2024/25
ROUND TWO
CENTRAL STAGS lost to CANTERBURY by 10 wickets
Saxton Oval, Nelson
19-22 November 2024
POINTS IN THIS ROUND:
Central Stags: 2
Canterbury: 20 (maximum points achieved)
Northern Districts: 18
Auckland Aces: 4
Otago Volts: 7
Wellington Firebirds: 7
Perfect captaincy record for star Rhys Mariu | PHOTOSPORT
SELECTED MILESTONES
Rhys Mariu: first match as Canterbury captain
Tyler Annand: first-class and Central Stags debut
Scott Janett: first-class and Canterbury debut
Cam Paul: first-class debut
Cam Paul: maiden first-class five-wicket bag
Rhys Mariu: first-class career best, first Plunket Shield double century
Rhys Mariu: fifth highest first-class score in Canterbury history
Matt Boyle: maiden Plunket Shield century
Matt Boyle: PHOTOSPORT
Rhys Mariu and Matt Boyle: 3rd wicket record partnership for Canterbury in matches v Central Stags (258)
Ajaz Patel: fourth first-class half century (third for Stags)
Ajaz Patel: highest first-class score
Highest f-c score Canterbury:
— Andrew (@shortflyslip) November 20, 2024
301* PG Fulton 2002/03
261 TWM Latham 2013/14
251* CZ Harris 1996/97
241* TWM Latham 2013/14
240 RA Mariu 2024/25
237* RT Latham 1990/91
227* SL Stewart 2009/10
226* LJ Carter 2019/20
226 BF Hastings 1964/65
224 TWM Latham v W 2019/20
SNAPSHOT:
In his first Plunket Shield match as Canterbury captain, 22-year-old Rhys Mariu led with a mammoth double century, Matt Boyle joining in the fun with a maiden ton, and Cam Paul getting things started with a bag on debut - all setting up a crushing victory over the Central Stags.
All images: PHOTOSPORT
Regular captain Cole McConchie was away on family duties, but could watch on from afar with pride as a very fresh-look red and black side delivered the goods on a dry Nelson deck, clocking up their first win, in the second round, in style.
DAY ONE
Cam Paul's first day of first-class cricket couldn't have gone much better.
While all eyes were on Kane Williamson up north - a veteran of 171 first-class matches - machining out a half ton for Northern Districts in his first Plunket Shield appearance since 2019, the 19-year-old son of former Otago Volts cricketer Justin Paul was quietly looping his way to his maiden five-wicket bag in his very first trot.
A pace bowler - like his grandfather, Russell Paul, who represented New Zealand Colts (the equivalent of NZU19), the youngest Paul took superb figures of 5/34 on Canterbury first-class debut, against the Central Stags in Nelson.
His scalps included Stags captain Tom Bruce for a three-ball duck, and he was assisted by his captain Rhys Mariu and relatively new keeper Jesse Frew who pouched five catches behind the wicket between them.
Paul had previously played two one-day Ford Trophy matches for Canterbury last season, before a shoulder dislocation ruined his chances of representing NZU19 himself.
His efforts on day one at the office in the longer form of the game saw the Stags scrape just one batting point, dismissed for 202.
Dane Cleaver had held on for an unbeaten 54*, the top score for the hosts backing up his match-winning century in the previous, opening round.
But now the boot was on the other foot.
Canterbury would resume day two looking to knock off their 185-run deficit, having survived seven overs with the bat unscathed, before stumps.
They had all four bowling points banked from their first innings as well, again showing their skill at racking up the first innings points consistently across the competition.
DAY TWO
A monster total loomed in Nelson as the visiting skipper turned in for the night as a weary but happy young man.
In his first match as captain of his team, with only played eight first-class matches under his belt, Rhys Mariu was leading from the front.
The young opening batter batted through all three sessions, the entirety of the second day's play at Saxton Oval to go to stumps unbeaten on 212*.
He had brought up not just a century (his third at this level), but the first double century in the Plunket Shield championship since Auckland captain Sean Solia's career best last season, and it had Canterbury sitting pretty on 393/4 in Stoke.
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Mariu looked comfortable and authoritative, enjoying the conditions despite a stiff wind on a warm day, a day on which the Central Stags laboured very hard for breakthroughs.
left-arm paceman Ray Toole celebrates a rare breakthrough for the Stags | PHOTOSPORT
There was good bounce in the deck, but the wind had dried it out and it was resembling a batsman's paradise. Mariu will have felt quite at home, on conditions akin to a midsummer's day in Rangiora.
For the Stags, there were mere consolation prizes.
