Auckland Aces lead Plunket Shield

The Central Stags have jumped two spots up the table into second spot while the Auckland Aces held firmly onto their lead with the full 20 points in the latest round of the national Plunket Shield first-class championship.

The Stags, Aces and Northern Districts all secured outright victories in the latest batch of four-dayers, the latter two after patient affairs that boiled down to yesterday evening's final session.

Not so in Napier where the Stags despatched a strong Canterbury line-up before lunch for a comprehensive 295-run victory, chalking up a second successive win for Central that netted 17 of the maximum 20 points, and saw young batter Curtis Heaphy reach three first-class centuries in consecutive games (including a New Zealand A century v South Africa A in South Africa, and last week's second Plunket Shield round in Wellington, after having missed the opening Plunket Shield round with a hamstring injury).

In Auckland, Tim Robinson produced his third first-class century to try to spare the luckless Firebirds who fought valiantly with the bat attemepting to stave off a third consecutive defeat.

The Aces won by 162 runs when legspinner Adi Ashok took the final wicket to wrap the final innings at 323 in 100.4 overs, and the Aces' emerging left-arm spinner Rohit Gulati took another six wickets across the match to maintain his tearaway lead as the competition's top wicket-taker - now with 21 wickets from just three matches at an 18.61 average.

The country's top seamer is another unusual suspect in Central Stags allrounder Josh Clarkson with 13 wickets at 17.15 to sit second overall, behind Gulati. With his bag in the latest round, the Wellington Firebirds' attack leader Liam Dudding now also sits on 13 wickets, at a 20.46 average.

Northern's Henry Cooper remains the competition's top run-scorer this season after his double century in the previous round, and has 421 runs at a hefty 84.20 average. He's followed by Stag Brad Schmulian (373 at 76.60) after a knock of 93 in the latest round, and dashing Aucklander Bevon Jacobs with 369 at 73.80 after his century against Wellington this week.

Maintaining their status as the surprise package of 2025/26, Otago fought hard and long against Northern Districts in Hamilton but the defending champion ND eventually closed out their much needed first win in this third round - to leave the Firebirds as the only side yet to taste victory in the eight-round competition that hits its midway mark in the forthcoming round.

Zak Gibson finished with four wickets as ND dismissed Otago, while fourth-day substitute James Naylor (in for Kristian Clarke after the latter's BLACKCAPS call-up) took 2/34 before spinner Tim Pringle ended Otago's hopes of holding on for a draw at 240 all out.

ND won by 113 runs, and took 19 of the maximum 20 points, while Otago walked away with six from their first innings.

The next round is tantalising as it pits Otago against the Stags in Dunedin; Canterbury against the Aces at Hagley Oval, and Northern against the Firebirds at ND's alternate home ground in Whangārei, with 19 points separating the top five teams - all of whom will switch to T20 mode shortly for the summer's Super Smash, the begins after round four.

Round four starts at 10.30am this Saturday and, after the annual midseason intermission, will be back at the end of February 2026 for the business end of the championship.

SNAPSHOTPoints after three rounds:

• 47 Auckland Aces
• 37 Central Stags
• 32 Otago
• 28 Canterbury
• 28 Northern Districts
• 14 Wellington Firebirds

Centuries, bags, milestones in Round Three:

• Ajaz Patel (Central Stags) 400 first-class wickets (overall career)
• Toby Hart (Otago) maiden 6/73
• Liam Dudding (Wellington Firebirds) 5/67, third first-class bag, first for Wellington (previous for Central Stags)
• Dane Cleaver (Central Stags wicketkeeper) six catches in an innings, nine for the match
• Max Chu (Otago wicketkeeper) six catches in an innings, eight for the match, 19 for the season to date
• Curtis Heaphy (Central Stags) 119, fourth first-class century (third for Stags)
• Joe Carter (Northern Districts) 119 not out; 5,000 first-class career runs
• Bevon Jacobs (Auckland Aces) 125, second first-class century (both at Kennards)
• Chad Bowes (Canterbury) 100 first-class matches (all teams), Ajaz Patel's 400th victim in the second innings
• Tim Robinson (Wellington Firebirds) 106, third first-class century
• Josh Clarkson (Central Stags) 4/33, first-class career best figures
• Yahya Zeb (Wellington Firebirds, first-class debut, ex-Auckland Cricket)

Next round:

• Saturday 13‑Tuesday 16 December 2025
• University of Otago Oval, Cobham Oval, Hagley Oval

All live and completed scorecards: https://scoring.nzc.nz/comp/8e3cfb0f-59c5-4c7c-a226-4b6118e65fb6