- Round Two begins in Wellington tomorrow
- Remaining Round Two matches begin in Mt Maunganui and Dunedin on Wednesday
The Wellington Firebirds will be eager to extend their Plunket Shield points lead when they host Canterbury in the first of the second round matches, starting tomorrow morning.
With their first three rounds all at home at a green Basin Reserve, the Firebirds' pace attack was quickly in business after captain Michael Bracewell won the toss in the opening round dismissing the Otago Volts twice inside three days for an eight-wicket win, and the maximum 20 points, to get their summer off to a flier.
The win has come at some cost, however, with five squad changes for the second round. Frontline seamers Hamish Bennett and Ollie Newton miss out due to injury, while speedster Ben Sears is unavailable. Young seamers Adam Leonard and Michael Snedden come in to the twelve for the first time, along with leg-spinner Peter Younghusband.
The Firebirds were the only side to bag the maximum points from Round One, while in Auckland the Auckland Aces secured the only other outright victory of the round, for 17 points.
After losing to the Aces, the early-season shake-up has put the heat on double defending champions the Central Stags who will head into a second tough away fixture this week, this time against Northern Districts — expected to name Trent Boult and Neil Wagner in their attack.
After having won New Zealand's first-class championship for the past two seasons, the Central Stags have a rare shot a Plunket Shield threepeat in 2019/20, something that no side has achieved since the 1940 (Auckland having won the title in 1936/37, 1937/38, 1938/39 and 1939/40).
After having lost their final match against ND last season, last week's opening round defeat was the first time since March 2016 that the injury-hit Stags had lost two consecutive matches in the Plunket Shield — as well as the first time since March 2016 that the Auckland Aces had taken a win off them.
Round Three will begin at 10.30am tomorrow (Tuesday 29 October) between the Firebirds and Canterbury at the Basin Reserve while the other two matches in this round will begin at Mt Maunganui's Bay Oval and Dunedin's University of Otago Oval on Wednesday.
All matches are live-scored with video highlights at nzc.nz and are free admission to the public for all four days.
POTENTIAL MILESTONES: Round Two Plunket Shield
Wellington Firebirds
Logan van Beek — 48 wickets for Firebirds
Canterbury
Todd Astle — 3990 first-class runs for Canterbury
Todd Astle —298 wickets for Canterbury
Will Williams — 44 first-class wickets
Otago Volts
Hamish Rutherford — 100th first-class match (56th for the Volts)
Neil Broom — 100th first-class match for the Volts (148th overall)
Auckland Aces
Ben Horne — 939 first-class runs
Will Somerville — 96 first-class wickets
Northern Districts
BJ Watling — 4963 runs for ND
Central Stags
Ajaz Patel — 50th first-class match for the Stags
George Worker — 48 first-class wickets for Stags
Ben Smith — 2914 first-class runs
ROUND TWO FIXTURES
• At the Basin Reserve, Wellington
WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS v CANTERBURY
Tuesday 29 October-Friday 1 November 2019
Points (Rank) after Round One:
Firebirds 20 (1st)
Canterbury 6 (4th)
• At Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui
NORTHERN DISTRICTS v CENTRAL STAGS
Points (Rank) after Round One:
Northern Districts 7 (3rd)
Central Stags 4 (5th)
• At University of Otago Oval, Dunedin
OTAGO VOLTS v AUCKLAND ACES
Wednesday 30 October-Saturday 2 November 2019
Points (Rank) after Round One:
Auckland Aces 17 (2nd)
Otago Volts 4 (6th)
