Northern Districts are back at Seddon Park this week in Plunket Shield action against the Wellington Firebirds, starting today Monday March 13.

The squad is unchanged from the one that was victorious in last week's thriller against the Central Stags at Bay Oval, where BLACKCAPS all-rounder Mitch Santner bowled the side to victory late on day four.

Santner remains one of three spinners in the twelve man squad, alongside four seamers available for selection including former BLACKCAP Colin de Grandhomme, who will depart later this month for a spell with English county side Lancashire.

'We're in a good space heading into the game against Wellington,” says ND's number 3 Bharat Popli, who made 105 and 70 against the Central Stags last week.

'We were pleased as a batting unit to convert our starts into some big scores.

The chase from CD was a fantastic effort between Bruce and Hay, but Santner showed his class at the end to get the final wicket.

He [Santner] is a high quality player and showed that all game!”

It was a man of the match display from Santner, who became just the third ND player in FC cricket to score 100 and take a 5 wicket bag in the same match.

Skipper Jeet Raval made an aggressive 119 in the first innings, with Colin de Grandhomme scoring an unbeaten 54 and Brett Hampton a quickfire 40 in a huge total of 513.

'I love playing four day cricket and have felt in good touch all season,” says Popli, when asked about his personal form.

'We had a fantastic platform at the top from Coops [Henry Cooper] and Jerry [Jeet Raval], the wicket was excellent to bat on, and fortunately I was able to convert a start into a bigger score for the team.

Our bowlers bowled really well all game to take 20 wickets on a good batting wicket.

We know we need to win the final two games to have a chance, so we're looking to pick up a win this week at home.”

Round 7 of the Plunket Shield will start today Monday 13 at 10.30am, with free entry for all spectators.

The game can be followed via livestream on nzc.nz.

The selected Northern Districts Men's squad for our Plunket Shield fixture against Wellington at Seddon Park on March 13-16:

NORTHERN DISTRICTS MEN V WELLINGTON

Monday March 13 – Thursday March 16

Seddon Park, Hamilton