Nevin to play 100th match for Wellington

Cricket Wellington
Media Release
Monday 9 November 2009

Nevin to play 100th match for Wellington in Plunket Shield season opener

Chris Nevin will play his 100th first-class match for the Wellington Firebirds in their 2009/10 Plunket Shield season opener against the Canterbury Wizards at the Allied Nationwide Finance Basin Reserve, starting Tuesday 10 November at 10.30am.

The Wellington Firebirds team is:

Matthew Bell (captain)
Harry Boam
Dewayne Bowden
Josh Brodie
Grant Elliott
Andy McKay
Cameron Merchant
Chris Nevin
Neal Parlane
Iain O’Brien
Jeetan Patel
Robbie Schaw
Luke Woodcock

Thirteen players have been named, with the playing XI to be finalised on the morning of the match.

Wicket-keeper batsman Nevin says reaching the milestone of 100 matches is a special achievement and he is proud to be in the same company of Wellington cricket’s three existing centenarians Evan Gray, Robert Vance and Ervin McSweeney.

“There’s only three Wellington players to have ever done it before and they are all big names in Wellington cricket, so to be up there having played a similar number of games to three of the legends is a great feeling.”

“I’ve got my family coming up from Christchurch to watch the game and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Nevin, who made his Wellington Firebirds debut in a domestic 1-Day match at the Allied Nationwide Finance Basin Reserve on New Year’s Day in 1996, has fond memories of his maiden first-class match a few weeks later against Northern Districts:

“We played very good cricket for three days and we set them about 440 to win on a wearing Basin wicket and they chased it down on the last day. So it was an incredible game of cricket and certainly a very exciting start to my career.”

Another match that sticks out in his mind was a similar game that Wellington won against Canterbury in 2000/01.

“We got a good first innings total and then took a long time to bowl them out. In the second innings we batted for about 25 overs, declared and then won with about three or four overs to spare.”

“That was an amazing game of cricket and one that sort of summed up that whole (Championship winning) season. We were just so determined to win that it didn’t matter whether it was the last ball of the game or the first we were in the contest the whole time.”

Nevin says the Wellington Firebirds have been training hard in readiness for the start of the Plunket Shield and for the busy summer of cricket coming up.

“As well as preparing for the Plunket Shield we’ve been doing quite a bit of work on our 1-Day and Twenty20 games in the lead-up. So once the season starts in earnest we will be ready to compete hard for all three titles on offer this year.”

Chris Nevin:

First-class matches for Wellington: 99.
First class debut: v Northern Districts, 1995/96.
Batting for Wellington: 4,579 runs, average 36.05.
Wicket-keeping for Wellington: 271 dismissals (holds the New Zealand domestic first-class records for catches and dismissals in a match – 10 v Otago 1995/96 – and for most dismissals in a season – 49 in 2000/01).

Wellington: Most first-class appearances:

Evan Gray 120
Robert Vance 119
Ervin McSweeney 102
Chris Nevin 99

In another possible milestone, captain Matthew Bell (currently on 6,230 runs) is 264 runs shy of overtaking both Bruce Edgar and Robert Vance and becoming Wellington’s leading domestic first-class run-scorer.

Wellington has a positive record in the opening round of the first-class competition over the past decade, having won five, drawn three and lost two of its 10 opening round matches since 1999/00. In the previous two season openers, Wellington defeated the Northern Knights by 9 wickets in 2007/08 and Canterbury by an innings and 42 runs at home last year.

Head-to-head, Wellington has won four and drawn five of its last 10 first-class matches against Canterbury. Canterbury’s sole win in this period was in the 2007/08 final at the Allied Nationwide Finance Basin Reserve.

The Plunket Shield was last played for in 1974/75. Wellington will be playing for their 15th Plunket Shield title this season.

Wellington finished third in last year’s four-day competition, while Canterbury collected the wooden spoon.

ENDS

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