ROUND 8 of 10
WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS lost to OTAGO VOLTS by 18 runs
14 February 2025
Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington
Points: Wellington Firebirds 0, Otago Volts 4
All images: PHOTOSPORT
SELECTED MILESTONES
- Max Chu: maiden List A half century (97)
- Jesse Tashkoff: maiden List A Century (148)
- Jesse Tashkoff and Nick Kelly: List A fourth wicket partnership record for Wellington Firebirds matches v Otago Volts (134)
After a sequence of nailbiting Ford Trophy heartbreakers, Valentine's Day delivered high-scoring, last-over success at last for Otago's men, away, this time - with the Firebirds consoled by a brilliant maiden Jesse Tashkoff century in the chase.
The result left the fifth-placed Volts hanging on by the skin of their teeth, after closing out the high-scoring thriller at the Cello Basin Reserve, and both teams still fighting to get into the top three, with just two rounds to come.
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Batting first after having been sent in by Nick Kelly, the Otago Volts' total of 349/8 in Wellington was one of their top six all-time best efforts in the one-day format — stand-in captain Max Chu top-scoring with a bittersweet 97.
Missing out on a maiden ton - after going past 50 for the first time - was just the kind of week Max Chu and the Volts were having.
Since the resumption of The Ford Trophy, they'd been involved in not one, but two thrillers in which they had played well at their Dunedin home ground, plenty of good runs scored, and yet, the other team had pipped them each time.
Some 539 runs had been scored in their previous loss, against the Aces; 643 in the one-wicket loss to Canterbury before that. And today, 680 runs would be scored in all in the capital in another hard fought game.
This time threatened to go down the same painful route after a monster maiden century in reply from Jesse Tashkoff that kept the Wellington Firebirds right in the chase: another match going the whole distance.
Jesse Tashkoff during the Dream11 Super Smash | PHOTOSPORT
The 24-year-old opener blazed to 148 off 125 balls, but his departure in the 44th over gave the Volts an edge.
Having put such a big total on the Don Neely Scoreboard, the Firebirds still had some work to do to reel in the run rate.
They were 265/7 as Tashkoff walked off to well deserved applause on his home ground, and it was some fast work from allrounders Logan van Beek (19 off 20) and Peter Younghusband (a ballistic 26 off 10) that then got them close and took the match into nailbiter territory.
But the Firebirds allrounders' luck ran out at a crucial moment, the pair falling to Matt Bacon and Jake Gibson respectively, in the 47th and 48th overs.
Now the hosts needed 33 further runs off 15 balls: tight.
The last pair of Iain McPeake (a brave 13 not out off 8) and Liam Dudding added 15 off the penultimate over and it was still game on.
But Bacon put a summary stop to their late charge, last man Dudding caught with just four balls to go - the Volts relieved to finally be on the winning side of a big fight, taking the honours by 18 runs.
The penultimate ninth round is on Tuesday, the Volts travelling to Napier to take on the roaring Stags, and the Firebirds staying put to host new leaders the Auckland Aces.
Neither the Volts or the Firebirds can control their own destiny, vulnerable to being dropped by the leading bunch.
