Adam Milne | PHOTOSPORT

Stags on the board in Wellington washout

Video Highlights

ROUND 3 of 10

WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS versus CENTRAL STAGS

- No result (rain) -

26 October 2024

Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington

Points: Wellington Firebirds 2, Central Stags 2

SCORECARD

 

All images: PHOTOSPORT

Wild Wellington weather made for just 22.4 overs of rain-interrupted play at the Basin where the visitors were still hankering for their first win.

It was the kind of weather that had seen a raft of flight cancellations the  previous day, and now the rain followed.

The start was delayed, but when Wellington Firebirds captain Nick Kelly won the toss, he has no hesitation in sending in the Stags to face some music.

Ironically openers Brad Schmulian and Curtis Heaphy would be facing two of their former Stags brethren, with Adam Milne and Liam Dudding (below), a handy workhorse into the wind, opening the Firebirds' attack on a greenish deck.

Milne's yorker looked an instant threat, but he was turned down on appeal against Schmulian in his first over. Then he cut Heaphy in half.

He would have to wait until the fifth over to get his first wicket, luring a simple catch off Schmulian with his bounce, just before players left the field for the first rain interruption.

Both Schmulian and first drop Jack Boyle were coming off centuries in the previous match, but they would both fall cheaply after Logan van Beek knocked his former Canterbury teammate's middle stump out of the ground with his sharp yorker.

The Stags were 55/2, in a match reduced to 48 overs by now. The Labour Weekend weather radar looked bleak, and it was a minor miracle they had been playing at all.

Having taken a few in the ribs, Heaphy showed some resilience to reach an unbeaten 41* by the time in the possible 107 minutes of play before the heavens really opened and it bucketed down at 93/2.

No further play was possible, with the Firebirds now off to Hamilton to play Northern Districts on Wednesday and the still winless Stags flying south to Dunedin for their fourth-round match against the Volts, hoping to get lift off before it's too late.

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