Auckland, Canterbury and Otago had wins to start the Plunket Shield with Auckland and Otago snaring away wins against Central Districts and Wellington.

Auckland

Win vs Central Districts | 20 points

Best Performers vs Central Districts

Bevon Jacobs: 94 runs
Lachlan Stackpole: 148 runs
Jock McKenzie: 5w @ 2rpo | 1w @ 3.3rpo
Simon Keene: 3w @ 4.3rpo | 1w @ 5rpo
Ryan Harrison: 2w @ 3rpo | 1w @ 3.4rpo
Rohith Gulati: 6ov @ 3.5rpo | 5w @ 2.1rpo

Best Performers This Season

Lachlan Stackpole: 148 runs @ 148avg/132sr
Bevon Jacobs: 94 runs @ 94avg/82sr
Jock McKenzie: 6w @ 9.1avg/2.3rpo
Rohith Gulati: 5w @ 13.4avg/2.4rpo
Simon Keene: 4w @ 21.5avg/4.5rpo

Notebook

Stackpole (20yrs) has a First-Class batting average of 37.6.

Jacobs' scores this season: 67*, 1, 30, 0, 32, 94.

Jacobs (23yrs) has a FC batting average of 56.4.

McKenzie (24yrs) and Keene (24yrs) bowling averages (FC | LA | T20)...

McKenzie: 31 | 35.5 | 20.2
Keene: 31.9 | 26 | 33.2

McKenzie and Keene in Ford Trophy this season...

McKenzie: 8w @ 26.7avg/5.6rpo
Keene: 9w @ 26.1avg/5.5rpo

Gulati's wicket tallies in his domestic career (ND then Auckland): 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 0, 5.

Unfortuntaely Gulati (27yrs) no longer has a wicket in every domestic innings bowled but he does have his first baggy in domestic cricket.

Harrison (26yrs) has FC and LA bowling averages below 30. Scored 131 runs @ 32.7avg/113sr in Ford Trophy.

Northern Districts

Loss vs Canterbury | 5 points

Best Performers vs Canterbury

Bharat Popli: 69 runs | 116 runs
Aryan Mann: 66 runs | 54*
Brett Hampton: 3w @ 3.6rpo
Joshua Brown: 3w @ 2.6rpo | 3w @ 3.5rpo
Henry Cooper: 63 runs

Best Performers This Season

Bharat Popli: 185 runs @ 92.5avg/62sr
Aryan Mann: 120 runs @ 120avg/95sr
Joshua Brown: 6w @ 15.8avg/3.1rpo

Notebook

Popli has a FC batting average of 41.

Mann (19yrs) starts his domestic cricket journey with back to back 50+ scores.

ND has three teenagers who have played this season; Mann, Xavier Bell (19yrs) and Snehith Reddy (18yrs).

Kristian Clarke has taken 1 wicket in the four innings since his call up to the Blackcaps ODI squad. He keeps stacking up runs though with the following scores in his last 10 games: 21, 0, 39*, 28, 1, 37*, 100*, 9, 1, 31*, 24, 47.

Central Districts

Loss vs Auckland | 4 points

Best Performers vs Auckland

Josh Clarkson: 4w @ 3.2rpo | 37*
Raymond Toole: 2w @ 4.1rpo
Brad Schmulian: 46 runs
Taylor Bettelheim: 62 runs

Best This Season

Taylor Bettelheim: 62 runs @ 31avg/56sr
Josh Clarkson: 4w @ 15.7avg/3.2rpo

Notebook

Clarkson's wickets this season: 5, 4, 3, 4, 0, 4.

Clarkson has a FC batting average of 32.2 and bowling average of 35.5. His Ford Trophy bowling average this season of 11.3 is now joined by his Plunket Shield bowling average of 15.7.

Bettelheim (24yrs) made his debut for CD having grown up in Tauranga.

Wellington

Loss vs Otago | 4 points

Best Performers vs Otago

Nick Greenwood: 3w @ 3.6rpo
Liam Dudding: 2w @ 2.8rpo | 1w @ 3.3rpo
Tim Robinson: 87*
Gareth Severin: 41 runs | 65 runs
Nick Kelly: 41 runs @ 114sr | 150 runs
Jesse Tashkoff: 24 runs | 97 runs

Best Performers This Season

Nick Kelly: 191 runs @ 95.5avg/78sr
Jesse Tashkoff: 121 runs @ 60.5avg/75sr
Nick Greenwood: 3w @ 19.3avg/4.8rpo
Liam Duddin: 3w @ 32avg/3rpo
James Hartshorn: 3w @ 46avg/3.8rpo

Notebook

Kelly's scores this season: 0, 11, 1, 6, 54, 41, 150. Kelly has a FC batting average of 40.8.

