2024/25
ROUND FIVE
AUCKLAND ACES drew with the CENTRAL STAGS
Kennards Hire Community Oval
4-8 March 2025
POINTS IN THIS ROUND:
Central Stags: 6
Auckland Aces: 4
Wellington Firebirds: 20
Otago Volts: 5*
Northern Districts: 17*
Canterbury: 5
* includes penalty for slow over rate
SELECTED MILESTONES
Brad Wilson: first-class umpiring debut
Lachie Stackpole: first-class debut
Tom Bruce: 11th first-class century (10th for Stags), career best first-class score
Tom Bruce: first triple century. Third highest first-class score in New Zealand first-class cricket (345)
Dane Cleaver: 9th first-class century (8th for Stags)
Dane Cleaver and Tom Bruce: Central Stags fourth-wicket partnership record
Tom Bruce and Josh Clarkson: Central Stags fifth-wicket partnership record
Josh Clarkson: 2nd first-class century, career best score (166 not out)
Tom Bruce: 6,000 first-class career runs
Josh Clarkson: 1,000 first-class career and Stags first-class runs
Central Stags: Highest first-class team total (700/5 declared)
Central Stag: Highest first-class total at Kennards Hire Community Oval (Eden Park Outer Oval)
Bevon Jacobs: maiden first-class century (157)
All images unless otherwise stated: PHOTOSPORT
Lachie Stackpole: first-class half century on debut (87)
Sid Dixit: career best score (64)
SNAPSHOT:
Auckland continued its reputation as century city - but no one before had ever gone as big as Tom Bruce at Eden Park's outer oval. Or at many places, for that matter.
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The Central Stags captain produced a career-defining and almost chanceless 345 in the Stags's highest ever first-class total, 700/5 declared. Bevon Jacobs responded with a maiden first-class ton for the Auckland hosts as they followed on in a match with loads of runs, but no outright points as the Stags got bumped down from third to fourth on the ladder for their trouble.
DAY ONE
Auckland Aces captain Sean Solia won the toss and sent the Stags in. Tom Bruce, his opposing captain, would have done the same, with a hint of early swing about in the morning. It turned out to be a good toss to lose for the Central skipper in a match that will go down in the recordbooks.
The swing soon burnt off as a hot, sticky summer continued into early autumn, the outfield rock-hard and the beguiling, green-toned deck soon flattening out.
Auckland's bowlers were in for a long couple of days in the dirt, but they did get to enjoy the first session with three handy wickets before lunch, the Stags 113/3 but with Bruce on the cusp of a half century.
He'd just been joined by Dane Cleaver who was coming off a lean white-ball season by his own standards, with no half centuries in either The Ford Trophy nor Dream11 Super Smash.
But he'd already produced a first-class century at the start of the summer, and now he found his best touch again as he racked up another.
By tea, the pair had poured on more than 150 runs for the fourth wicket and taken the Stags to 240/3. Bruce had already waved his bat for his first century milestone of the innings, his hundred coming up off 133 balls. He would get used to waving that bat as the sun streamed down.
Cleaver was on 98* when the new ball was taken in the final session, but to no avail for the Aces' attack. He clipped his second ton of the summer off 179 balls, shortly before taking a boundary off Matt Gibson to bring up the Stags' 350.
Cleaver kicked himself when he offered up a return catch to a hard-working Jock McKenzie on 115, but it was a sharp take from McKenzie, moving against the momentum of his follow-through to snatch the opportunity at 367/4.
Cleaver and Bruce had not just broken, but shattered a longstanding Stags record with their fourth-wicket partnership of 292.
The previous record of 276* (unbeaten) had belonged to two former Stags captains, the late great Martin Crowe, and Scott Briasco, for nearly 40 years; now the Stags' senior servants Bruce and Cleaver had combined for the second highest fourth-wicket stand in the long history of the Plunket Shield, that dates back to 1907.
