Domestic Cricket Daily: Plunket Shield #5
Canterbury vs Auckland Aces (Canterbury win by 10 runs)
Notables
Canterbury 245
Andrew Ellis - 53.
Lockie Ferguson - 3/51 off 17 overs @ 3rpo,.
Auckland 285
Colin Munro - 108.
Kyle Jamieson - 8/74 off 16.5 overs @ 4.39rpo.
Canterbury 400/7dec
Jack Boyle - 81, Chad Bowes - 155, Peter Fulton - 72.
Tarun Nethula - 5/128 off 35 overs @ 3.65.
Auckland 350 (chasing 361)
Michael Guptill-Bunce - 67, Mark Chapman - 81, Brad Cachopa - 75*.
Kyle Jamieson - 3/86 off 19.2 overs @ 4.44rpo, Ed Nuttall - 5/67 off 17 overs @ 3.94rpo.
Notes
Canterbury's Kyle Jamieson came up as a youngster in Auckland and unleashed a barrage of seam/swing from what must feel like 8-feet in the air against Auckland, taking 11 wickets for the match. Jamieson was brutal in the first innings with 8/74 and then backed it up with 3/86 in the second dig, taking the winning wicket as absolute scenes followed...
See this Instagram video by @zulugustapo
Easily the tallest bowler in the domestic scene, Jamieson didn't just rely on his height to deliver awkward bouncers that were un-playable for some Auckland batsmen. He also pitched the ball up, swinging and seaming the ball away from the bat and 3 of his 8 wickets in the first innings came with Jamieson skittlin' the stumps (Sean Solia, Donovon Grobbelaar, Tarun Nethula).
This performance came with Lockie Ferguson getting the call up to the Blackcaps ODI squad and with a freakish 11-wicket-haul, Jamieson understandably stole the limelight. Ferguson took 3/51 in the first innings and the 150km/h headline being built up by the media, is sexy to the casual fan, yet Jamieson has a similar dose of x-factor and has been simmering away nicely in the Plunket Shield this season; he's taken a wicket in every innings this season and of those eight innings', Jamieson has taken 1 wicket just twice.
With only 3 wickets in the second innings from Jamieson, another Cantabrian had to stand up to lead the way and that lad was Ed Nuttall. While Nuttall destroyed the Auckland lower order - 3 of his 5 wickets were from Auckland's bottom five batsmen - Nuttall kicked off his 5-wicket-haul in the second innings by send the stumps of Colin Munro flying, after Munro had banged a big century in the first innings.
Nuttall burst on to the scene last season, but hadn't quite kicked on in the first few rounds of this season but we saw a glimpse of what makes him such a handful here. Nuttall had taken 7 wickets in the three games prior to this one, with his last outing against Northern Districts featuring multiple wickets in either innings, so hopefully Nuttall's settling into some nice rhythm for the limited overs stuff.
Sticking with Canterbury and they rolled out a funky opening pair, that delivered the goods to set up the win. Jack Boyle and Chad Bowes are largely unknown names but Boyle hit 81 and Bowes hit 155 to steer Canterbury towards a second innings total of 400 and just as Canterbury are floating in youth with their bowling attack as Jamieson's only 21yrs and Nuttall's 23yrs, it's the same with their opening batsmen with Boyle making his debut here at 20yrs and Bowes' is only 24yrs.
Boyle did make his debut, so there's not much to say about him and we'll have to see how much limited overs game time he now gets. He did spend some time with Durham though which is great to see, while Bowes looks like a very interesting young man because he's born and raised in South Africa, having already played First-Class cricket in SA. Bowes did feature earlier this year, but didn't make many waves with his bat, now the waves are rippling through the domestic scene and with a FC average of 26.15 compared to a List-A average of 54.25, Bowes could be someone to keep close tabs on as Canterbury move into limited overs cricket.
Mark Chapman and Michael Guptill-Bunce both busted batting slumps (to some extent) for Auckland. Having already played ODI's for Hong Kong, Chapman has been a young batsman I've been watching closely this season, however Chapman has struggled for form in putting up scores of 28, 6 and 33 prior to this game. Chapman hit 81 against Canterbury and with a List-A average of 55.12, I'm eager to see Chapman move into limited overs stuff while Guptill-Bunce's slump is more a sign of how bloody good he has been.
After hitting three 50+ scores in five innings' Guptill-Bunce slumped to three straight innings innings without a 50. I'll keep mentioning Guptill-Bunce as long as he's stacking up impressive numbers and this week, I'll put it like this; in 21 FC games Guptill-Bunce has 12 innings' scoring over 50 runs. That basically means that Guptill-Bunce is putting up a 50+ score most games.
