Shayne O'Connor presents the Plunket Shield to Northern skipper Jeet Raval | PHOTOSPORT

Veterans, rookies excel in Plunket Shield

Posted Sunday, 6 April, 2025 in Domestic News

It was a Plunket Shield season to remember - with a storybook finish and exceptional statistical performances, and breakout seasons that pushed some new faces into the spotlight.

Let's recap some of the big moments as we look back on 2024/25.

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We are the champions

Northern Districts had been trying for a dozen summers to recapture the storied Plunket Shield. In that time, the Major Association had looked on like a proud parent as some of the greatest talents to come out of the huge region - the likes of BJ Watling, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Kane Williamson - had starred for the BLACKCAPS, frontline international players.

But the Catch-22 was that those players were seldom available to put on the maroon-striped jersey. Others, like Daryl Mitchell and Ish Sodhi, made their name for the team before moving to other Associations, while Jeet Raval, Colin de Grandhomme and Neil Wagner moved into ND.

Northern was one of the frontrunners for the title last season (2023/24) which boiled down to a head-to-head battle in the last round, in a weather-interrupted match at home in Hamilton with the other contender, the Wellington Firebirds.

The Firebirds lifted the Shield, ND's drought continued. Only the Otago Volts had gone longer without the national first-class title. With a consistent top-three finish over the last four seasons, Northern Districts was in the race, in the mixer - but just couldn't seem to get over the line:

  • 2023/24 Runner-up
  • 2022/23 Third
  • 2021/22 Third
  • 2020/21 Runner-up
  • 2019/20 Sixth
  • 2018/19 Fourth
  • 2017/18 Fourth
  • 2016/17 Runner-up
  • 2015/16 Fourth
  • 2014/15 Fourth
  • 2013/14 Sixth
  • 2012/13 Third

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Players like Brett Hampton, Henry Cooper, Joe Carter, Bharat Popli had been shiny-faced youngsters with the team when they had first been trying to win the Plunket Shield; now they were the senior players still trying to achieve the dream.

And BLACKCAP Neil Wagner, after having moved from Otago to Northern in 2018, had been trying fruitlessly for 17 years.

It had been so long that two of the regular players from the last time Northern lifted the Shield, in 2011/12, were now the Head and Assistant Coaches, BJ Watling and Daniel Flynn. Daniel Vettori and the Marshall twins had still been playing that season.

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So it was special times when Raval's men got that last wicket at a gloomy-skied University of Otago Oval on the last day of the season to lock in the title. Last season's champion, the Firebirds, were instantly relegated to runner-up in the process.

Re-live the match and its emotional farewell for Wagner here.

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We are the champions II

Northern's triumph meant the 2024/25 NZC Domestic summer ended with the five major trophies housed in five different Major Associations:

  • Plunket Shield - Northern Districts (Northern Districts Cricket Association)
  • The Ford Trophy - Canterbury (Canterbury Cricket Association)
  • Men's Dream11 Super Smash - Central Stags (Central Districts Cricket)
  • Women's Dream11 Super Smash - Wellington Blaze (Cricket Wellington)
  • Hallyburton Johnstone Shield - Otago Sparks (Otago Cricket Association)

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Spin it to win it

A long, warm and fairly dry summer saw many pitches around the country, particularly north of Christchurch, quickly flatten out. Drought was declared in a large swathe of the North Island.

Some decks, like Fitzherbert Park in the final round of the Plunket Shield, offered the spinners genuine encouragement; others turned into runfests, notably at Kennards Hire Community Oval in Auckland where hosts the Auckland Aces came away with three drawn matches and one loss (to the Firebirds).

One of the most interesting features of Northern's successful campaign was skipper Jeet Raval's brainwave that helped to solve Northern's spin-bowling crisis.

Northern had lost the services of their senior spinner, 32-year-old Joe Walker, after a wrist injury and surgery affected his ability to continue playing the game at this level. His last appearance turned out to be the showdown with Wellington in March 2024.

Meanwhile, their impressive, tall young offie Tim Pringle - already a Netherlands white-ball star - was already out for the entire season with his own rehab from injury.

Walker's younger brother Freddy Walker was selected for just three red-ball matches in the season while fresh face Rohit Gulati was brought in for one match on debut and carried the drinks in others.

Raval had a full stable of pace options but in the slow-bowling department, he increasingly had to turn to "part-timers" in Henry Cooper and himself. Raval was the leg-spinner out of that pair and until this season, had bowled very occasionally, with those occasions having become fewer as his career went on.