Not all that long ago, Bruce and Curtis Heaphy had combined for the List A Stags fourth-wicket record at this ground as well, Bruce having reached his one-day career best 139 against the Aces here almost a monnth ago to the day.
But he wasn't done. By stumps, he had his third first-class double century - having scored two unbeaten double tons back-to-back in 2021/22, 212 not out with his team riding high at 414/4.
DAY TWO
Big allrounder Josh Clarkson resumed on 23* for the visitors and continued the brisk scoring to reach the third century of the Stags innings.
It was the third instance of three first-class tons in an innings for the Stags, and for number six Clarkson it was a special one, as he went past 150* for the first time.
Having gone to lunch on 97 not out, he reached his century off 176 balls, after stoically making sure he picked his way through the nineties.
Bruce was still there. The trusty Kookaburra blade had gone up, to various degrees, for the 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and now he was on 288 not out, in sight of achieving a rare Plunket Shield triple century.
Clarkson got his hundred, and soon after, Bruce his momentous triple century, early in the second session on a fine Auckland day.
Bruce's triple ton was the first in the Plunket Shield since Devon Conway's 327 not out for the Wellington Firebirds against Canterbury at the Basin in 2019/20, and just the eighth in the history of the long-running national championship.
But still, he wasn't done yet...
Highest first-class scores in NZ men's Domestic cricket:
385 Bert Sutcliffe for Otago, 1952/53
355 Bert Sutcliffe for Otago, 1949/50
345 Tom Bruce for Central Stags, 2024/25
338* Roger Blunt for Otago, 1931/32
334 Dean Brownlie for Northern Districts, 2014/15
327* Devon Conway for Wellington Firebirds, 2019/20
316* Michael Papps for Wellington Firebirds, 2017/18
301* Peter Fulton for Canterbury, 2002/03
On the previous day, Bruce and Cleaver had set an all-wickets record for the highest first-class stand against the Aces, and incredibly it was a record that would last for fewer than 24 hours.
Now it was Bruce and Josh Clarkson breaking fifth-wicket partnership records, going past the previous Stags record of 301 that had been held by Ross Taylor and Jarrod Englefield.
Meanwhile the previous records for the ground were now long gone: they had stood at 252 (Shane Thomson and Bryan Young for ND) and 282 (James Franklin & Luke Woodcock for Wellington).
But then, with the fifth wicket record now standing at 303 and Tom Bruce on 345 after a sublime innings in which he had offered only two half-chances throughout the almost nine-a-half hour knock, the unthinkable happened: he got out.
Spinner Louis Delport had been reduced to giggles at regular intervals throughout the two days as he tried in vain to get a wicket. A feathered half-chance down the leg side to the keeper had proven too difficult for Cam Fletcher, but now Bruce offered a second chance, and this time Fletcher snatched it up.
His 345 had flown off just 401 balls, and as he strode off the park, his opponents sprinted after him from all parts of the field to shake his hand, as his teammates gave him yet another standing ovation from the dugouts.
Only one man had ever scored more runs in a Plunket Shield or New Zealand first-class innings (including Tests), and that was Bert Sutcliffe.
Cricketers tend to be nuffies about the first-class game, and almost all were aware of the statistical magnitude of what they had just seen. Moreover, they knew they had seen an innings of incredible class.
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Bruce, who walked off at 670/5, finally got to put his feet up and watched as Clarkson carried on for a couple of overs with Will Clark, who joked that he had set a record of his own for the longest time padded up.
Clarkson unleashed his big shoulders to slam four sixes in the next two overs, going oast his 150* and blasting the Stags on to reach a total of 700 for the first time, at which point Bruce called them in.
Clarkson finished with 166 not out off 210 balls (15 fours, seven sixes) while Bruce had struck 36 boundaries and six sixes. It had been a good toss to lose.
The Auckland Aces now faced a significant mental challenge as they set about trying to get within cooey of the colossal score.
