ROUND SIX
WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS v CENTRAL STAGS
NO RESULT
2 February 2024
Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington
(Match reduced to 47 overs per side)
Points: Wellington Firebirds 2, Central Stags 2
- Muhammad Abbas: maiden List A 50
- Logan van Beek: maiden List A century
- Logan van Beek: Highest score by a Number 8 batter in New Zealand List A Cricket (136)
- Logan van Beek: 2md highest score by a Number 8 batter in all men's List A Cricket (136 - Nazmul Hossain holds world record with 144 in 2007)
- Muhammad Abbas and Logan van Beek: Record 7th Wicket partnership for Wellington Firebirds
- Logan van Beek: 1500 List A career runs
One of the few lines missing from Kiwi-Dutch all-round star Logan van Beek's record was inked in at a windy Cello Basin Reserve in a daring rearguard record partnership for the Wellington Firebirds.
Van Beek's maiden List A one-day ton was one for the books, literally.
PHOTOSPORT
From a dire position of 67/6 after having elected to bat, he and youngster Muhammad Abbas fashioned a Firebirds List A seventh wicket record of 159.
Van Beek was responsible for most of the damage to it as he blasted eight sixes, swinging hard and using the strong wind to his advantage, as his special knock gathered momentum.
Just a week after a horror last over had cost him a golden opportunity to win the Dream11 Super Smash Elimination Final for the Firebirds, van Beek's mojo was back - reaching an emotional maiden one-day ton off just 89 balls.
The second fifty of that century had flown off just 25 rocks.
It was the antidote to a tough, rain-interrupted start for his team when the Stags had got on top early despite losing the toss.
The game would be condensed to 47 overs per side by the halftime break, and van Beek and Abbas knew how important it was to turn the tide quickly in a DLS game.
PHOTOSPORT
Abbas played the perfect support role with his maiden half ton, getting there off 69 balls with a more watchful approach - but after the bat wave, he danced down the wicket and thundered a six as well.
The Central spinners had a tough time of it with the stiff wind blowing across the deck, but earlier the pace attack had been off to a brilliant start with the ball.
Bevan Small and Blair Tickner, who had it on a string for 1/10 off his first six overs, conceded just 22 runs between them off their opening spells across the first nine overs, picking up a wicket each before Ray Toole and Josh Clarkson - back for the first time since injuring his shoulder in the T20 campaign, took over and first and second change.
PHOTOSPORT
Toole soon had Firebirds skipper Nick Kelly caught and then Clarkson put himself on an unconverted hat-trick next over to have Wellington in all sorts at 42/5 in the 13th over.
That brought two new men together in Abbas and Nathan Smith, the latter falling to Toole in the 20th over before the record wicket pairing began.
Abbas and van Beek took some time to establish before letting rip, and 20 overs would pass before they busted out the first six in the 41st over, when they'd just patted each other on the back for a century stand and the score was nearing respectability at 172/6.
PHOTOSPORT
After his loud LBW appeal against van Beek was turned down, Ajaz Patel eventually stopped Abbas and the brilliant stand, top-edging on 65 and gratefully caught by Tickner whose fine figures had been ruined by the pair.
But van Beek remained, and kept pummelling the boundary in a 44-run eighth-wicket stand with Adam Milne until his dismissal on 136 (99 balls) with just three balls left to go.
His previous best had been an unbeaten 64* in 2017 for The Netherlands, while his previous best Ford Trophy knock of 53 had been totally eclipsed.
That was the highest score by any number eight batter in New Zealand one-dayers, and his side would eventually head to lunch with a very good total of 281/8.
PHOTOSPORT
However, DLS is a tricky beast and, after the Stags opening pair of Jack Boyle (an unbeaten 33*) and Curtis Heaphy (45 not out) maintained their wickets in a 90-run opening stand, the Stags were soon ahead on the path to the DLS revised target of 274.
PHOTOSPORT
But with Nathan Smith trying to bowl into the increasingly bitter weather, and just three balls to go until the 20-over mark - at which point the run chase would officially count, the heaviest rain of the stop-start day arrived, and eventually saw the game called off, the points shared.
The precious two points did, however, see the Firebirds move off the last rung of the ladder and into fifth.
PHOTOSPORT
