• THREE-TON NAILBITER FOR ND, STAGS
• CANTERBURY BREAKS NATIONAL WIN MARGIN RECORD
• Post-match Chad Bowes audio attached
Canterbury has snatched the outright lead after a century-studded and record-smashing second round of
the 2024/25 NZC men’s one-day Ford Trophy today.
It’s all still sinking in for Canterbury opening batter Chad Bowes.
The 32-year-old erstwhile BLACKCAP smashed the word’s fastest List A one-day double century, off just 103 balls, in Canterbury’s record 240-run eclipse of the Otago Volts at Hagley Oval.
It’s the highest winnng margin in the 54-run history of The Ford Trophy, and a typically understated Bowes said it “might sink in over the next day or two. I probably haven’t hit the ball that consistently well before, so it was nice to get most of them out of the middle, and hit it around the park.”
Bowes broke a record that had been shared internationally by South Australia’s Travis Head and Tamil Nadu’s Narayan Jagadeesan who both scored their quickest 200 off 114 balls.
Under a ton of pressure, the Volts were rolled for just 103 in reply and the result means defending champions Canterbury have a perfect record of two bonus point wins from the first two rounds of the season, opening up a five-point lead over the Wellington Firebirds – who meanwhile defeated the Auckland Aces at Bay Oval – on the points table.
Once again the longest and closest match of the day was to be found at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park where a delayed and reduced 44-over game didn’t stop the Central Stags and Northern Districts trading blows in a high-scoring last-over thriller.
Three centuries were scored, Northern’s Tim Seiftert top-scoring for the visitors with 102 in their total of 352/8.
The Stags responded with a 217-run second-wicket stand, a record for them in matches against Northern and just short of the overall Stags second-wicket record of 224.
Last season’s top Stags run-scorer Brad Schmulian posted his third Ford Trophy hundred (a career-best 126 off 101) and Jack Boyle added his first Stags List A ton (104 off 99) to his previous four tons for Canterbury and one for a New Zealand XI against India A.
A total of 36 sixes were slammed in the match between the two teams and the Stags kept their foot in the door to the death.
However, a flurry of late wickets left tailenders (and T20 10th wicket record-breakers against the same team last season) Jayden Lennox and Blair Tickner needing to find some unlikely last-over heroics – a collective fightback from ND’s Kristian Clarke, Brett Hampton and Neil Wagner shutting the Stags out at the death.
The Stags now remain the only winless side ahead of Saturday’s third round of the regular season competition in Wellington (Firebirds v Stags), Mt Maunganui (Aces* v Volts) and Christchurch (Canterbury v ND).
POINTS TABLE – snapshot after two of 10 rounds
10 Canterbury (2 bonus points)
5 Wellington Firebirds (1 bonus point)
5 Otago Volts (1 bonus point)
4 Auckland Aces
4 Northern Districts
0 Central Stags
THE FORD TROPHY
ROUND TW0
23 October 2024