His best had been a quick 2/10 way back in 2009/10, and in the last 10 years he had never taken more than one wicket in a season. So it was a real turn-up for the books when Raval took his maiden five-wicket bag, 5/43 in a career best analysis of eight for the match, in a draw in Auckland.

He made use of the footmarks from the likes of Scott Kuggeleijn, and in Dunedin - where he made crucial breakthroughs on a cracked surface - from Neil Wagner and opponent Matt Bacon, as well. Raval ended up with 14 wickets at 11.14 for the season, his side's top spinner.

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Going big

It was a season for rare records - and near misses. Some of the standouts to go down in the books this season included:

  • Central Stags captain Tom Bruce producing the highest Plunket Shield knock since Bert Sutcliffe in the early 1950s. Bruce's 345 becomes the third highest first-class score in New Zealand history, and was the first Central Stags triple century, breaking Peter Ingram's Central record.

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  • Bruce was involved in consecutive record Stags partnerships for the fourth (292 with Dane Cleaver) and fifth (303 with Josh Clarkson) wickets, respectively.
  • And the Stags' 700/5 declared in that match in Auckland was the Stags' highest first-class total, as well as a new Outer Oval record. It was the fifth highest all time total in NZ first-class cricket. Unfortunately for Central, the match finished in a draw and two subsequent losses cost them a chance to be a genuine contender this season.

  • Scott Kuggeleijn stamped his mark as a genuine allrounder once more by cracking the fastest known 50 (by balls) in Plunket Shield history, whacking his half ton off just 19 balls in the final round in Dunedin. That beat the 20-ball mark set by Andre Adams. The record is constructed from matches where the number of balls is recorded, which was not the case in early decades of the game.
  • Henry Nicholls made one of the great rearguard innings for Canterbury, batting for nine hours as he tried to get Canterbury to an unlikely victory against the Wellington Firebirds at Mainpower Oval. Canterbury had been rolled for just 68 in their first innings and the Firebirds had a huge overall lead as Canterbury went in to bat for the last innings of the match. Nicholls scored 171 not out in Canterbury's fouth innings total of 483, just a further 20 runs would have seen Canterbury break the NZ record for the highest successful chase which still stands at 475/4.
  • Jeet Raval began the season with a hiss and a roar and a shot at achieving the elite 10,000 first-class runs milestone. He finished the summer on 9,959 runs with the 36-year-old set to return next season, when just 41 runs will see him reach the milestone. Raval also needs to be involved in just one more century partnership to equal the New Zealand record of 51 held by Michael Papps.
  • The Plunket Shield began later than usual (with the front half of The Ford Trophy having opened the 2024/25 Domestic season) and in theory that should have evened up the contest between bat and ball in the first four rounds, when green conditions have often starred. Raval's century in the fourth round at Bay Oval was an epic, spanning 396 balls in nine hours and 49 minutes - he had been just seven minutes away from breaking the record for the slowest first-class hundred of all time, as he fought to get his side back in the game against the Stags.

  • He would have to settle for having surpassed the mark for the slowest Plunket Shield half century, having reached his first half ton in 315 minutes.

  • Meanwhile in the same round, Luke Georgeson's maiden first-class century was a noteworthy one on another front, as the highest first-class score - 159 not out - ever recorded batting at seven or below for the Otago Volts. Georgeson and Max Chu equalled the 95-year-old New Zealand seventh wicket partnership in the process (set in 1930), but Canterbury won the game in Rangiora by five wickets.

  • Mark Chapman was in great touch across all formats this summer and fell agonisingly short of an Auckland Aces record after being dismissed for 276 against Canterbury in Auckland, his 325-ball knock becoming the third-highest score in first-class cricket for Auckland, behind Bill Carson (290 against Otago in 1936/37) and Colin Munro (281 against Central in 2014/15).

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More batting notes

  • Central Stags allrounder Will Clark joined the elite club of cricketers to have scored their maiden first-class century and taken their maiden bag in the same game, v Northern at Bay Oval in the fourth round.
  • Sean Solia meanwhile became just the fifth Aucklander to carry his bat through an Aces innings, with his unbeaten 170* against the Firebirds.
  • Rhys Mariu got his maiden BLACKCAPS call-up this season after impressing for Canterbury and, in Hawke Cup cricket previously, Canterbury Country. In his first 10 first-class matches overall, the right-hander scored 1,122 runs at a 70.12 average – including four centuries and four fifties.

