ROUND 9 of 10
CENTRAL STAGS lost to OTAGO VOLTS by five wickets
- bonus point win -
18 February 2025
McLean Park, Napier
Points: Central Stags 0, Otago Volts 5
All images: PHOTOSPORT
SELECTED MILESTONES
- Dean Foxcroft: 50th List A game
- Toby Findlay: maiden List A wicket (Jamal Todd)
Needing just one more win to seal a spot in the Finals, the Central Stags stumbled in Napier against a team fighting for survival.
The Otago Volts not only won with a bonus point, but threatened to rout the high-flying Stags for one of their lowest one-day totals, but opener Brad Schmulian was having none of it.
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Sent in on a fine Hawke's Bay morning, the Stags were coming off three strong and essential wins since the one-day championship had resumed, fighting their way up into the top three.
The visiting Volts had meanwhile been through the wringer in a run of thrillers, before getting that winning feeling back in the previous round in a high-scoring battle in Wellington.
Now they took the ball and blasted through five wickets in the space of just nine overs to shock Central at 31/5.
Matt Bacon, looking back to his best, and Andrew Hazeldine were on fire, Hazeldine getting the big wicket of Tom Bruce trapped for a golden duck as he struck twice in the fouth over.
Coming back for Curtis Heaphy next over, he would go to lunch with 3/31 off his 10, as well as two catches.
After that hiss and roar, the Stags' mercurial opener Brad Schmulian was still standing, and looking for someone to bat with.
The Stags were still some 20 runs shy of going past their lowest ever one-day total, with just five wickets in hand so early in the game, the middle order shattered.
Allrounder Will Clark managed to stick around for 45 minutes but runs were hard to come by, with a flat-lining run rate.
On 13, he tried to loft Jarrod Mckay (2/34) only to be caught at 59/6 in the 18th.
Schmulian was still there.
Brett Randell offered him support for the next 25 minutes, but the only partnership of note was for the eighth wicket, after Schmulian was joined by captain Jayden Lennox.
Together they put on 57 to give the hosts some sort of score on the board.
Lennox hit six boundaries en route to his much needed 34, helping the resourceful Schmulian to reach his 50, off 81 balls, before Lennox became Dean Foxcroft's first of two victims.
Ex-Stag Foxcroft was marking his 50th List A appearance against his old mates and what a way to celebrate it. The Volts had Central under their thumbs, even despite Schmulian's threats to carry his bat.
He almost succeeded. With Ray Toole now for company, he helped get the Stags past what had at one stage seemed an unlikely score of 150.
Schmulian was the last man to fall, on 78, after Bacon wrapped up the innings in the 46th over. The hosts had made it to 162.
However, once the Volts' top order got going with a 77-run opening stand, they had no chance.
Dale Phillips top-scored with a run-a-ball 58, and was only stopped by Jack Boyle knocking down his stumps with one stick to aim at.
The Stags got themselves into the game with the ball too late.
Young Toby Findlay bowled well in just his second game, finding swing and picking up his maiden wicket, after having watched a sitter dropped in the previous match.
Toole got a brace, and Josh Clarkson flummoxed Foxcroft on eight.
But the Volts were always in charge, and cruised to a bonus-point win in the 30th over: a landslide.
It not only kept them alive with one spot now left available in The Ford Trophy Finals coming up in their home region, but put the Stags on notice to win their last game - coming up on Sunday in New Plymouth, against another team dining at the last-chance saloon, the Wellington Firebirds - or, face the exit door themselves.
