• Plunket Shield time for Ajaz Patel

Plunket Shield time for Ajaz Patel

Hawke’s Bay Blackcap Ajaz Patel, the top wicket-taker in the Plunket Shield for three years straight, will play his 50th first-class match in Rangiora this week when he finally dons the whites for the Central Stags this summer.

Patel, who made a sensational Blackcaps test debut earlier this season in the side’s victorious away Series against Pakistan before playing two home tests against Sri Lanka, will play his first red-ball match of the season for his beloved Stags, after having missed the entire first half of the competition through international callups.

Forty-four of his previous first-class caps have been for the Stags, with the balance for New Zealand, with the 30-year-old having claimed his 200th first-class wicket when he dismissed Hasan Ali in the third test in Abu Dhabi in December.

The Central Stags’ twelve named for the impending first-class clash also sees the return of three players who were not involved in last weekend’s Burger King Super Smash grand final squad, with Plunket Shield captain Greg Hay coming in fresh off a successful raid on the Hawke Cup for Nelson.

Left-arm paceman Ryan McCone and allrounder Willem Ludick also rejoin the team for the first instalment of first-class cricket since the fourth round finished in mid-December.

Patel may find himself as one of two frontline spin options in the Stags’ XI against Canterbury when Round Five begins at 10.30am tomorrow morning at what is expected to be a hot and dry Mainpower Oval, having been named alongside new young star, and his Hawke’s Bay teammate, 20-year-old Dean Foxcroft for the first time in the red-ball format.

Foxcroft is one of New Zealand’s top two spinners in this year’s competition, sitting on 12 wickets from just three innings – Auckland Ace Will Somerville also with 12 wickets.

The Plunket Shield side will be without the services of pace duo Adam Milne who will instead play for a New Zealand XI against Bangladesh in a two-day match as he continues to build up his bowling loads after having returned from injury; and Blair Tickner, who sprained his ankle last week.

With the physical demands of four-day bowling greater than those of the maximum four overs required by T20 cricket, Tickner will continue to build up to his return to first-class cricket.

Unbeaten and the defending champions, the Stags will enter the back half of the four-day format against a team that has not lost a first-class match at Rangiora since a visit by the Stags in December 2015.

Round Five of the eight-round competition also sees the Firebirds host Northern Districts at the Basin Reserve and the Aces host the Volts at Eden Park Outer Oval, with the Stags taking in an 11-point lead over both ND and the Aces.

There is a maximum 20 points per round available to each team from their final four battles of the 2018/19 season – including two matches at the Stags’ own happy hunting ground of McLean Park.

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