After 10 rounds spread across more than five months, the winner of the 2017 first-class Plunket Shield will be revealed this week in the last four days of our domestic season.
From four contenders this time last week, we are down to the last three standing — leaders Canterbury, followed by the Auckland Aces and Northern Districts — after defeat at the hands of Northern Districts in Mount Maunganui torched the Wellington Firebirds’ hopes in round nine.
In the running:
Canterbury — 101 points
Defending champion Auckland Aces — 93 points
Northern Districts — 87 points
Full points table, leading runscorers and leading wicket-takers
Canterbury failed to clinch the championship with a round to spare last week despite playing themselves into a winning position in Nelson. Now they must go back into battle against the Firebirds and hold on to their number one position for four more tense days if they are to win their third championship in the space of four years.
Will Canterbury have something to celebrate this Saturday? PHOTOSPORT
An outright win will assure Canterbury of the title; anything else will leave them sweating on other results. In the event of equal points, tiebreakers will come down to the number of wins (Canterbury currently has one more win than the Aces and ND), then net run rate (Canterbury again with the advantage currently).
However, there are bound to be last-round nerves after having suffered a four-wicket defeat against the Central Stags in Nelson. The Stags comfortably chased down a target of 347 to win on the final day of round nine at Saxton Oval, spearheaded by Jesse Ryder’s 23rd first-class century, after Canterbury captain Andrew Ellis had declared overnight.
It was the fourth century of the match after hundreds from Peter Fulton, Will Young and Cole McConchie on the preceding days.
Centuries in consecutive matches have lifted Will Young into the top five runscorers of the season. PHOTOSPORT
The outright win was the first for the Stags all season — their Wellington round having been abandoned without play following the Kaikoura earthquake — and saw them reclaim fifth spot on the table, pushing the Otago Volts back into the wooden spoon position.
While the Firebirds, Volts and Stags will now be scrapping for the minor places only, all those three teams head into the final round as the potential kingmakers, with the chance to shape the final outcome of the season by spoiling their live opponent’s chances.
The Volts host ND in Dunedin looking for a positive finish to their summer while the Aces will be particularly wary of the Stags, whom they met at the same venue — Napier’s McLean Park — in the final round of last summer.
The Aces were on the brink of an unbeaten season heading into that match only for the Stags to defeat them outright on the final afternoon of 2015/16.
Weather may impact the first day in Napier but the forecast for the remainder of the match is improved. At Hagley Oval, Canterbury leg-spinner Todd Astle will need just four wickets to equal fellow spinner Mark Priest’s all-time Canterbury first-class wickets record of 290.
Leading 2016/17 wicket-taker Ajaz Patel requires one more five-wicket bag to equal Bob Blair’s Central Stags record for most five-wicket bags in a season (five). Off-spinner Patel is also in a position to become New Zealand’s leading first-class wicket taker for a second consecutive season, and will go head to head with next best Tarun Nethula at McLean Park.
Round 10 (Final Round)
29 March — 1 April 2017
Canterbury v Wellington Firebirds at Hagley Oval, Christchurch
Canterbury (unchanged): Andrew Ellis (c), Todd Astle, Chad Bowes, Jack Boyle, Cameron Fletcher (w), Peter Fulton, Tim Johnston, Ken McClure, Cole McConchie, Ed Nuttall, Logan van Beek, Will Williams
Wellington Firebirds (unchanged): Michael Papps (c), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell, Fraser Colson, Hamish Marshall, Matt McEwan, Iain McPeake, Luke Ronchi (w), Anurag Verma, Luke Woodcock, Peter Younghusband
Match referee: Gary Baxter
Umpires: Tim Parlane and Brent (Billy) Bowden
Scorers: Tony Feely and Duane Pettet
Central Stags v Auckland Aces at McLean Park, Napier
Will Ajaz Patel go back-to-back as leading season wicket-taker?
