{"id":575771,"date":"2026-03-31T06:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575771\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:39:24","slug":"canterbury-take-plunket-shield-title-after-tight-race-needs-second-tie-breaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575771\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury take Plunket Shield title after tight race needs second tie-breaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canterbury<\/a> claimed the Plunket Shield title – in the competition’s 100th edition – but a tight race had to be decided by the second tie-breaker.<\/p>\n

Both Canterbury and Otago finished level on points<\/a> and wins (four), which would have been the initial deciding factor, so it came down to a net-runs-per-wicket permutation – calculated on runs-per-wicket for minus runs-per-wicket against – across the whole season, which Canterbury were comfortably ahead on.<\/p>\n

In the final round, Canterbury built a huge lead over Auckland<\/a> as they piled up 591 with Leo Carter making 169, to finish the season averaging 70.50 from four matches, and Rhys Mariu 142. It meant that Otago’s four-wicket win<\/a> over Wellington – where they chased down 345 having been 84 for 9 in their first innings – wasn’t enough to overtake them. It was the 21st time Canterbury had won the Plunket Shield.<\/p>\n

“For us, and I think for most teams, it [the Plunket Shield] is the pinnacle. It’s the hardest format, and we know how much hard work goes into it.” Canterbury captain Henry Nicholls<\/a>, who was the competition’s leading run-scorer with 870 at 96.66, said.<\/p>\n

“To reflect on the start of the season, to be here now\u2026 some guys like myself have won it a few times, but some of the guys who haven’t, it’s an incredibly special feeling. I felt like we played so much good cricket this year we deserved to have something to show for it. You don’t always get what you deserve, but it’s a bloody good feeling.”<\/p>\n

Nicholls also acknowledged the role played by former coach Peter Fulton, who left before the conclusion of the season to take up his new role with Middlesex. “He’s played a massive part in shaping the team we have today, and the success is a credit to so many people within the organisation in Canterbury,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fraser Sheat<\/a> was Canterbury’s leading wicket-taker with 28 at 25.67, one ahead of Michael Rae, who made his Test debut against West Indies during the season. Raymond Toole<\/a> of Central Districts was the overall leading wicket-taker<\/a> for the tournament with 35 at 23.57.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury claimed the Plunket Shield title – in the competition’s 100th edition – but a tight race had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-575771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}