The odd were stacked against them avoiding the follow on, but conditions remained ripe for good scores, with the focus was on wicket retention - while the Stags knew they would need a big effort to take 20 wickets on a pancake-flat deck.
The Stags made their first strike before tea, the Aces 40/1 with Solia having fallen to Will Clark, having been caught by 12th man Angus Schaw who was on as a regular sub.
Dismissing a batter with a proven ability to bat for long periods was significant, and two more top order wickets fell after the break to pacemen Ray Toole and Brett Randell resoectively.
But when Randell got Sid Dixit at 97/3 - Dane Cleaver cartwheeling to take a good catch behind the stumps; it would be Randell's last for the season. The Aces would resume on the third morning at 143/3, Bevon Jacobs (below) and Jock McKenzie both with starts.
DAY THREE
Sadly this day would be clouded by a significant injury for the Stags.
Diving at full stretch to stop a boundary on the sun-hardened outfield, pace bowler Brett Randell - a standout nationally in the 2024/25 season, landed painfully after his hand jammed in a dent.
He broke his collarbone on impact, and hit and gashed his head as the momentum kept him going, right by the rope. At tea, a concussion substitution for the luckless bowler was approved, and Angus Schaw got his license to bowl from the start of the last session.
By then, the Auckland Aces had at last enjoyed some success of their own. Bevon Jacobs had carried on from his overnight 42* to march past 50 and reach the 90s by lunch.
He'd lost overnight partner McKenzie at 158/4 (caught off Annand) and Cam Fletcher, caught behind by Curtis Heaphy who had moved to the wicketkeeping position from the start of the third day, at 214/5, off Clarkson.
When Randell suffered his mishap, Cleaver (who had a foot injury) would return to the field as a regular fielder, with 12th man Angus Schaw already on the park.
After lunch, the tall Jacobs, dwarfing his bat, reached his maiden century off 163 balls with 15 boundaries and two sixes.
He formed an attractive partnership with 19-year-old debutant Lachie Stackpole who was fresh off having scored his first two List A half centuries down the order in The Ford Trophy Elimination and Grand Finals, on the preceding weekend.
The pair put on a century stand for the sixth wicket, still there at tea, with Jacobs having saluted his own 150* in a big maiden ton.
After the break, with the hosts now 337/5, Schaw (3/42) entered the attack as the official concussion substitute player at an opportune time.
He got both the big wickets in the final session, Jacobs finally departing caught and bowled after his breakthrough 157, just days before he was due to fly out to join the Mumbai Indians for the IPL.
Schaw got Stackpole, too, preventing the impressive youngster from following suit with a maiden ton after he was dislodged on 87 at 401/8. By stumps, the Aces were following on in their second innings, still some 279 runs behind the Stags despite a good first innings collective effort of 421 in just over 131 overs.
By stumps, the Aces had carved a further 13 runs off their deficit, for no loss of wicket.
DAY FOUR
Two wickets before lunch gave the Stags a glimmer of hope as a cooler, fresher morning dawned at the Outer Oval.
But the deck was still doing very little and, after a couple of brief showers dampened down the afternoon, and saw the covers go on twice, and an early tea taken, the match was destined to end in a draw.
It was dissapointment for the Stags who had not only dominated their opponent, but got bumped down from third to fourth on the points table for their trouble - with the Wellington Firebirds and new leader Northern Districts meanwhile pocketing the points for outright wins.
The Aces had shut on shop on the final day and batted stoically to avoid the slightest possibility of an innings defeat. The second innings was called just after tea at 151/3 - first drop Sid Dixit having reached his first Plunket Shield half century, and Bevon Jacobs still going, unbeaten on 32*.
The Aucklanders were still 129 runs shy of making Central bat again in a remarkable match.
Tom Bruce's overall career first-class average now sat at 48.38, and his average for the Stags went up to 51.87. And in matches against Auckland, he was averaging a cheeky 102.28.
