2024/25
ROUND FOUR
CANTERBURY beat OTAGO VOLTS by 5 wickets
Mainpower Oval, Rangiora
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
• Zak Foulkes - second first-class five-wicket bag
• Max Chu - 100 first-class catches and 2nd first-class century (130)
• Luke Georgeson - 1000 first-class runs and maiden first-class century (159 not out)
• Max Chu and Luke Georgeson - Otago first-class 7th wicket record and first-equal New Zealand first-class 7th wicket record (265)
• Luke Georgeson - highest Otago first-class score by a number 8 batter (also by any Otago batter from 7-11)
SNAPSHOT:
The big stats tell a story. The Otago Volts fought back bravely in this match but, by the end of the game that marked halfway in the national first-class championship, there would be a new leader atop the Plunket Shield ladder: Canterbury.
Relentless Canterbury's five-wicket win in Rangiora saw them overtake both Northern Districts and the Central Stags who had meanwhile played each other for a draw - ahead of the Dream11 Super Smash competition window.
DAY ONE
Young BLACKCAPS allrounder Zak Foulkes had yet another day to remember as he blasted to his second first-class five-wicket bag, helping roll visitors the Otago Volts for just 117 inside 38 overs.
Foulkes took 5/47 after his captain had sent in the visitors - just outside his career best of 5/38.
Another youngster in Cam Paul chipped in with 3/19 as Otago crumbled against the dangerous hosts.
Things moved fast on the opening day, Canterbury holding a 64-run lead by stumps.
But they had also lost four wickets, already - three of them to Volts captain Luke Georgeson, who was in for a fine all-round game.
Run machine Rhys Mariu had been stopped on 87 on his home ground out in the country, the runs flying off 117 balls.
Mariu was the runaway top run-scorer in the championship to date, with 520 runs at a 173.33 average from four innings.
Canterbury had taken all four bowling points, while the Volts had one bowling point by the action-packed day's end.
DAY TWO
Resuming at 181/4, Canterbury piled on 331 in their first innings, for a first innings lead of 214.
The middle order had worked together to provide a good chunk of the runs, Mitch Hay with 81 in a century-stand with Michael Rippon.
Georgeson, Travis Muller and Jarrod Mckay all finished with a three-for, but the Volts were already on the back foot in the match, and by the end of the day they would be in an even worse position.
Leo Carter had contributed a valuable 57 against his old teammates, but the evening descended with the Volts 169/6 in the second dig, trailing by 45 overall with just four in hand.
Canterbury were odds-on for an outright, unless Max Chu (30 not out) and Georgeson (15 not out) could conjure up something special.
But as they say - hold that thought.
DAY THREE
An extraordinary day's cricket in Rangiora saw Chu and Georgeson begin the third day of their four-dayer against Canterbury fighting for survival in the match - and end it with an Otago Volts and national first-class partnership record.
And, by stumps they now had a fighting chance in the form of a 197-run lead, with two wickets still in hand.
The pair equalled - exactly, New Zealand's first-class seventh-wicket record of 265, a mark that had stood for almost a century.
Jack Powell & Noel Dorreen had that record to themselves ever since the 1929/30 season (they set it for Canterbury v Otago in 1930, at Lancaster Park in Christchurch).
But just as wicketkeeper-batter Chu was poised to break the huge record, rather than equal it, he was caught off Fraser Sheat - his partnership with Georgeson ending on 265.
For context, there's only one national first-class partnership record that has stood for longer: the eighth wicket record of 433, set by Victor Trumper and Arthur Sims for Australia v Canterbury in 1913/14.
The previous Otago seventh-wicket record of 190, set by Nathan Smith and Michael Rippon (now fronting for the opponents in this match) in 2019/20, had been well and truly shattered.
Both men reached patient centuries, Chu dismissed after a career-best 130 (his second Plunket Shield ton, after a two-ball duck in the first innings) and captain Georgeson carrying his bat through the day, unbeaten on 134* at stumps - having found the perfect moment to produce his maiden first-class hundred for his embattled team.
Winless, Otago had headed into this match at the bottom of the Plunket Shield table as the competition hit its halfway mark, and the last day would dawn with the Volts all hoping to continue to defy Canterbury - who had no doubt started the third morning aiming to wrap up an outright with a day to spare.
The Volts had begun the day at 169/6 in their second innings, trailing Canterbury by 45 runs - and were now 411/8 overnight.
Chu already had a personal stake in the Otago sixth-wicket record (256), set with Nick Kelly in 2021/22, and now he was collecting the set.
DAY FOUR
Georgeson stretched his timely maiden century to 159 not out, in 617 minutes and 459 balls) as he continued to defy the hosts on the fourth morning.
NZC statistician Francis Payne noted that it was the second-longest innings in terms of minutes batted in Otago's lengthy first-class history.
Ian Rutherford's 625-minute 222 is the only innings to exceed Georgeson on this front, but Canterbury finally had the last say - dismissing the Volts for 515 in their second innings, a phyrric victory of sorts after the visitors had been in their palm at 128/6.
That set Canterbury a stiff chase of 302 to win, while Foulkes had finished with seven for the match with the ball.
The hosts were up for it. Mariu smashed 70 off 80 balls at the top, sharing a 94-run opening stand with Chad Bowes (46 at almost run-a-ball pace) and a 43-run stand for the second wicket with Cole McConchie (66).
The wickets would not fall fast enough for the Volts' comfort, Canterbury needing 159 further runs from the last session and a half of the match.
McConchie and Hay, then Hay (55) and Rippon (46 not out), kept their side on track until Foulkes hit the winning single late in the last session.
The Volts were empty-handed again, not for the want of trying.
