Heading into yesterday’s final day of the Plunket shield, Jamie How, captain of the Central Stags, was thinking more about how he was going to rescue the game for his team than leading them to victory over the Firebirds.
The Stags needed a mammoth 445 runs to claim victory. “To be honest I was thinking more about how I was going to save this game for us,” How said. “There was always the thought of trying to win it, but it was more at the back of my mind.. My basic plan was to try and set up the guys and be there at tea then look at the win.”
How and opening partner Peter Ingram stuck together for over six hours and in turn broke the record for the highest opening partnership in New Zealand First Class cricket, with 428.
The previous best was 387, set in 1971/72 by Glenn Turner and Terry Jarvis against the West Indies at Georgetown in Guyana with the previous domestic record going back to 1950/51 – a 373 stand between Bert Sutcliffe and Less Watt for Otago against Auckland..
The partnership was 22 runs short of the New Zealand record for all partnerships of 467, achieved by Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones against Sri Lanka in 1991.
“I guess it still hasn’t sunk in,” How said. “I glanced at the scoreboard when 400 ticked over and thought it was pretty incredible. But our partnership didn’t seem out of the ordinary. We just got involved and took each ball as it came.”
How contributed with a captain’s knock of 176 while Ingram, who played “exceptionally well”, scored 245* to help secure victory for the Stags. How’s wicket fell just 17 runs short of their extraordinary target, and he watched from the boundary as Ingram and Brad Patton closed out the match.
Ingram has now scored an aggregate of 530 runs from the five pre-Christmas rounds of Plunket Shield.
“It was a great game of cricket. There were lots of twists and turns. Wellington played well in parts however things went our way and it was our day in the end.”
