In Dunedin, Black Cap Neil Wagner has helped put the Otago Volts in a dominating position by picking up a five wicket bag on the first day of their clash with the Auckland Aces.
Wagner, who has been the leading wicket-taker in the last two Plunket Shields, picked apart the Auckland top order with an impressive 5-54 off his 21 overs, helping restrict the visitors to a first innings total of 221.
Auckland won the toss and decided to bat, but fell into trouble early on as Wagner, James Neesham and James Mcmillan restricted any of the visitors' top six from scoring more than 23 runs.
Anaru Kitchen battled his way to 74 while Bruce Martin provided some temporary support with a quick 31.
Otago raced out to 118/2 at Stumps with Aaron Redmond reaching 72 and Darren Broom making 35 before both were dismissed off the bowling of Ferguson.
At the Cobham Oval in Whangarei Tim Southee picked up four wickets in his much-anticipated return to cricket for the Northern Knights.
Southee missed the Black Caps' tour of South Africa firstly for the birth of his first child and then a thumb injury, but came through unscathed today, picking up 4-97 from his 24 overs, as the Wellington Firebirds reached 412/9 at stumps.
For Wellington, Harry Boam scored 102, while Scott Kuggeleijn helped out in the middle order with a tidy innings of 74.
-nzherald.co.nz
