ROUND ONE | DAY FOUR
Friday 21 November 2025
- Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington
- Scorecard
Points at end of match: Otago 20, Wellington Firebirds 4
Otago can deservedly revel in their first victory of the 2025/26 season after beating the Wellington Firebirds by seven wickets at the Cello Basin Reserve this morning, with more than two sessions to spare.
It was their first Plunket Shield win against the Firebirds since March 2022, and their first at the Basin since November 2020, set up by a trio of top order centuries on day one after having been sent in.
The team had entered this first round Plunket Shield away clash off the back of four losses and a washout in their one-day Ford Trophy campaign, but walk away with the full 20 points and heads held high in the first-class format — joining the Auckland Aces at the (interim) head of the table.
After captain Luke Georgeson had declared Otago’s first innings at a hefty 522/9, the team bowled out the Wellington Firebirds twice: for 224 in 57.1 overs; and 393 in 94 overs after enforcing the follow on.
A knock of 150 from seasoned Wellington run machine Nick Kelly and Jesse Tashkoff’s late order 97 off 99 balls — the 25-year-old narrowly missing out on a second first-class century — stood defiantly between Otago and an innings victory.
Even so, Otago was left requiring just 96 for victory which they ticked off this morning, for the loss of three second innings wickets.
Of the first innings centurions, opener Jacob Cumming finished with an unbeaten 42* while Jack Boyle (shouldering arms on 10) and Tom Jones (a two-ball duck) both fell to seamer James Hartshorn early on the last day.
NZC statistician Francis Payne reports that Jones's dismissal was just the second instance of a debutant scoring a century and a duck in his first Plunket Shield match, joining the late cricket and rugby Test rep Eric Tindall OBE who did so in the 1932/33 season.
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But with just some 60 runs still required at that point, it was no cause for panic, and Glenn Phillips eventually tonked the winning six in just the 22nd over of the chase.
Yesterday, Kelly’s brazen century was the second time the former Otago left-hander had reached 150 in his Firebirds first-class career, while his Plunket Shield career best remains his unbeaten 234* for Otago against the Central Stags in 2021/22.
He shared a 187-run stand for the seventh wicket with Tashkoff that ended when the latter was trapped by spinner Ben Lockrose at 332/6.
Otago keeper Max Chu claimed five catches in the innings, one shy of his own Plunket Shield best and contributing to three-fors for paceman Matt Bacon (3/53) and Phillips (3/60) with his off-spinners as BLACKCAP Phillips eased through his first match back from injury.
Chu already had two catches and a stumping from the first innings for his best haul in a match, just two shy of the Otago keeping record for most dismissals in a game.
It was a team effort from Otago, Danru Ferns (4/44) and Jarrod McKay (3/37) having done the key damage to Wellington’s first innings, in which Phillips also picked up a brace.
Like the Auckland Aces, Otago took only one win from last season’s Plunket Shield championship and finished in the bottom two.
Both sides are now already on course for a better season, Otago heading into their first home round next week, against Canterbury at Dunedin’s University of Otago Oval from Wednesday.
The Auckland Aces will be travelling to Mount Maunganui to play defending champion Northern Districts while it’s the Central Stags’ turn at the Basin to face the Firebirds, both those sides yet to get a win.
Plunket Shield points after Round One
- Auckland Aces 20
- Otago 20
- Canterbury 17
- Northern Districts 5
- Central Stags 4
- Wellington Firebirds 4
All live and completed scorecards
All images: www.Photosport.nz
