2024/25
ROUND FOUR
AUCKLAND ACES lost to WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS by 4 wickets
Kennards Hire Community Oval, Auckland
7-10 December 2024
POINTS IN THIS ROUND:
Canterbury: 8
Central Stags: 8
Wellington Firebirds: 7
Auckland Aces: 7
Otago Volts: 4
Northern Districts: 3
SELECTED MILESTONES
• Peter Younghusband - third 5-wicket bag, career-best bowling, first 10-wickets-in-a-match
• Sean Solia (below) - 4th first-class century, 5th Auckland player to carry his bat (41st occasion in NZ cricket); 3,000 first-class runs
• Nick Kelly - 8th first-class century
• Michael Bracewell - third 5-wicket bag
All images: PHOTOSPORT
SNAPSHOT:
The defending champion Wellington Firebirds had headed into this contest still looking for a first win as the eight-round championship hit the halfway, and this time, they got it.
As far as statistics goes, this match was a doozy, each captain leading from the front.
But there could only be one winner in the hard-fought contest and the hosts would be left ruing what might have been, had it not been for a veteran legspinner's career-best week.
DAY ONE
Both sides initially had something to smile about as the early summer runfests continued at Kennards Hire Outer Oval where Aces captain Sean Solia won the toss and batted.
He led from the front, his unbeaten 170* dominating Auckland's total of 329 and achieving a rare statistic in the New Zealand Domestic first-class game: carrying his bat throughout the innings.
He was only the fifth Aucklander to do so, in more than a century.
First-class century number four for Sean Solia! The @aucklandcricket opener becomes the fifth player to carry his bat through a first-class innings for Auckland. Full scorecard + more highlights | https://t.co/oyAq4smvPn 📲 #PlunketShield #CricketNation pic.twitter.com/qNdwOxmJRT
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) December 7, 2024
However, Solia didn't get as much support as he would have liked from his teammates, no other batsman reaching 50, let alone 150.
Will O'Donnell came the closest with his 47, in a 91-run stand for the second wicket.
At the other end of the innings, Danru Ferns (33) stuck around long enough to help Solia in a quick 95-run stand for the second-to-last wicket, with time running out in the day, and in the innings.
Legspinner Peter Younghusband was on a heater, and claimed both of them, and then quickly ended the innings at stumps when last man Jordan Sussex fell to a sharp one-handed catch from Nick Kelly in the slips.
Younghusband had taken eight of the 10 wickets to fall, smashing his previous career best of 5/65 with a brilliant 8/127.
The Firebirds took all four bowling bonus points, and Younghusband's speccy performance ranked in the top 18 bowling hauls for the capital since its playing record began more than a century ago.
Meanwhile, the Aces took three of the available four batting points before the last wicket fell in the 96th over of the day.
Solia's sweat soaked his forehead after a magnificent effort of his own, having faced 271 balls, in 377 minutes, with 14 fours and six sixes in his unbeaten 170* at the same ground where he had cracked his career best 206 last season, against the same opponent.
DAY TWO
It proved a tit-for-tat first innings, the Wellington Firebirds ending the second day with a deficit of just 11 runs whilst nine down.
Their captain, too, had reached three figures. Nick Kelly sailed to 131, his third ton of the Plunket Shield season already.
His century had been a relatively patient one, batting at four with patches of support.
Mo Abbas contributed 46 at six - before Adi Ashok (who went on to 4/65 the following day) enticed a slip catch straight into Will O'Donnell's breadbasket.
Later, Younghusband continued enjoying his good game with what would become an unbeaten 45*.
James Hartshorn was with Younghusband by then, Kelly having been run out off a great throw from Simon Keene who rocketed the ball into keeper Quinn Sunde.
The quick Kelly was just an inch shy of making his ground, going for a second run.
DAY THREE
The Aces ended the Firebirds' innings at 329 after Ashok claimed last man Hartshorn, and pocketed the full suite of bonus points from the game while the Firebirds banked three bonuses for their batting.
Both teams had scored 329 on the nose, exact even Stephens as the second innings began early on the third morning at Eden Park.
Again it was the gritty Solia who got his side off to a good start, and again he struggled for much support on a surface that had all the spinners encouraged.
Sid Dixit came and went early, but O'Donnell contributed 58 at first drop in a century stand with his captain.
But that was the only real partnership of note, as Solia was the second wicket to fall at 121/2 - and the Aces fell apart to be bowled out for just 186 in the last session.
Younghusband picked up the two further wickets that he had required to achieve 10 wickets in a match for the first time, but this time the lion's share of the damage was done by off-spinner Michael Bracewell who bagged 5/56.
So far, spinners of one sort or another had taken 22 of the wickets to fall in the match.
Now the equation was simple, even for the mathematically-challenged: 187 to win. The Firebirds picked off 29 of those runs before stumps, without losing a wicket.
DAY FOUR
The defending title-holder Firebirds knew the odds were in their favour to earn their first win, after a frustrating start to their Plunket Shield summer.
A few partnerships would do it, and openers Troy Robinson (35) and Nick Greenwood (54) got that memo.
They put on 88 together and, by the time Greenwood departed at 98/3 - after a brief rally from the Aces' attack, only a further 89 runs was required for the outright.
Michael Bracewell fell to a fine caught and bowled from Ashok | PHOTOSPORT
Spin was again the flavour of the day.
Ashok reeled in another four-fa in the match, and Louis Delport picked up two as the hosts kept fighting, and managed to get their visitors six-down.
But Kelly had got a start, and then Abbas showed his class as he helped ensure his side got to their well earned win.
