rep in Dane Cleaver, but would be the next to go, not quite reaching a 50 on debut after doing all the hard work for the best part of three hours.
The spinning Walker brothers were in play now, battling the wind as much as their opponents at the exposed oval, before Wagner came charging back for his first wicket of the day, taking out Cleaver at 138/4.
All images: Photosport
Stags captain Tom Bruce (59) has enjoyed an exraordinary runfest in 2022 and once again he would raise the bat in Nelson, this time for a patient half century as he steered his team out of immediate danger despite losing a couple of partners relatively quickly.
He got his team a first bonus point (ND already had two in the bag) and was on the cusp of a third when the subltely of Colin de Grandhomme got the big wicket.
De Grandhomme made sure ND finished the day on a high as he ripped out two more victims, despite a useful 49 from Ajaz Patel who carried on his good form with the bat in recent months.
The Stags finished the day at 258/9 with ND-turned-CD star Brett Randell and Ray Toole set to resume on the second morning, while the visitors could pat themselves on the back with all four bowling bonuses in the bank already after having been asked to field.
