ROUND TWO
Wednesday 26-Saturday 29 November 2025
Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui: Northern Districts v Auckland Aces
- Result: DRAW
- Scorecard
- Points: Auckland Aces 7, Northern Districts 4
Echoes of Ajaz Patel?
Meet Rohit Gulati, the latest late-blooming left-arm spinner to be taking truckloads of Plunket Shield wickets.
After two rounds of the 2025/26 Plunket Shield and just three matches into his first-class career, the left-arm spinner is the country's runaway top wicket-taker, with BLACKCAPS royalty on his growing list of victims.
In the latest round at Bay Oval, the soft spoken giant-killer dismissed Kane Williamson cheaply in both innings, and took 10 wickets in a first-class match for the first time.
Carry on at this rate and he could emulate Patel's Plunket Shield tallies of 40+ wickets in a season - which Patel did it three consecutive seasons from 2015/16 to 2017/18 (when there were 10 rounds, not eight)
The match before this one, Gulati opened the season with a maiden bag that destroyed the Stags to win the first round game in Palmerston North.
Gulati now has 15 wickets at just 16.13 from two games, as well as the best haul so far this season (6/51) - and he’s economical as well.
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It’s a six-wicket lead over spinning brethren Ish Sodhi (Canterbury) and Glenn Phillips (Otago) who both have nine; only then do the pace bowlers start to get a look in.
From Counties, he made his Domestic debut last summer for ND, with a spot of white-ball cricket and a sole first-class match (taking three wickets on overall first-class debut).
Since switching to Auckland and being contracted, there's simply been no stopping him.
Making his Auckland debut at the tender age of 27, Gulati took 5/46 to wrap up the innings victory in Palmerston North over the usually formidable Stags.
Now he’s ripped through an experienced Northern Districts line-up (many his former teammates) with yet another bag.
The top flight 6/51 at Bay Oval came as spinners had a field day, and delivered a second career best in the space of 10 days.
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Gulati had Williamson caught for just 17 in the first innings, changing the expected plot line - with all eyes having been on the BLACKCAPS great, who was aiming for some pertinent match time ahead of the upcoming home Tegel Tests against the West Indies.
Williamson lashed at one at the end of Gulati's first over, scripting a huge moment for the spinner who celebrated, quite appropriately, with some air rock guitar.
It didn't stop there. The ND 'rock' Bharat Popli was caught in the slips soon after, then Henry Cooper — who later scored an unbeaten double ton in the second dig — was bamboozled on 43 at 101/3.
Kristian Clarke made it four when he was caught by a lurking Simon Keene, and Gulati’s bag number two arrived when young Aryan Mann, in just his second match, was stumped for no score by sharp-witted Cam Fletcher at 141/7.
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All this was in response to Auckland's total of 307, so ND was now under a huge amount of pressure to salvage something from their first innings, still well short of the first batting bonus point.
But next batter in, spinner Tim Pringle who was doubtless taking a keen interest in proceedings, also departed to Gulati for no score.
With Gulati’s fellow Aces spinner Adi Ashok taking 3/31 as ND was bowled out for 152 in some 60 overs, it meant that just one wicket in the first innings had not fallen to spin.
For the second consecutive season the Plunket Shield championship has begun a month later than usual, and the traditional early-season wicketfest for pacemen has been replaced by a slew of centuries and a fist full of high-scoring tussles.
This turned out to be one of them; likewise in Dunedin the Otago Volts and Canterbury were putting plenty of runs on the board, but ultimately for no result as both matches played out to last session stalemates.
The only result of the round was at the Basin were the Central Stags conjured up a massive second-wicket partnership to beat the Fiebirds with a special performance.
So in Mount Maunganui, defending champs Northern missed out on valuable points — but they also made sure they didn’t concede those 12 outright points after an epic fourth-day fightback.
Paceman James Naylor made his debut and got his first wicket for ND in the match
PHOTOSPORT
To recap. The Aces had put up 307 after having been sent in, with a serious wag of the tail (Ryan Harrison with a maiden fifty); then rolled Williamson et al for just 152 in reply.
That gave Auckland a 155-run lead that they extended to 509, after declaring their second innings at 345/5 (opener Dale Phillips with the century).
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A steep chase for ND on a turning deck, but captain Jeet Raval and opening colleague Cooper saved the final day with their 272-run opening partnership, effectively ripping the trump cards out of Auckland’s and particularly Gulati’s hands.
PHOTOSPORT
The skipper was unbeaten on 109* by lunch and reached 129, his 23rd first-class century, before becoming one of the few in this match to depart to a pace bowler.
He and Cooper set a new ND first-class first wicket record for ND matches against Auckland; and it also saw the senior statesman Raval become one of the few in the modern New Zealand Domestic game to reach his 10,000th first-class run.
Raval becomes just the 30th New Zealand cricketer to score 10,000 first-class runs in his career.
The elite 10K for Raval
PHOTOSPORT
Cooper wasn’t done. He carried his bat, and his unbeaten 206* spanned a marathon 543 minutes (just over nine hours at the crease).
It was the ninth highest knock by anyone for his team.
Gulati ripped out another four cheap wickets to get his maiden match haul of 10, but time was running out for the Aces and Cooper literally saved the day for Northern as the hosts racked up an unusual record — the highest fourth innings total by any team to draw (not win) a match in New Zealand.
429/6, strewth!
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So, after 1,242 runs scored in the match, and 20 of the 31 wickets falling to spin, Auckland walked away with just seven points and Northern, four.
ND remains in the bottom two, while the Aucklanders could be consoled by retaining their place at the top of the table, by a single point above Otago and with one eye, now, on a tight chasing bunch.
Round Three begins this Thursday in Auckland (Aces v Firebirds), Hamilton (Northern v Otago) and Napier (Stags v Canterbury).
Points after Round Two of Eight
27 Auckland Aces
26 Otago
24 Canterbury
20 Central Stags
9 Northern Districts
9 Wellington Firebirds
All live and completed scorecards
All images: www.Photosport.nz or MBUTCHER