Central Stags (Two changes, Ben Smith returns from illness and 22-year-old former NZ U19s player Ryan Watson comes back into the squad for a potential first-class debut, for Adam Milne (who departs for the IPL) and Jesse Ryder (unavailable for final round); Mitch Renwick who was a late change in round nine for Smith remains in the squad): Greg Hay, Ben Smith, Mitch Renwick, Will Young (c), George Worker, Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver (w), Ajaz Patel, Ryan Watson, Navin Patel, Liam Dudding, Blair Tickner
Auckland Aces (Two changes, Donovan Grobbelaar and Aniket Parikh for Lockie Ferguson and Mitchell McClenaghan): Mark Chapman, Donovan Grobbelaar, Michael Guptill-Bunce, Ben Horne (w), Colin Munro, Tarun Nethula, Aniket Parikh, Rob Nicol (c), Robbie O’Donnell, Glenn Phillips, Raja Sandhu, Sean Solia
Match referee: Richard Hayward
Umpires: Ash Mehrotra and John Dempsey
Scorers: Duncan Mitchell and Beverly Baker
Otago Volts v Northern Districts at University of Otago Oval, Dunedin
Otago Volts (One change, Josh Tasman-Jones for Michael Rippon; if selected in the playing XI Josh Tasman-Jones will be one first-class debut): Brad Wilson (c), Greg Croudis, Sean Eathorne, Derek de Boorder (w), Sam Wells, Anaru Kitchen, Josh Tasman-Jones, Christi Viljoen, Nathan Smith, Michael Rae, Rhys Phillips, Jack Hunter
Northern Districts (unchanged, with round nine mid-match replacement player Brett Hampton making way for the return of Scott Kuggeleijn from the BLACKCAPS squad): Corey Anderson (c), James Baker, Dean Brownlie, Henry Cooper, Nick Kelly, Daryl Mitchell, Scott Kuggeleijn, Bharat Popli, Brett Randell, Tim Seifert (w), Ish Sodhi, Josef (Joe) Walker
Match referee: Kevin Pulley
Umpires: Derek Walker and John Bromley
Scorers: Malcolm Jones and Lindsay Neilson
Leading Plunket Shield wicket-takers heading into the final round
Ajaz Patel (Central Stags), 42 wickets from 8 matches
Tarun Nethula (Auckland Aces) 38 wickets from 9 matches
Scott Kuggeleijn (Northern Districts) 31 wickets from 9 matches
Lockie Ferguson (Auckland Aces, out of action) 30 wickets from 7 matches
Todd Astle (Canterbury) 30 wickets from 7 matches
Ish Sodhi (Northern Districts) 29 wickets from 6 matches
Andrew Ellis (Canterbury) 25 wickets from 9 matches
Kyle Jamieson (Canterbury, out of action) 24 wickets from 5 matches
Brent Arnel (Wellington Firebirds) 23 wickets from 7 matches
Hamish Bennett (Wellington Firebirds) 22 wickets from 8 matches
Leading Plunket Shield run-scorers heading into the final round
Michael Papps (Wellington Firebirds) 659 runs from 8 matches
Brad Wilson (Otago Volts) 641 runs from 9 matches
Rob Nicol (Auckland Aces) 584 runs from 9 matches
Colin Munro (Auckland Aces) 577 runs from 5 matches
Will Young (Central Stags) 537 runs from 8 matches
Andrew Ellis (Canterbury) 536 from 9 matches
Luke Woodcock (Wellington Firebirds) 534 runs from 8 matches
Chad Bowes (Canterbury) 532 runs from 7 matches
Greg Hay (Central Stags) 523 runs from 8 matches
Tom Bruce (Central Stags) 497 runs from 8 matches
Peter Fulton (Canterbury) 497 runs from 9 matches
• Follow the latest from the matches on Twitter with the hashtag #plunketshield
• All Plunket Shield matches are free entry and livescored at www.blackcaps.co.nz from 10.30 a.m.
