ROUND THREE
Friday 5-Monday 8 December 2025
From 10.30am:
- Seddon Park, Hamilton - Northern Districts v Otago
- Kennards Hire Community Oval - Auckland Aces v Wellington Firebirds
- McLean Park, Napier - Central Stags v Canterbury
All the squads have been named for the third round of New Zealand's 2025/26 first-class championship, starting this Friday.
There's a codaçil to Canterbury's line-up of course, with wicketkeeper Mitch Hay now set to join the BLACKCAPS' Test squad after the first two days of this round, to replace Test keeper Tom Blundell who has injured himself against the West Indies in the current first Tegel Test.
Jesse Frew will come in for Hay in the Canterbury squad, after the first two days of the match against the Stags in Napier.
The Stags meanwhile have a fresh skipper for this round, with regular captain Tom Bruce now absent for the rest of the month as he plays in a T20 league on the other side of the world.
PHOTOSPORT
Dane Cleaver previously stood in to captain Central's first-class squad in 2022 at the same venue, McLean Park, after then-captain Greg Hay - who is now the team's coach, broke his thumb during an unexpected recall to the team's T20 side that season.
Cleaver didn't play in the previous round in the current summer - a round in which the Stags were the only team to get an outright win, by eight wickets against the Wellington Firebirds at the Basin - as his wife has recently had their third child.
Now he's back behind the sticks and fizzed for what's shaping to be a hotly contested title this summer.
Only seven points separate the top four sides at the moment - the Stags and their opponent, Canterbury are two of them. Cleaver says that tight table is exciting.
"It's pretty cool to see such a condensed table, and it's pretty cool to see Otago up there," he says.
"If I look around the grounds, it's exciting to see lots of new talent coming through and some pretty evenly matched teams. It's going to be a good rest-of-the-summer, I think."
He was watching on vicariously via the livestream as the Stags pulled off a memorable fourth day chase at the Basin last week to get their first red-ball win of the season.
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Brad Schmulian (167 not out) and Curtis Heaphy (132) put in a massive shift with a 292-run second wicket stand as the Stags successfully chased down 361 runs on the fourth day.
They were in that position after captain Bruce had declared their first innings 236 runs in arrears, after rain the Firebirds had put 354/9 declared on the scoreboard in 87.3 overs for their first dig.
But rain had also eaten up much of the first two days, so the Stags tactically declaring in arrears effectively forced the Firebirds to set them a fourth day target, and open the door to a result for one or the other team.
It's all about those 12 outright points, at the end of the day Cleaver says that with only eight rounds these days instead of 10, every opportunity must be taken.
"The nature of the condensed Plunket Shield with the eight rounds is that you need to play to win, and play a positive brand and we try and do that.
"I think over the years with the Stags captains we've had, Haysie, Youngy and Brucey, we obviously look to put ourselves in positions to win games and that's always the question we're asking ourselves - how can we win the game from here?
"So it wasn't a surprise to me to see that declaration, and I think that other teams are in the same boat - they're all playing to win, too. Playing hard cricket, but if there's an ability to set up the game, the outright, then potentially looking to do that. I think it promotes good positive cricket, and promotes the best performances like Curtis's and Schmoo's partnership the other day."
The Stags are hoping to have more to celebrate in the coming days with premier spinner Ajaz Patel close to ticking off 400 first-class career wickets - just three more victims now required. Of those, 282 wickets have been for Central.
"I think it's a pretty remarkable achievement, and I've been fortunate enough to play with Jazzy and be behind the stumps for the majority of that career, other than when he has played for the BLACKCAPS.
"He's a special player, a special bowler who through the years has always worked super hard on his game, and is one of those bowlers who have been able to be successful in New Zealand and then, in the last few years, overseas for New Zealand which has been pretty cool to see.
"We don't all play for records but it's pretty special when these sort of milestones do come up. So yeah, I'll be doing my best behind the stumps to get him there, and to celebrate well for him."
Play is scheduled to begin at 10.30am in all three matches in Auckland, Napier and Hamilton, and is free admission every day with livestreams at NZC YouTube and on our nzc.nz livescoring platform.
Plunket Shield points after Round Two of Eight
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- Auckland Aces 27
- Otago 26
- Canterbury 24
- Central Stags 20
- Northern Districts 9
- Wellington Firebirds 9
Scroll down for all the team news from the six Domestic Major Associations.
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