  • In the early half of the Plunket Shield he was the leading runscorer with 433 runs from just two matches at a jaw-dropping 216.00 average. His 240 against the Central Stags at Saxton Oval became the fifth highest first-class score in Canterbury's history, as well as a new Saxton Oval record, and he went on to score tons in consecutive matches.

Photo: MBUTCHER

  • Brett Hampton's maiden 121 against Otago was meanwhile one of ND's fastest ever first-class hundreds, off just 73 balls in 106 minutes
  • Firebird Nick Kelly scored a century in each innings in Dunedin, the first to achieve the feat in the Plunket Shield since 2021 and just the seventh player to do it for Wellington. He finished as the top runscorer overall for the season, just two runs ahead of Mariu.

2024/25 Plunket Shield leading run-scorers:

  • Nick Kelly (Wellington Firebirds) 749 runs at 57.62; high score 161; 4x100 1x50
  • Rhys Mariu (Canterbury) 747 runs at 74.70; high score 240; 2x100 3x50
  • Dane Cleaver (Central Stags, keeper-batter) 736 runs at 92.00; high score 151*; 2x100 5x50
  • Jeet Raval (Northern Districts) 672 runs at 48.00; high score 120*; 2x100 3x50
  • Thorn Parkes (Otago Volts) 541 runs at 38.64; high score 97*; 0x100 5x50
  • Will O’Donnell (Auckland Aces) 514 runs at 34.27; high score 71; 0x100 5x50
  • Tom Bruce (Central Stags) 498 runs at 45.27; high score 345; 1x100 0x50
  • Bharat Popli (Northern Districts) 483 runs at 37.15; high score 125; 1x100 3x50
  • Bevon Jacobs (Auckland Aces) 476 runs at 59.50; high score 157; 1x100 3x50
  • Henry Nicholls (Canterbury) 464 runs at 116.00; high score 171*; 2x100 3x50

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Bowled over

    • Neil Wagner finished his first-class career with 849 wickets overall, placing him a stellar fifth on the all-time NZ first-class list, behind only Sir Richard Hadlee (1,490), Clarrie Grimmett (1,424), Syd Smith (955) and Jeetan Patel (849 wickets).
    • The fourth round of the Plunket Shield was a busy one for statisticians: Wellington's veteran Peter Younghusband took 10 in a match for the first time, finishing with 8/127 and 2/48 for 8/127 overall versus the Aces.
    • Flourishing under the tutelage of a Head Coach with bowling acumen of his own, former Australia rep Ash Noffke, Otago's Jarrod McKay had his best season yet with 26 wickets. His best previous season tally was 13, three seasons prior.
    • Stags paceman Blair Tickner played just four matches in the first-class season which perhaps saw his exceptional returns, often on 'batters' decks' fly under the radar. In the final round, he celebrated his return from a bicep injury with his sixth first-class bag, finishing the season with 21 wickets from the four appearances at a searing average of 16.10, as well as his best match analysis of 8/48.

Photo: MBUTCHER

Leading wicket-takers

  • Logan van Beek (Wellington Firebirds, pace allrounder): 36 @20.64, best 5/53; 2xbags
  • Liam Dudding (Wellington Firebirds): 29 @23.90, best 4/19
  • Michael Rae (Canterbury): 28 @33.43, best 6/31; 1xbag
  • Scott Kuggeleijn (Northern Districts, pace allrounder): 27 @21.15, best 5/43, 2xbags
  • Peter Younghusband (Wellington Firebirds, spinner): 27 @29.89, best 8/127, 1xbag, 1x10wm
  • Jarrod McKay (Otago Volts): 26 @35.77, best 4/84
  • Neil Wagner (Otago Volts): 24 @26.13, best 5/53, 1xbag
  • Jayden Lennox (Central Stags, spinner): 24 @23.38, best 5/66, 1xbag
  • Brett Hampton (Northern Districts, pace allrounder) 23 @24.48, best 4/46
  • Angus McKenzie (Canterbury, pace allrounder): 23 @29.30, best 3/50
  • Blair Tickner (Central Stags): 21 @16.10, best 5/30, 1xbag
  • Michael Snedden (Wellington Firebirds): 20 @25.25, best 3/11

Logan van Beek | PHOTOSPORT

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