Domestic Cricket Daily: Ford Trophy #6
Two Ford Trophy games enjoyed a result on Wednesday, while the game between Central Districts and Wellington couldn't be completed. All that happened in that game was George Worker hitting 80 and Will Young hitting 44; Worker's knock continues his strong form this season and keeps his name in Blackcaps contention while Young is slowly getting back around some runs.
We had two centuries in the Canterbury vs Northern Districts game with Henry Nicholls once again showing that he's too good to merely play domestic cricket. Young ND wicket-keeper Tim Seifert is part of that cluster of wicket-keepers who are pretty damn good and if you've been sleeping under a rock; we are stacked with young wicket-keepers.
Canterbury vs ND (Canterbury win)
Notables
Canterbury 275/7
Henry Nicholls - 140.
Scott Kuggeleijn - 3/29 @ 2.90rpo, Ish Sodhi - 2/60@ 6rpo.
ND 276 off 49.3 overs
Daryl Mitchell - 57, Tim Seifert - 104.
Logan van Beek - 4/55 @ 6.47rpo, Tim Johnston - 3/47 @ 4.70rpo.
Notes
If I told you that we have a 25-year-old batsman who has hit four 50+ scores in the last four games he's played in, you'd probably be pretty excited, right? Henry Nicholls has backed up a 53 and 98 in the Bangladesh Test series with 76 last round and now 140. After just two Ford Trophy games, Nicholls is the 7th top run-scorer while everyone above him as played either five or six games and only Martin Guptill and the phenom Josh Clarkson share averages over 100.
Tim Seifert really shouldn't be slept on in that wicket-keeping race, despite some struggles in the Super Smash. Batting down the order for ND, Seifert has a century and half-century in five games which has him ranked just below Nicholls in runs. Funnily enough, Seifert has 208 runs while Auckland's Glenn Phillips has 218 (five games each), but it's Seifert's strike-rate of 114.91 that stands out with Phillips striking at 83.20.
The streak of Scott Kuggeleijn continues as well with the ND seamer taking 2 wickets in the opening four games of the Ford Trophy before stepping up and taking 3 in the last two games. That has Kuggeleijn leading all wicket-takers and even though he's bowled the most overs of any bowler (53), Kuggeleijn also has the lowest bowling average of the top bowlers (14.35) and his 3.79rpo is the lowest of the leading bowlers as well.
Could this be a breakout performance for Logan van Beek? The Canterbury seamer took 4/55 after an up and down limited overs season and as an intriguing prospect coming through the ranks, I'll be interested in how he performs from this point on.
Otago vs Auckland
Notables
Otago 340/7
Michael Rippon - 83, Josh Finnie - 73.
R Sandhu - 3/79 @ 7.90rpo, Donovon Grobbelaar 2/54 @ 6.75rpo.
Auckland 307/7
Jeet Raval - 63, Sean Solia - 64, Rob Nicol - 48.
Neil Wagner - 2/56 @ 5.60rpo, Michael Rippon - 2/48 @ 4.80rpo.
Notes
Sean Solia is holding down the top spot with the runs as he snuck in a 60-odd to take his tally to four notable scores in five games. Interestingly, his 64 here came at a strike-rate of 94.11, well below his FT strike-rate of 111.37.
Call it the game of the Africans if you wanna because Otago's African crew consisting of Michael Rippon, Derek de Boorder, Christi Viljoen and Neil Wagner went up against Auckland's Glenn Phillips, Donovon Grobbelaar and well, that's it (Colin Munro and Colin de Grandhomme are on Blackcaps duty. The way all these lads have performed in kiwi domestic cricket since joining has been kinda crazy and we've got another example in Rippon, who has taken wickets and scored runs in all three of his FT games. Rippon backed up 3/36 in his debut with 43 and 1/35 in his second before hitting 83 and taking 2/48 in this game.
As far as young phenoms go, you should probably take note of Josh Finnie's name. The 20-year-old has a List-A average of 34.50 and strike-rate of 104.02 and that's with just one half-century - 73* off just 46 balls, 5 x fours, 5 x sixes. Finnie didn't really do too much in the Super Smash but he's easing into his FT work nicely with scores of 3, 39 and 73*.
Leaders
Bat
Sean Solia (Aux): 372 runs @ 93avg/111.37sr, 1 x 100, 3 x 50.
George Worker (CD): 309 runs @ 77.25avg/85.83sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Daryl Mitchell (ND): 241 runs @ 60.25avg/90.26sr, 2 x 50.
Josh Clarkson (CD): 230 runs @ 115avg/117.34sr, 2 x 50.
Nick Kelly (ND): 227 runs @ 56.72avg/84.70sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Ball
Scott Kuggeleijn (ND): 14 wkts @ 14.35avg/3.79rpo.
Anurga Verma (Welly): 10 wkts @ 16.10avg/4.68rpo.
Tim Johnston (Can): 10 wkts @ 17.70avg/4.53rpo.
Anaru Kitchen (Ota): 9 wkts @ 23.22avg/4.97rpo.
Lockie Ferguson (Aux): 8 wkts @ 11.75avg/4.17rpo.