Another week, a different team at the top of the Plunket Shield championship table and now there's just 12 points separating the top five teams, with two rounds and up to 40 points per team to go.
After six action-packed days, including a first-class world record, the Plunket Shield’s dramatic sixth round was completed this afternoon with Canterbury’s win in Wellington.
The victory saw Canterbury join the Central Stags (an innings win over former leader Northern Districts on Tuesday in Napier) and Otago (a nine-wicket away over the Auckland Aces yesterday) as the big movers at the acid end of the championship.
Defeat at the Cello Basin Reserve sees the Firebirds become the first team to drop out of contention for the national title but the remaining 5 teams face an exciting and tight battle to become champion with just two rounds & up to 40 points per team left in the Plunket Shield’s 100th edition.
Tom Latham’s unbeaten century - 101 not out, his first Plunket Shield century this season off the back off twin hundreds in The Ford Trophy and three for the BLACKCAPS in Tests against the West Indies, led a strong second innings reply from Canterbury with the bat.
It allowed captain Henry Nicholls to declare with a 425-run overall lead and the Wellington Firebirds quickly collapsed in response, going on to be beaten by 201 runs despite a late order fightback from BLACKCAPS Nathan Smith (42) and Tom Blundell who was left stranded on 98*.
The crucial penultimate round begins Wednesday next week in Rangiora (Canterbury versus Stags), Dunedin (Otago versus Northern Districts) and Wellington (Wellington Firebirds versus Auckland Aces), Canterbury keen to stay on top of the volatile leaderboard before the big last round the following week.
Entry is free admission at each venue with free livestreams at NZC YouTube and livescoring at www.nzc.nz and on the NZC app.
After six rounds
Points at a glance (number of wins)
72 Canterbury (3)
69 Northern Districts (3)
65 Central Stags (3)
65 Otago (2)
60 Auckland Aces (2)
31 Wellington Firebirds (0)
