ROUND TWO • 2022/23
Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North
30 November 2022
Central Stags lost to Wellington Firebirds by 50 runs
Bonus point win for Firebirds
Selected milestones
Doug Bracewell: 50th List A match for Central Stags
Seth Rance: 100 List A wickets for Central Stags
Nick Kelly & Ollie Newton: new 9th wicket record in matches for Wellington Firebirds v Central Stags
Ollie Newton: Third List A five-wicket bag
Ollie Newton: Career-best bowling 6-33 (previous best: 5-46)
Ollie Newton: Wellington's second best bowling figures all-time in The Ford Trophy
Doug Bracewell - 1000 List A runs
Doug Bracewell and Seth Rance: new 10th wicket record (52) for Central Stags, previous record: 50
After their big win in Dunedin, the Central Stags headed to Palmerston North for their first home match of The Ford Trophy - meeting the Wellington Firebirds at the same ground where the teams had met in the Plunket Shield just a week or two earlier.
Yet again at this ground, this season, new Firebird Nick Kelly helped to dig his side out of a hole, after the Stags had made a strong start with the ball.
Seth Rance enjoyed his work | All images: MBUTCHER
Swing bowler Seth Rance was hunting for his 100th Ford Trophy wicket, heading in needing three victims to achieve the milestone after his captain Will Young won the toss an bowled on a windy morning.
Rance went one better with a haul of four, 4-27 just falling short of his all-time career best 4-25.
He chimed in early as Brett Randell made two of three quick breakthroughs to have the visitors 15/3 early doors, the top three all back in the hutch.
Change bowlers Doug Bracewell and Blair Tickner were successful in their first spells as well, Kelly only just underway with his side in peril at 63/5 in the 16th over.
Kelly and Luke Georgeson tried to get going in a much needed partnership before Georgeson fell to Rance, and Rance soon had another handy wicket in Logan van Beek who was bowled through the gate a few overs later.
Kelly held on and ground out a top score of 84 from 114 balls, helping the Firebirds to reach a tally of 170.
Nick Kelly played a key role in the first innings
His ninth-wicket stand of 66 with Ollie Newton (24 off 30) was pivotal in getting the Firebirds that defendable total, but the two fell in quick succession - Kelly caught brilliantly in the deep by Blair Tickner - to see their team dismissed with almost nine overs unutilised.
The Firebirds needed a sharp start with the ball to stay in the game, and they got it, and then some, with three quick wickets of their own.
Ollie Newton struck twice in his tight opening over to remove both Brad Schmulian and the big wicket of Young, then came back for Ross Taylor next over to sit on interim figures of 3-0 with just five leg byes conceded off his bowling.
Newton continued a good all-round day by quickly going on to his third List A one-day bag, in just the 12th over of the chase.
When Ajaz Patel departed caught behind shortly afterwards, Newton had a career-best six-for and the Stags were still deeply in arrears at 54/7, trailing by a hefty 117.
The Firebirds made that 61/8 just as rain began to sprinkle the ground. The teams went off at 68/8 after 16.3 overs and a long way behind on the DLS par score of 152, with 20 overs needed for a match result.
Six of the Stags had been dismissed for no score.
The players got back on after a nervous 24-minute wait, the Stags losing a further wicket to be on the brink before the covers came back on at 70/9 in the 18th over.
Again the weather lifted, and in the next instalment, Doug Bracewell (59 off 57) reached a defiant half century - his fifth in The Ford Trophy, in his 50th game.
He took the Stags past the 100-mark with a six belted into the yard of a house across Fitzherbert Avenue, and, at 120/9, remarkably the Stags were still on for a bonus point victory if they could hold on.
However, at 25.2 overs, Bracewell holed out to a brilliant catch right on the deep by Rachin Ravindra, and the Stags suffered their first loss - just before the rain came down again.
Bracewell and Rance had set a new Ford Trophy record for their team's 10th wicket, but it was in vain as the Firebirds bounced back for their first win of the white-ball summer.
