The Central Stags are unchanged for our penultimate match of the 2020/21 first-class Plunket Shield season.

The first-class team heads to Dunedin to play an injury-hit Otago Volts squad - the last away match of the summer before returning to Napier’s McLean Park for next weekend’s final round, after which the Plunket Shield will be presented to new champion Canterbury at the ground.

JOSH CLARKSON BATS IN RANGIORA | PHOTOSPORT

The five remaining teams are left competing for pride this season with the mid-table Stags heading into the seventh round in fourth spot (47 points), 10 points ahead of the Volts (37), and capable of overtaking the Auckland Aces and Northern Districts in this round who sit just ahead by three and four points, respectively. The Stags have finished in the top two teams for the past three years, winning the Plunket Shield in 2018 and 2019.

The seventh-round match will begin half an hour later than usual every day in Dunedin with an 11am scheduled start time (10.30am toss) to take into account the dew factor in Dunedin at this time of year, and the time needed for teams to warm up on the surface.

TOM BRUCE IS ON THE CUSP OF HIS 50TH MATCH | PHOTOSPORT

Swing bowler SETH RANCE remains on the injury bench while AJAZ PATEL is unavailable as he awaits the birth of his first child. Fellow Hawke’s Bay off-spinner JAYDEN LENNOX made his first-class debut in the previous match in Rangiora while batsman WILL YOUNG remains unavailable on BLACKCAPS duty.

The match will be TOM BRUCE’s 50th first-class appearance and the Taranaki bastman will require just 56 more runs to chalk up his 3000th first-class run. Captain GREG HAY (below) meanwhile requires a further 150 runs this summer to reach the landmark of 6000 first-class career runs.

The match will be live-scored at https://scoring.nzc.nz/centraldistricts and live-streamed by NZC Youtube and on the NZC app. The remaining two matches in the seventh round begin one day later, at the customary start time of 10.30am, in Wellington and Auckland.

The final round of the season with the Stags in Napier will then begin on 3 April 2021.

CENTRAL STAGS SQUAD

ROUND 7 of 8 v Otago Volts

University of Otago Oval, Dunedin

11am 26-29 March 2021

Admission: free

Greg Hay (captain) — Nelson

Doug Bracewell — Hawke’s Bay

Tom Bruce — Taranaki

Josh Clarkson — Nelson

Dane Cleaver (wicketkeeper)  — Manawatu

Joey Field — Hawke’s Bay

Jayden Lennox — Hawke’s Bay

Ben Smith — Whanganui

Brad Schmulian — Hawke’s Bay

Blair Tickner — Hawke’s Bay

Ray Toole  — Manawatu

George Worker — Manawatu

Coach: Aldin Smith

Twitter, Instagram updates: @CentralStags

Official hashtags: #PLUNKETSHIELD #LOVETHESTAGS

Article added: Thursday 25 March 2021