Tarun Nethula can't be slept on either and in similar fashion to how Guptill-Bunce just scores runs without much fluff, Nethula just takes wickets; Nethula took his third 5-wicket-haul of the season (five games).
Central Districts Stags vs Northern Districts Knights (draw)
Notables
CD 225
Will Young - 61.
Brett Hampton - 3/36 off 14 overs @ 2.57rpo, Darryl Mitchell - 3/54 off 17 overs @ 3.17rpo.
ND 153
Ajaz Patel - 5/22 off 17.2 overs @ 1.26rpo.
CD 377/5dec
Ben Smith - 70, Tom Bruce - 115, Dane Cleaver - 108.
ND 295/7 (chasing 450)
Bharat Popli - 60, Nick Kelly 56*.
Notes
While we saw a glimpse of Aotearoa's young bowling talent in Rangiora with Ferguson, Jamieson and Nuttall doing their thang, in Napier we were treated to a showcase of Aotearoa's young batting talent. Will Young (24yrs) hit 61 in the first innings for CD which was his 22nd half-century of his career while his CD homies Tom Bruce (25yrs) and Dane Cleaver (24yrs) both hit centuries while Ben Smith hit 70 in the second innings as well.
I've labelled Smith as the best opener you've never heard of, although he didn't quite reinforce that with how he started this season. Smith hit his first half-century of the season here, the 13th of his career and the 25-year-old averages 38.45 in FC cricket.
Bruce hit 115 and Cleaver was left not-out on 108, both scoring at strike-rates over 80 and this was the third FC century for either batsman. All three have FC averages over 40 with Young averaging 40.11, Cleaver (also a wicket-keeper) averages 41.69 while Bruce is a low key beast, averaging 46.51. In four games this season, Bruce has hit three half-centuries and a century; in seven innings' he has four 50+ scores.
Also, Bharat Popli (26yrs) hit his first 50+ score of the season. Popli made us all pay attention last season but hadn't gone past 41 runs this season.
Nethula takes wickets for fun, so does CD spinner Ajaz Patel; Patel joins Nethula with three 5-fors in five games this season.
Otago vs Wellington (draw)
Notables
Otago 208
Jeetan Patel - 6/55 off 26.4 overs @ 2.06.
Wellington 350/7dec
Luke Ronchi - 119, Matt McEwan - 56.
Notes
Not much to report on here, besides the performances of Ronchi and Patel. Ronchi didn't make the cut for the Blackcaps ODI squad, possibly pointing to his international days being close to over while Patel's Blackcaps career also looks to be over, so there's not much Blackcaps Context for these two.
Jeetz however, joins Nethula and Ajaz in taking a 5-wicket-haul as he steam-rolled through the Otago batting line up to take 6 wickets, conceding just 2.06rpo. While Nethula and Ajaz put up their third 5-wicket-hauls of the season, this was Jeetz's first 5-for of the season, which is despite taking wickets in all but one innings this season.
Quiet shout out for Wellington's Matt McEwan, who has only played two games this season but he's contributed strongly in both. McEwan took 4/80 and hit 63 against Auckland and against Otago he took a wicket and hit 56.
Leaders
Bowling
Tarun Nethula (Aux): 26 wickets off 202 overs, 26.92avg, 3.46rpo.
Ajaz Patel (CD): 25 wickets off 251.2 overs, 27.08avg, 2.69rpo.
Kyle Jamieson (Cant): 24 wickets off 123.1 overs, 18avg, 3.50rpo.
Batsmen
Luke Woodcock (Welly): 446 runs from 6 inns, 89.20avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.
Brad Wilson (Otago): 433 runs from 7 inns, 72.16avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.
Hamish Rutherford (Otago): 390 runs from 7 inns, 55.71avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.
Blackcaps Context
Colin Munro slotted back into the Auckland team and got straight into it, smoking a century at a ruthless strike-rate of 125.58; his ability to score all round the wicket and how hard he hits the ball stand out as key points. Munro has strike-rates over 100 in both List-A and domestic T20 cricket, but he's also got a fairly freakish FC strike-rate of 94.62 and it'll interesting to see how Munro goes when the Plunket Shield returns as he could bump that strike-rate up over 100, striking at over 100 in all three domestic formats. Until then, here's hoping Munro gives it a good ol' whack with his Auckland homie Colin de Grandhomme in the Blackcaps' middle order.