Robinson's (23yrs) recent scores: 2, 45, 50, 113, 27, 39, 23, 45, 87*, 1.

Tashkoff (25yrs) has a FC batting average of 35.9 and List-A batting average of 34.1 (100sr).

Severin (25yrs) has a FC batting average of 36.6.

Greenwood (26yrs) has 3 wickets in FC bowling and all were taken vs Otago. He averages below 21 in T20Is (for Jersey), LA and T20 bowling.

Dudding has a wicket in all seven innings bowled this season and he has a FC bowling average of 24.3.

Canterbury

Win vs Northern Districts | 17 points

Best Performers vs Northern Districts

Michael Rae: 4w @ 2.5rpo | 2w @ 2.6rpo
Angus McKenzie: 2w @ 3rpo | 3w @ 3.1rpo
Matthew Boyle: 70 runs | 156*
Chad Bowes: 27 runs | 118 runs
Mitch Hay: 11 runs | 59*

Best Performers This Season

Matthew Boyle: 226 runs @ 226avg/60sr
Chad Bowes: 145 runs @ 72.5avg/77sr
Michael Rae: 6w @ 16.6avg/2.5rpo
Angus McKenzie: 5w @ 24.8avg/3.1rpo

Notebook

Boyle (22yrs) was the leading run-scorer in Super Smash last season and started this season with 152 runs @ 38avg/93sr in Ford Trophy. Then had back to back knocks of note to start Plunket Shield. Here are his scores this season: 34, 73, 28, 17, 70, 156*.

Boyle's career stats...

FC: 35.1avg/61sr
LA: 24.1avg/85sr
T20: 29.3avg/147sr

Bowes' scores this season: 24, 45, 22, 42, 102, 27, 118. He has 12 FC hundreds and 16 halfies.

Hay (25yrs) has a FC batting average of 48.7.

Rae has taken a wicket in every innings bowled this summer; 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2.

McKenzie has taken 2+ wickets in five of seven innings bowled this summer; 3, 3, 2, 0, 0, 2, 3.

Rae and McKenzie both average 32 in FC bowling. They are tied with Fraser Sheat as the leading Canterbury wicket-takers in Ford Trophy on 8 wickets.

Otago

Win vs Wellington | 20 points

Best Performers vs Wellington

Jack Boyle: 156 runs
Jacob Cumming: 113 runs | 42*
Tom Jones: 119 runs
Danru Ferns: 4w @ 3.6rpo | 1w @ 3.7rpo
Jarrod McKay: 3w @ 3.3rpo | 13ov @ 6.9rpo
Glenn Phillips: 2w @ 3.6rpo | 3w @ 2.5rpo | 28* @ 140sr
Matthew Bacon: 1w @ 1.8rpo | 3w @ 4rpo

Best Performers This Season

Jack Boyle: 166 runs @ 83avg/58sr
Jacob Cumming: 155 runs @ 155avg/69sr
Tom Jones: 119 runs @ 59.5avg/94sr
Danru Ferns: 5w @ 19.2avg/3.6rpo
Glenn Phillips: 5w @ 21.4avg/2.8rpo
Matthew Bacon: 4w @ 17.5avg/3.1rpo

Notebook

Otago won their first game of the season after going 0-4 in Ford Trophy.

Boyle has scored 10+ runs in all six innings batted this season with scores of 64, 18, 16, 25, 156 and 10. His FC batting average of 24.3 seems likely to move closer to his LA batting average of 36.2.

Cumming (21yrs) has already played 25 FC games with a batting average of 27.7. He has only played six LA games and his scores in his last 10 games stretch back to the 2023/24 season; 7, 16, 10, 14, 36, 54, 38, 15, 20, 29, 3, 62, 38, 49, 14, 6, 47, 113, 42*.

Jones (19yrs) made his debut for Otago after coming through the Auckland system. He played in the 2024 U19 World Cup alongside Reddy (ND) and Stackpole (Auckland). Jones scored 47 runs @ 11.7avg/60sr in that World Cup and starts his domestic cricket journey with a century.

Phillips has a FC batting average of 40 and bowling average of 35.8. He has bowled in every FC summer since 2016/17.

Bacon's wickets tallies this season: 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3. He took 7w @ 28.4avg/4.9rpo in Ford Trophy and has a FC bowling average of 32.8, LA average of 28.5 and T20 average of 24.6.

Ferns' mahi in his first season with Otago: 15 runs/1w | 22*/1w | 41 runs/1w | 25*/4w/1w.

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