Big, raw, young pace debutant Tyler Annand (above) picked up his first two wickets for the Stags on debut, but it was Canterbury's day, all day.
Playing against his brother Jack's team, Matt Boyle (below) reached his maiden first-class century, off just 129 balls, in 186 minutes (10x4, 1x6) as he and Mariu cashed in to the tune of a kingly, 258-run third-wicket partnership - a record in 74 years between these two teams.
Summertime, and the batting was easy.
Canterbury held a 191-run first-innings lead by stumps, and the biggest problem for the Stags was that they still had six wickets in hand.
Mariu was in position to call the shots from here, and with all four batting points in the bank, while the Stags had picked up just one bowling point so far - along with tired bodies, heading into the third morning.
DAY THREE
Mariu's mammoth knock reached 240 on another wind-whipped day at Saxton Oval before he finally miscued a delivery from allrounder Will Clark.
The opening batter's hefty innings goes down as the fifth biggest in Canterbury's first-class history - a history that dates back to the 1863/64 season.
His knock lasted for 330 balls, and pushed him ahead of Rod Latham’s 237 not out against ND in 1990/91 in the Canterbury record books, on a list headed by current Canterbury coach Peter Fulton’s 301 not out against the Auckland Aces in 2002/03.
In total, Mariu batted for almost eight and a half hours. He struck 25 boundaries and three sixes.
The third afternoon of the match then saw him declare at 492/7, for an impressive 290-run first innings lead.
By the time bad light - and the barest brush of wet weather - ended play in the last session, the Stags had reduced that deficit to 112.
They had seven wickets in hand heading into the final day's play, still with a chance to save face if their experienced middle order could stand up and be counted.
The good bounce was still on offer for bowlers, however, and Canterbury's pace attack was relishing exploiting it with the new ball.
Young Stags opener Curtis Heaphy struck a quickfire 81 for the hosts, before he became one of two victims later in the afternoon for BLACKCAP Will O'Rourke.
Central would head into the final day on 178/3, after another tough day's cricket, still searching for an opening.
DAY FOUR
The weather played ball again at Saxton Oval, the birds were singing, the conditions were fine and sunny, but the match was still heading for a premature finish, after another torrid morning for the Stags.
Senior batters Tom Bruce and Dane Cleaver were the incumbent batters, both with starts from the previous evening, but they ultimately fell within the space of three deliveries.
Will O'Rourke was a handful, to be sure, with the bounce, and his increasing prowess as one of the best pace exponents to come out of the country in some time.
He tempted Cleaver's lavish streak with a delivery angling away, the keeper-batter guiding an edge to his opposite number at 187/4.
That was O'Rourke's third wicket, and a few overs later he would have his fourth as he angled it into Angus Schaw for the same result, Jesse Frew pouching his fourth catch of the innings.
In the meantime, Bruce fell to Fraser Sheat, trapped on 41, and the Stags were officially in trouble with the lower order exposed and the prospect of an innings victory, let alone an O'Rourke bag, egging Canterbury on.
Angus McKenzie removed Blair Tickner and Michael Rippon got Will Clark, the last genuine batter, in swift succession: 230/8, and all before lunch.
When the young debutant Annand became Sheat's second victim, the Stags had just one wicket left, and still the lunch bell hadn't sounded.
Last pair Ajaz Patel and Ray Toole weren't going down without a fight.
They survived until the end of the extended session, Patel reaching 25* off 67 deliveries and Toole 2* off 34 balls before finally it was time to eat.
The Stags would resume looking to at least find a further 23 runs to avoid the extra stigma of the innings defeat.
Patel got another consolation prize soon after lunch: he got to pocket his third first-class half century for the Stags, the fourth of his overall red-ball career, including eight fours and a six.
Moreover, he and the doughtily defensive Toole had made Canterbury bat again, with a lead by now of 10 runs.
The second-innings target would grow to a lofty 14 for the visitors before Rippon (3/31) drew a line underneath the last partnership, Patel caught on a career best 57.
O'Rourke settled for 4/41, and the Stags had improved their lot to 303 in 103 overs, in their second dig.
It took Canterbury just 17 balls to knock off their well deserved victory, debutant Scott Janett surviving a confident appeal from Blair Tickner just before hitting the winning runs, shortly before 3PM on the last day of a memorable match.
***
The Central men now return to their alternate home ground of McLean Park for a big match against defending title-holder the Wellington Firebirds next week, while Canterbury heads to Auckland to look for continuing momentum against the Aces who meanwhile took a hit in Hamilton.
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