(Cricket news) The Central Stags are making a habit of racking up centuries on first-class debut, after 29-year-old late bloomer Angus Schaw became the latest to join the exclusive club, this afternoon at Bay Oval.
Schaw joins Don Macleod (1956/57), Henry Sampson (1970/71), his teammate in this match Brad Schmulian (2017/18, also at Bay Oval, in a New Zealand record double century on debut) and another contracted Stag from Hawke’s Bay in Bayley Wiggins (2021/22 – with Wiggins to join the team tomorrow as a replacement 12th man, following the concussion substitution of Blair Tickner) as players to have scored centuries for the team in their very first first-class match.
And after nearly 75 years, only four other Stags – Simon Wilson, Martin Crowe, Ben F. Smith (who coached the team in this year’s Dream11 Super Smash) and another of Schaw’s teammates at Bay Oval, Jack Boyle, have scored a century on Central Stags first-class debut after having represented another team in first-class cricket.
Schaw batted for almost five hours across two days for his maiden 114, supported by career-best knocks from both Will Clark (with a maiden half ton yesterday) and Tickner (42 today). A wagging tail allowed the Stags to reel in a full set of four batting bonus points by reaching 350 inside 110 overs.
The Stags were eventually all out for a good total of 427, but by stumps on Day Two Northern Districts’ top order had carved that deficit down to 257, after a century stand between opener Henry Cooper (83) and Bharat Popli (72 not out) for the second wicket.
Earlier, Tickner was struck in the back of his helmet as he tried to avoid a short delivery. He went on to bowl six overs at Northern Districts before coming off with delayed concussion, his place in the attack taken by left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox (initially 12th man) as the official concussion substitute player.
In Rangiora, Canterbury ploughed on from their solid overnight 404/4 against the Wellington Firebirds to post one of their 16 highest first-class totals, reaching 526 in 127.3 overs before Muhammad Abbas took their final wicket on the stroke of lunch.
Canterbury also netted the maximum four batting bonuses available to them, but Firebirds captain Nick Kelly made a good fist of the reply by scoring his fifth first-class century (third for the Firebirds), reaching 138 before he was bowled by Ish Sodhi.
Kelly had constructed century stands with both Gareth Severin and Muhammad Abbas – who remains unbeaten on 30* heading into the third day, the Firebirds 256/5 at stumps and trailing by 270 on the first innings.
Meanwhile in Dunedin, the Otago Volts trail the Auckland Aces by just 166 runs with four wickets in hand, in an evely matched battle at University of Otago Oval.
Debutant (one of a trio for the Aces) Jock McKenzie carried on from his 37 not out overnight to reach an unbeaten 74* by the time the Aces were dismissed late in the first session, the Aces collecting the full set of four batting bonuses and the Volts the full set of bowling bonuses, after bowling out their guests for 410.
McKenzie’s fellow debutants Harjot Johal and Angus Olliver proved easy pickings for the Volts as they both departed without scoring in the tail, but by stumps Johal had his first three wickets in first-class cricket, sitting on good overnight figures of 3/30 off 13 overs – having removed Volts captain Dean Foxcroft, dangerous Thorn Parkes (67) and Jamal Todd to help chip the hosts down to 244/6 by stumps.
The Otago Volts will resume tomorrow at 244/6.
All the free admission Plunket Shield matches are scheduled to resume at 10.30am this morning, with livescores at www.nzc.nz and free livestreaming on NZC’s YouTube channel.
ROUND FIVE • PLUNKET SHIELD
Thursday 29 February-Sunday 1 March 2024
At Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui
