Central Districts fast bowler Brett Randell has created history by becoming the first bowler in the history of first-class cricket to pick up five wickets in five balls. He recorded the feat on day two of a Plunkett Shield game against Northern Districts in Napier on Sunday.

In a spell from hell, Randell ran through the Northern Districts top-order, as they slipped from 4 for no loss to 9 for 5 in the space of five Randell deliveries.

Randell started the slide with the last ball of his second over when he removed opener Henry Cooper with a peach of an in-dipper that swung in late and crashed into Cooper’s off pole, the batter having shouldered arms.

With the first ball of his next over, Randell went around the wicket to Jeet Raval, and left his stumps in a mess. Randell then claimed a hat-trick with Joe Carter caught behind, though the batter looked displeased with the decision. There was no doubt with his fourth wicket when Robert O’Donnell edged Randell’s outswinger to Curtis Heaphy in the slips.

Randell then added a fifth wicket in five balls to his tally when Kristian Clarke flirted at a delivery well outside off, got a thin inside-edge with the ball bouncing back onto his stumps and disturbing his leg bail. Randell’s bowling figures at this stage read a barely believable 2.4-1-2-5. Ben Pomare denied Randell a sixth wicket in six, but history had already been made by then.

Soon after, Randell also became the first to take six wickets in eight balls in first-class cricket

Mitchell Santner won the toss in the final and elected to chase in Ahmedabad. Chasing in the night has been the way to go in matches between evenly matched side, but India have come to the final having launched a successful defence of a total in a night-time knockout match for the first time since the 2014 World Cup semi-final.

After all the talk of an offspinner against India’s left-hand heavy top order, New Zealand omitted to play the one who took out Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton in one over in the semi-final. They instead gave Cole McConchie’s place to tall seamer Jacob Duffy. Amateur lip-readers suggested Suryakumar Yadav, India’s captain, asked Santner “no offspinner?” when the two captains exchanged team sheets.

In McConchie’s absence, New Zealand do have an offpsin option, that of Glenn Phillips, who didn’t bowl in the last match but was a handful on turning tracks in Test cricket when New Zealand whitewashed India in 2024-25.

India continued to put their faith in mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who went at 11.6 per over in the Super Eight. Eight of his leakiest sppells have come in the last two-and-a-half months. However, he has also picked up at least one wicket in his last 21 matches, the fourth-longest such streak.

As expected, Abhishek Sharma kept his place despite a run of low scores. He has scored only one half-century in this World Cup.

India  Abhishek Sharma,  Sanju Samson (wk),  Ishan Kishan,  Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt.),  Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube,  Axar Patel,  Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah,  Varun Chakravarthy.

New Zealand  Tim Seifert (wk),  Finn Allen,  Rachin Ravindra,  Glenn Phillips,  Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell,  Mitchell Santner (capt),  Jimmy Neesham, Jacob Duffy,  Matt Henry,  Lockie Ferguson