ROUND THREE
Friday 5-Monday 8 December 2025
- McLean Park, Napier: Central Stags beat Canterbury by 295 runs
All live and completed scorecards
The Central Stags' Plunket Shield match in Napier delivered major career milestones for both their most celebrated spinner and their wicketkeeping captain as Canterbury stumbled twice.
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On day two, Canterbury lost seven wickets in a session. On day three, they lost six in a session in a case of ditto day horrors for the visitors.
Heading into Monday's final day, just two wickets stood between the Stags and a key outright win over their great rivals, with keeper and captain Dane Cleaver sitting on nine catches behind the sticks for the game.
Milestones aplenty | PHOTOSPORT
Cleaver had chalked up his 300th first-class dismissal during Canterbury's first innings, gloving six catches as Canterbury perished for just 124 on a sweltering Hawke's Bay weekend.
Having captained one first-class match previously - at the same ground, in 2022 when then-skipper Greg Hay had an injury, Cleaver had this time taken over the leadership of the Stags in the absence of Tom Bruce. He had elected to bat first after winning the toss on a sunny day one.
Not much went to plan for Canterbury in this one, and that started before they even got to the ground.
Cancelled and rerouted flights had seen them eventually bus the leg from Wellington to Napier, arriving at 8.30pm the evening before the match. Sore bodies were then immediately sent into the field the next morning.
It was a disruptive few days in which they would also lose both keeper-batter Mitch Hay and their big strike bowler, Michael Rae (above), to the BLACKCAPS' injury-hit Test squad, the pair whisked away mid-match after the first innings had been completed.
Hay's call-up was inked in pre-match, but Rae's came after the match had started, with original 12th man Fraser Sheat and replacement keeper Jesse Frew stepping into the XI for the second innings, and coach Peter Fulton suiting up in whites to run the drinks.
Canterbury coach Peter Fulton runs the drinks | MBUTCHER
By stumps on Sunday, day three, Canterbury's troubles were in black and white on the board as they found themselves eight down in their second innings with only 127 runs ticked off in a big chase.
At 319 runs in arrears, they managed force the match into a fourth morning after the Stags had taken the extra half hour the previous evening, but in blisteringly hot weather, there was no rain to save them, and the bruising result was just a matter of time.
Meanwhile for the Stags, almost everything went right, although Cleaver's men will have been disappointed to have put just 239 on the board in their own first innings in the conditions.
But it proved ample.
Form batter Curtis Heaphy | PHOTOSPORT
The first dig featured yet another first-class century from young gun Curtis Heaphy who has now scored hundreds in each of his last three first-class matches, including his New Zealand A ton in South Africa.
His partner in crime from the previous Plunket Shield match in Wellington, Brad Schmulian, helped him put on 61 with a knock of 39.
Schmulian himself would narrowly miss out on a century in a second consecutive match when he was dismissed for 93 after top-scoring in the second innings.
Although the rest of the home line-up had fallen away miserably (Rae with 3/65) in the first innings, the Stags would still go on to take a first-innings lead of 115.
Fraser Sheat | MBUTCHER
Canterbury lost their first wicket before stumps on the first day, but the wrecking ball swung wildly early on day two as the excitement of uncapped Rae's call-up to the injury-hit Test squad became tempered by the dramatic loss of seven wickets in a session.
The collapse was sparked by a calamitous runout as Henry Nicholls and nightwatchman Angus McKenzie couldn't work out who was running where. Jayden Lennox rocketed in the ball in a game-changing moment and captain Nicholls - coming off a century in each innings in the previous match - was on his way for just two, no doubt kicking himself.
Josh Clarkson | MBUTCHER
Canterbury's middle order seemed to get flustered then as they lost Cole McConchie, Matt Boyle and Hay in swift succession, the dressing room door flapping as Josh Clarkson continued to amplify his all-round status.
The big seamer claimed his new first-class best of 4/33 as he finished off Canterbury in just the 50th over, after the red and blacks had gone to lunch smarting at 85/8.
Central's second innings was peppered with contributions across the order, a player stepping up whenever the team needed to regain some momentum, albeit still not quite the emphatic foot-on-the-throat statement they would have sought.
Taylor Bettelheim | MBUTCHER
Rookie Taylor Bettelheim scored his second half century at the top in just his second match, and formed a 97-run stand with Schmulian after Heaphy, for once, missed out.
Kyle Jamieson got both Heaphy and Dean Foxcroft early as he thundered the ball into their pads, and he had a third when Cleaver nicked off early.
But the Stags dusted themselves off, Will Clark belting a breezy 70 at eight to help the hosts get an overall lead of 445 before Ish Sodhi took the last wicket to have the Stags all out for 330.
Will Clark | MBUTCHER
On a good day, on a good pitch (albeit with some tantalising footmarks developing for the spinners) and with plenty of time left in the match, that wasn't a wholly impossible task for a talent-stacked Canterbury line-up.
But as we mentioned, not much went to plan for the visitors in this encounter.
Having been 41/2 at tea on the penultimate day - that included Ajaz Patel's 400th first-class wicket as Chad Bowes departed in his 100th first-class match, the six wickets that tumbled in the last session blew away any chance of a face-saving fightback, or at least frustrating their opponents in the field for the last day.
Patel's elite milestone wicket was a special moment for the Central team and the spinner himself who celebrated with a Blair Tickner-style leap into the air.
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He finished the day with 3/26, still a chance of a bag as well, while pace openers Clarkson and Ray Toole had each pocketed a brace. He opened the attack the next morning alongside Toole, and Cleaver cycled through fellow spinners Lennox and Dean Foxcroft as the last Canterbury batters stubbornly defended.
After an hour, Sheat was eventually undone on 20 by Lennox.
Heading into this match, both of these teams had been a chance of overhauling early leader the Auckland Aces, and Canterbury (in third spot, heading in) had been four points ahead of the Stags in a fairly tightly group top four with Otago.
Up in Auckland, the Aces looked to have a chance of retaining their lead against the Firebirds but in Napier, the Stags gained valuable ground by clawing their way up into interim top spot, pending the result between Northern and Otago in Hamilton also.
It was all over by lunchtime, as they say, when Frew was eventually caught for Canterbury's top score of 30 off part-time legspinner Scmhulian.
One more round of Plunket Shield action is left before Christmas and the start of the Super Smash window, with the Stags headed to Dunedin for another tasty clash against Otago, and Canterbury set to host the Aces at Hagley in another key encounter.
All live and completed scorecards
