Will Somerville | PHOTOSPORT

Aced it! First-class bag on debut for Simon Keene

Posted Monday, 14 February, 2022 in Match Reports

Video Highlights

SPLIT ROUND: SECOND GAME FOR ACES, FIFTH GAME FOR VOLTS

AUCKLAND ACES beat OTAGO VOLTS by 213 runs

University of Otago Oval, Dunedin

11-14 February, 2022

SCORES

Toss: Volts who bowled

TOTAL POINTS THIS ROUND: Auckland Aces 16, Otago Volts 4

Selected Milestones

Simon Keene: First-class debut for Auckland Aces, maiden first-class five-wicket bag

Thorn Parkes, Jacob Cumming: First-class debut for Otago Volts

Will Somerville: Career-best first-class score

Michael Rippon: 100 overall first-class career wickets (82 for Otago Volts)

Travis Muller: 150 overall first-class career wickets (30 for Otago Volts)

Glenn Phillips: equal second fastest (by balls) half century in NZ first-class cricket

DAY FOUR

With precious time lost to weather, the Otago Volts declared their first innings overnight at 86/4 and the Aces set off on a manic Monday second-innings scramble.

Travis Muller picked up a wicket in his first over as Will O'Donnell became an early casualty on the fourth morning, fellow opener George Worker run out in a desperate dive for a second run soon after.

But Glenn Phillips got the Aces cracking with one of the fastest ever fifties seen in the Plunket Shield, taking just half an hour and 31 balls to reach his half century, with seven boundaries and four sixes.

Only Andre Adam (20 balls on debut) had beaten that pace.

Phillips reached 53* off 24 rocks before his captain declared, the Volts needing 324 from the final two and a half sessions if they were to win.

Phillips was quickly in the action again as left-arm Ace of pace Ben Lister almost immediate broke through with Mitch Renwick caught at slip at 0/1.

Β 

It was the beginning of a downward spiral for the Volts who would be bowled out for just 110, captain Nick Kelly fighting for almost half of those runs with his 48.

But the big story of the afternoon was Aces debutant Simon Keene who had a first match to remember - ripping through the Volts' line-up to take his maiden, and match-winning, bag.

Keene's second-innings figures make fine reading at 8.1-4-24-5, to go with his 8-2-14-2 in the first innings.

Keene had his first wicket in the 14th over of the innings in fellow debutant Thorn Parkes, and later came back to crucially stop Kelly in his tracks.

Cue two wickets in the over, as the 20-year-old proceeded to rip through the tail and wrap up the outright in a hurry.

The Aces may have made a late start to the season, but they were rapidly making up for lost time - now two wins from two matches, and top of the table - calculated this season by average points per game.

DAY THREE

No play - rain. Otago Volts 86/4, trailing on the first innings by 239.

DAY TWO

The Otago Volts would end the second day at 86/4, trailing on the first innings by 239.

Opening batsman Mitch Renwick was still at his post on 38* but after losing debutant Jacob Cumming early the previous evening, nightwatchman Travis Muller had also been caught behind off Sean Solia.

Dale Phillips joined Renwick for a partnership off 46 before Dale's brother Glenn was responsible for his downfall.

Glenn Phillips took a wonderful one-handed catch to provide Aces debutant Simon Keene with his maiden wicket at his brother's expense.

There had been a long wait to get on the park on Day Two, lunch taken early and play resuming at 2pm. It was only the mid-afternoon when bad light stopped play, the Volts 66/3.

It was a niggly afternoon of stoppages and waiting and stoppages and waiting under the misty clouds, and no almost no sooner that they had all got back on after tea, Kelly was gone and Keene had two.

Thorn Parkes will resume his maiden innings on four not out overnight, after getting his career account underway with a single off Somerville late in the day.

DAY ONE

Will Somerville's late-blooming first-class career continues to blossom with a career-best batting performance for the 37-year-old on Day One of the Auckland Aces' catch-up match in Dunedin.

Somerville's unbeaten 60 off just 48 balls (nine boundaries, two sixes) nabbed the Aces a second, and then third, batting bonus point as the Aucklanders continue to make up for lost time in their catch-up Plunket Shield schedule.

Sent in, captain Robbie O'Donnell was able to declare at 325 for nine in the last session of the opening day at University of Otago Oval, Somerville continuing the momentum after Mark Chapman (caught on 97) and Ben Horne (45) had put on 113 together for the fifth wicket, while Glenn Phillips had also reached a half century with an explosive 61 at first drop.

The fast-paced action also saw the Otago Volts bag the maximum four out of four bowling bonuses before losing a late wicket in the last five overs of the day, set to resume today at 8/1, a deficit of 317.

Somerville's previous first-class best was 59, his only other first-class half century which he had produced for the Aces last season against the Firebirds.

Play in the four-dayer resumes at 10.30am, weather permitting, while the other four men's Domestic side continue to play white-ball cricket with The Ford Trophy's next round scheduled for Rangiora and Hamilton tomorrow.

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