In first-class cricket, Ellis played 26 State Championship games for Canterbury, up to the end of the 2006/7 season.
[2] A right-handed batsman and right arm fast medium bowler, he made his debut in 2003 against Auckland.
He played for New Zealand Under-19s in the 2000/01 season in 2 'Tests' against South Africa under-19s and appeared for Marylebone Cricket Club in 2004.
In November 2017, he scored his 5,000th run for Canterbury in first-class cricket in the 2017–18 Plunket Shield season.
[4] In 2018, Ellis was involved in a bizarre incident when a shot off Northern Districts batsman Jeet Raval ricocheted off his head and crossed the boundary on the full, going for six runs.