ROUND TWO
Wednesday 25-Saturday 29 November 2025
From 10.30am:
- Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui - Northern Districts v Auckland Aces
- University of Otago Oval, Dunedin - Otago v Canterbury
- Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington - Wellington Firebirds v Central Stags
Kane Williamson's return to the first-class arena headlines an exciting second round of the Plunket Shield as BLACKCAPS come back in for their Domestic sides, warming up for the Tegel Test Series against the touring West Indies.
It's a round with extra bite as the six teams clash with their nearest geographic rival, and at the Basin the Firebirds and Stags will also be locking antlers, plumes and whatever else they might have for their first win of the season, after both sides took a big hit in their respective opening round matches last week.
Defending champion Northern is in the same boat after losing a hard fought round one match in Rangiora and will be delighted to have Williamson back for their first home match of the red-ball season, in Williamson's own coastal home town of Mt Maunganui.
It will be Williamson's 177th first-class match but only his 27th for Northern, and his first in the maroon cap since November 2024 which was also against the Aces, in Hamilton.
Jeet Raval's northerners aren't the only side with an injection of star power for this round.
The Stags have made no fewer than four changes, including the return of BLACKCAPS Will Young (above) and Blair Tickner who have both been included in the Test squad for the upcoming Series - Tickner for the first time in a couple of seasons as his comeback story continues.
Williamson's cousin, keeper-batter Dane Cleaver is unavailable for the Stags with a new baby having arrived, creating room for a reappearance from fellow keeper Bayley Wiggins who scored a century on debut in 2021/22 but hasn't appeared for the team in this format since the 2022/23 summer.
Bayley Wiggins; all images: PHOTOSPORT
Nelson and CD umpire John Dempsey (below) will be chalking up a mark of his own at the Cello Basin Reserve tomorrow as he stands in his 50th first-class fixture, hot on the heels of colleague Kim Cotton's milestone in Palmerston North last week where she broke New Zealand's own world record for the most appointments by a woman umpire to men's first-class cricket fixtures - a milestone previously held by Pat Carrick.
BLACKCAP Michael Bracewell is back for the Firebirds at their famous cricketing home while in Dunedin, it's a big game between two teams that took first round wins.
Otago made everyone sit up on their heels with their spectacular defeat of the Firebirds in Wellington, one that saw first innings centuries from all their new-look top three.
Canterbury meanwhile ground out a four-day win in the Rangiora sunshine with twin day-four hundreds, but the team has also since been docked a point for a slow over rate.
Henry Nicholls, making it look easy.
First round skipper Rhys Mariu can chalk that one up to experience as Henry Nicholls returns for Round Two, taking the captaincy reins back and helming a strong and experienced squad that includes Tom Latham back from the national squad as well.
Otago and Canterbury both have a Boyle brother coming off a career best century.
Jack Boyle (ex Canterbury and Stags) led the way for the southerners with his magnificent 156 on Otago Plunket Shield debut, while his younger brother Matt belted a match-winning 156 not out for Canterbury in Rangiora. What are the chances of two siblings scoring a PB 156 in the same round?
Boyle the younger says that far from being rivals, the pair support each other every step of the way in their cricket careers and elder bro Jack was sending his encouragement.
"When we're together we're sort of attached at the hip," explained left-hander Matt to Newstalk ZB.
Matt (left) and Jack (right, in his Stags era) Boyle
"I find it quite hard to keep up with the other games during our own ones, but I was definitely keeping an ear out for Jack's total."
Fortunately he had a loyal fan on the sidelines of MainPower Oval shouting out progress scores.
"It wasn't easy in our game out in the field so it was a nice little booster to get me through the session."
Tomorrow's Otago squad not only features Boyle but youngster Tom Jones and Jacob Cumming (above) coming off memorable centuries, Jones's having been on his overall first-class debut.
Play is scheduled to begin at 10.30am and is free admission every day, with livestreams at NZC YouTube and on our nzc.nz livescoring platform.
Plunket Shield points after Round One
-
- Auckland Aces 20
- Otago 20
- Canterbury 16 (includes 1 point deduction for slow over rate)
- Northern Districts 5
- Central Stags 4
- Wellington Firebirds 4
Scroll down for all the team news from the six Domestic Major Associations.
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