STATISTICS: A summary of the statistics and milestones following the second round of Plunket Shield.
When he replaced his Taranaki team-mate Peter Ingram in the Central Stags team against Wellington, Dean Robinson became the 270th player to debut for the Stags.
The Northern Knights total of 608-9 dec was their second highest trailing only the 726 they scored against the Canterbury Wizards at Rangiora two seasons ago and passing their best against the Wellington Firebirds of 546 at Whangarei in 2008-09. Interestingly this is exactly the same score as the Firebirds best against the Knights back in the 1998-99 season and is also thesecond highest score against Wellington narrowly trailing Canterbury's 613-7 dec in 2006-07.
Their winning margin of an innings and 230 runs is the largest for the Knights beating the innings and 163 runs against the Central Stags in 1992-93. It is also the largest defeat inflicted on the Firebirds by any team. The Knights have now won their last 4 matches against Wellington, their longest winning streak against any team.
Kane Williamson's innings of 284* is the highest for Northern Knights and the highest against the Wellington Firebirds. On the way to this score he also passed the highest score for the Knights against Wellington, the 170 he scored in his last match against them in 2009-10. He then overtook the 241 scored by Daniel Flynn against Otago at Hamilton last season and comfortably extended the Knights best until the declaration.
Tim Southee's first innings figures of 7-37 are his second best after the 8-27 he claimed against the same opponents two seasons ago. Southee's figures are also the 10th best for the Knights in all matches.
The second wicket partnership of 177 between Brad Wilson and Kane Williamson is the best for the Knights against Wellington passing the 165 added by Wilson and Michael Parlane at Whangarei in 2008-09.
When Stephen Murdoch scored 57 in Wellington's first innings he took his run of consecutive half-centuries against the Northern Knights to four but he wasn't able to extend that to five in the second innings to equal the Firebirds record against the Knights held by Chris Nevin.
James Marshall passed 1,000 runs for Northern Knights against Wellington, the fourth Knights batsman to achieve this feat. He has now passed 1,000 runs against Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington.
Otago's second innings total of 63 is the lowest against Central Stags removing Canterbury's total of 68 at Levin in 1985-86 from the record books.
The match aggregate of 547 in the Otago Volts-Central Stags match is the second lowest in matches between these two teams with only the 357 in the 1963-64 match being lower.
Craig Cumming reached exactly 6,000 runs for Otago following his first innings against Central Stags and was just four runs short of Bert Sutcliffe's Otago record aggregate of 6,028 when he was dismissed in the second innings.
Michael Mason's return for the Central Stags meant he is the oldest current First-Class player in New Zealand. He was 37 years 81 days old at the end of the match against Otago, just ahead of Chris Martin at 36 years 342 days old. He replaces Michael Parlane who was the oldest player last season at 38 years 213 days old when he played his last match. There is still life in those legs yet as Mason showed by claiming career best figures of 6-20 in Otago's second innings. However he is well short of being the oldest Central Stags bowler to claim a five wicket bag, that honour belonging to Don Beard who was just 4 days short of his 41st birthday when he took 5-81 against ND in 1960-61.
Tarun Nethula recorded his best bowling of 6-32 in Otago's first innings, easily eclipsing the 6-169 he recorded for the Stags against Wellington last season.
Mathew Sinclair's two catches in the field against Otago took his career tally to 108. He is now level with Grant Bradburn (ND) and John Morrison (Wellington) and trails only Evan Gray (Wellington) with 109, is just one catch ahead.
Derek de Boorder claimed his 100th catch for Otago during the Stags first innings. He moved level with Gareth Hopkins at 5th place on the Otago list for most wicketkeeping career dismissals.
Canterbury's total of 491-7 dec is their third highest against Auckland, all achieved at different Canterbury venues. The record is 540 scored at QEII Park in 2009-10 followed by 514-6 dec at Hagley Oval in 2002-03.
George Worker scored his maiden First-Class century when finishing 120* in Canterbury's second innings against the Auckland Aces. Martin Guptill (195*) and Colin de Grandhomme (117) for the Aces and Dean Brownlie (171) for the Wizards also recorded highest first-class scores. Willie Lonsdale's figures of 4-82 in Auckland's first innings were also a career best.
When Martin Guptill and Colin de Grandhomme rescued the Auckland Aces innings by adding 211 for the 6th wicket they passed the Auckland record of 209* added by Alex O'Dowd and Adam Parore against Otago back in the 1991-92 season. On the way they passed the Aces record against Canterbury of 160 set by Peter Webb and Paul Kelly in 1985-86.
Dean Brownlie and Reece Young had earlier broken the Canterbury 5th wicket record against Auckland adding 171 to beat the 158 added by Peter Kennedy and Mark Priest in 1991-92.
Martin Guptill also became just the fourth Aces batsman to bat through the innings and the first since 1959-60. It is the 40th occasion a batsman has batted through the innings in New Zealand first-class cricket and on just four of those occasions did the batsman score more than Guptill's 195.
During this round of matches Peter Fulton passed 5,000 runs for Canterbury, Andrew Ellis passed the 2,000 runs for the Wizards while Martin Guptill (Auckland), Dean Brownlie (Canterbury) and Josh Brodie (Wellington) all reached the 1,000 run milestone for their teams.
