At 10.30am tomorrow, play resumes in the Plunket Shield championship, with the first fixture of the 2022 calendar year.
After lockdowns delayed Auckland and ND's start to the Plunket Shield season, a busy two months of catch-up cricket awaits with the two sides set to meet each other at Auckland's home ground of Kennards Hire Community Oval, while the other four men's teams around the country continue to play white-ball Ford Trophy against each other, in Dunedin and Wellington, across the Waitangi long weekend.
After the completion of the pre-Christmas phase of the first-class championship, defending champions Canterbury had a good lead with 56 points after four rounds.
With the points table now ranked by average points per game post lockdowns, ND sits in second spot despite just having played two rounds for a win and a loss, on 22 points.
The Central Stags have 39 points, the Otago Volts 31, and Wellington Firebirds 28, all from four matches; while for the Aces, tomorrow's match is in fact their first four-dayer of the season - remarkably so in February, almost three and a half months after the season began.
Batsmen and spinners will no doubt be licking their lips at the prospect of playing in drier conditions than the traditional pre-Christmas seaming decks, with an intriguing back half of the championship guaranteed.
BLACKCAP Kyle Jamieson has been named in the Aces' squad alongside Marty Guptill, Will Somerville, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman and uncapped teen leggie Adithya Ashok, who has already made his debuts in the other two formats this season.
George Worker will be in line for his first Aces appearance in the red-ball format, having previously won the Shield with both the Stags and Canterbury.
Fresh off their Dream11 Super Smash championship win, ND likewise has named a strong squad, including BLACKCAPS Neil Wagner, Tim Southee, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi and Colin de Grandhomme.
PLUNKET SHIELD
From 10.30am, Friday 4 to Monday 7 February 2022
Kennard Hire Community Oval * note: this match is being played behind closed gates
Auckland Aces v Northern Districts
ACES
Robert O’Donnell (captain)
Adithya Ashok (potential first-class debut)
Mark Chapman
Martin Guptill
Ben Horne (wicketkeeper)
Kyle Jamieson
Ben Lister
Glenn Phillips
Sean Solia
Will Somerville
Ross ter Braak
George Worker
NORTHERN DISTRICTS
Joe Carter (captain)
Bharat Popli
Brett Randell
Colin de Grandhomme
Henry Cooper
Ish Sodhi
Jeet Raval
Joe Walker
Mitch Santner
Neil Wagner
Scott Kuggeleijn
Tim Seifert (wicketkeeper)
Tim Southee
PLUNKET SHIELD - full schedule
FORD TROPHY - full schedule
Matches are livestreamed and live-scored by NZC at www.nzc.nz and on the NZC app
