Stags roar after Will Young century

Posted Friday, 20 February, 2026 in Domestic News

A dominant all-round performance from the Central Stags has booked them into Sunday’s Ford Trophy Grand Final against defending champion Canterbury.

The Stags’ one-sided 211-run victory over the Wellington Firebirds in today’s Elimination Final sets up a rematch of the 2023 Grand Final (the Stags having won the title on that occasion at Napier’s McLean Park, after an unbeaten Josh Clarkson century) and was Central’s third biggest all-time victory, by margin of runs.

Firebirds captain Nick Kelly sent in the Stags this morning at a fine Cello Basin Reserve.

All images: PHOTOSPORT

After a good start for the Firebirds, the Stags having lost both openers early in a slow start, Will Young’s sixth List A century for Central (105 off 103 balls, his 13th one-day century overall) in a run-a-ball, 165-run third-wicket stand with Dean Foxcroft (89) saw Central gain control over the innings.

After Foxcroft departed in the 36th over, Dane Cleaver turbo-boosted the run rate some more with a fearless 75 off 40 balls, including four sixes.

Michael Snedden got the prize wicket of Young at 260/4, but that only exposed the Firebirds to a double-barrelled assault from Cleaver and Josh Clarkson (47 not out off 19) at the death, the pair taking four sixes off James Hartshorn’s 48th over alone.

So from unlikely beginnings, the Stags reached their record Ford Trophy total in matches against the Firebirds team specifically, 349/5 beating their previous best in games between these two teams in 2016 (324).

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A chase of 350 left the Firebirds needing to hunt down the second highest total of the competition this summer, but the Stags proved themselves just as potent in the field, dismissing the Firebirds’ top three for single figures inside the first five overs of the chase.

It was an uphill struggle from there for the locals for whom allrounder Nathan Smith’s 30 was the top score in response, with Peter Younghusband left unbeaten on 28*.

Smith was undone by a deadly direct hit from Brad Schmulian off Ray Toole’s bowling at 105/8 in the 26th over as the Stags attack showed they could carry the load without injured stars Blair Tickner (ankle) and Ajaz Patel (calf) at the business end of their campaign.

Brett Randell (3/30) picked up his 50th Stags List A wicket to take himself to 99 career List A wickets (all teams) overall as his team gets ready for another Grand Final at the Cello Basin Reserve - having beaten the same opponents, the Canterbury Kings, here last summer in the men’s Super Smash title bout.

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The free admission 2025/26 Ford Trophy Grand Final begins at 10.30am on Sunday at the Cello Basin Reserve.

Attention now switches to tomorrow’s Hallyburton Johnstone Shield national Final at the same ground, between top qualifier Northern Districts and Wellington Blaze, with Northern’s women seeking their first ever Domestic title from 10.30am and the Blaze out to achieve a title double this season across the two white-ball formats.

Both one-day national Finals feature a multi-camera free livestream with commentary at NZC YouTube and livescoring at www.nzc.nz and on the NZC app.