Jeet Raval completes his cricket story
The long-standing career of Jeet Raval has officially come to a close with Northern Districts Cricket announcing his retirement.
Born in Ahmedabad, Raval's family emigrated to Auckland when he was in his teens to give him the opportunity to advance himself in cricket. He then went on to produce more than 10,000 first-class runs and 24 test caps for the Black Caps in after almost two decades.
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The left-handed opening batter made his first-class debut for the Auckland Aces age 20 in 2008. Raval's top score of 256 came in his very first season in just his third first-class game.
Across 18 seasons, Raval won national titles in every format, representing Auckland, the Central Stags and most recently Northern Districts.
The polished batter and tactician earned four national T20 trophies, including for the Northern Brave squad that won the 2025/26 title last summer.
Raval won the national first-class title (Plunket Shield) four times, and three Ford Trophy titles (one-day format).
In first-class cricket alone he played 164 matches. Among his 10,000 first-class career runs are 24 centuries (including several doubles), at a 37.66 average.
His test career spanned four seasons from 2016/17 to 2019/20. He scored his test-best 132 against Bangladesh for the Black Caps at Seddon Park in 2018/19.
Recently Raval played for Northern Districts as a wicket-taking leg-spinner. In 2024/25 he contributed 14 wickets at just 11.14 to help lead his side to their drought-breaking championship win in the Plunket Shield.
Several New Zealand records have Raval's name inked across them, including a one-day century for the Stags in 2013 where he and Jamie How put on 321 at Seddon Park for the first wicket. It still stands as the all-wickets partnership record in the format.
Raval made headlines again in 2024 with a marathon innings that spanned nine and a half hours at Bay Oval, in an effort that salvaged a Plunket Shield draw for Northern Districts. He was just seven minutes short of breaking the world record for the slowest first-class century.
