Outright wins to Northern Districts and Canterbury this afternoon have those teams in first and second place on the first-class Plunket Shield championship ladder, one quarter of the way through New Zealand’s national red-ball competition.
Trying again this season to break their long-running title drought (2011/12 was ND’s last successful tilt in this format, and they finished runner-up last season), the strong Northern team is now the only undefeated side after two rounds.
They banked 18 of the 20 possible points from their 179-run win over the Auckland Aces that finished at Hamilton’s Seddon Park today.
Northern now has a total of 37 points from the first two rounds, after having been penalised one point for failing to meet the minimum over rate requirement of 15 overs per hour throughout their match against Canterbury, in Round One last week.
Canterbury is also riding high after thumping the Central Stags in Nelson and taking the full set of 20 points from a 10-wicket victory.
A first-class career best knock of 57 from Ajaz Patel narrowly denied Canterbury the additional satisfaction of an innings victory but, with just 14 runs required from their second innings, Canterbury got their richly deserved victory shortly after lunch, debutant Scott Janett hitting the winning run.
It was fresh captain Rhys Mariu’s perfect start as Canterbury again showed their penchant for the consistent accrual of first innings, as well as overall, points, Mariu having been one of the stars of the show with his knock of 240 going down as the fifth highest in Canterbury’s first-class history.
There was meanwhile no winner in Dunedin, but it was a special match nonetheless for the Wellington Firebirds whose captain, Nick Kelly, achieved the feat of a century in each innings, his unbeaten 101* off 146 balls in the second innings this afternoon coming after a career-best 161 in the first innings at University of Otago Oval.
With time running out to achieve a result in the match, the captains shook hands at tea on the last day, the match declared a draw. Both teams took seven first innings points from their encounter.
The Otago Volts and defending champion Firebirds are the only two teams still looking for their first win ahead of the third of the eight four-day rounds, the next matches starting on Thursday next week.
The Firebirds travel to Napier to play the Stags at McLean Park; the Aces will be at home in Auckland against Canterbury; and Northern Districts remain at home in Hamilton to host the Volts.
• Central Stags 202 & 303 lost to Canterbury 492/7 declared & 14/0 by 10 wickets in Nelson: scores
• Otago Volts 303/8 declared -match drawn- with Wellington Firebirds 357 & 211/7 in Dunedin: scores
POINTS SNAPSHOT after two rounds
37 Northern Districts*
28 Canterbury
21 Central Stags
20 Auckland Aces
13 Wellington Firebirds
11 Otago Volts
*19 points from Round One and 18 points from Round Two. NZC online points table will be adjusted.
