Northern’s Mitchell Santner ends Central Stags’ dramatic push toward unlikely Plunket Shield victory

On the eve of the Blacks Caps’ first test against Sri Lanka, two Plunket Shield matches have gone close to producing flashbacks of New Zealand’s famous win over England last month.

If red ball cricket is supposedly boring, to some, then the players involved in Northern Districts Men’s dramatic 35-run win over the Central Stags and Wellington’s gritty draw against Auckland have clearly missed the memo.

Like the Black Caps at the Basin Reserve, Wellington and the Stags found themselves more than 200 runs behind after the first innings, but neither quite pulled off the same miracle as Tim Southee’s men – despite giving their opposition some nervous moments in their respective final sessions.

Facing a seemingly impossible task of chasing down 392 further runs on the final day at Mt Maunganui’s Bay Oval, with two wickets already lost on Tuesday night, experienced Stags batters Greg Hay and Tom Bruce, at one stage, appeared to be on target as they notched big centuries.

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But a dramatic flurry of late wickets, following Hay (150) and Bruce’s 270-run partnership for the fifth wicket, swung things back Northern’s way, before Bruce brought a draw firmly back on the table.

However, with the shadows of stumps lurking, Mitchell Santner trapped Bruce in front, for 161 to hand Northern the outright win.

Santner finished the match with eight wickets, after a five-wicket bag in the first innings, and 177 runs (136 and 41).

Lead by Bruce and Hay, the Stags fought their way back into the match after trailing by 268 runs after each team had batted once.

Meanwhile, Wellington’s day four task against Auckland at Colin Maiden Park was equally tough after they trailed by 241 runs after the first innings.

They started the final day with 345 runs needed for victory with Luke Georgeson, Rachin Ravindra and Gareth Severin already out.

Exciting leg spinner Adi Ashok, 20, was leading the charge for Auckland as 19-year-old Muhammad Abbas was doing his best to fend him off.

Abbas scored 130 – his maiden first class century – for Wellington and combined with Nick Kelly (110) for a partnership of 221 for the fifth wicket, that dragged Wellington back into contention.

Ashok kept chipping away, eventually finishing with a five-wicket bag but the experienced Logan van Beek held his nerve and guided Wellington home to stumps at eight down to claim what seemed like an unlikely draw at the start of the day’s play.

Wellington was 85 runs short of a victory target that became far more about survival in the final session.

Down at University Oval in Dunedin, Glenn Phillips is unbeaten on 66 and Thorn Parkes on 53 with the pair to return on day four of their match against Canterbury, still needing 326 further runs to beat the table-toppers on Thursday with eight wickets in hand.