Dutch cricketer Logan van Beek's feat in New Zealand domestic cricket

A day after Netherlands’ cricketer Logan van Beek opened the New Zealand (NZ) first-class cricket season with his ninth first-class five-wicket haul, he added his second first-class century to become the first NZ-born cricketer to achieve a first-class 'double' in the same match for two different NZ domestic teams - having also taken a fifer and scored a century in the same match for Canterbury in October 2015.

“Only one other man has achieved the feat in New Zealand first-class history and you have to scroll all the way back to 1918 when Jack Crawford (an England Test allrounder playing domestically in New Zealand) achieved the feat for Wellington at Eden Park, to add to the double he had achieved for Otago against Wellington at the Cello Basin Reserve in 1914/15,” said a statement from New Zealand Cricket.

Now the same ground has witnessed more all-round history, van Beek joining a very short list of Kiwi allrounders to have twice taken a five-wicket haul and scored a century in the same match, a list that includes luminaries such as John Reid and Martin Crowe.

It's also the first Plunket Shield 'double' since Mitchell Santner's all-round effort for Northern Districts against the Central Stags at Bay Oval two seasons ago, and just the 45th instance overall in New Zealand first-class cricket (including Test matches - with Ian Botham having twice achieved the double for England against New Zealand).

For the Wellington Firebirds, it's the first double since John Morrison's 106 and 5/69 at Eden Park in 1977/78.

Van Beek took 5/35 on Monday against Aucland Aces and then made 101 on Tuesday.

New Zealand Cricket, Logan Van Beek, Plunket Shield, Wellington Firebirds, Auckland Aces, Netherlands