Domestic Cricket Daily: More Centuries In Ford Trophy Round Two
There is no shortage of contenders for Aotearoa's most sizzling batsmen right now and any keen observer of domestic cricket would throw up a few names that aren't quite as 'sexy' as the other as Michael Bracewell and Hamish Rutherford smacked centuries in Ford Trophy round two. Bracewell and Rutherford don't exactly spring to mind when pondering the best domestic batsmen, thus fringe Blackcaps, yet their form across the start of Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy is undeniable.
Bracewell, for example captains a Wellington Firebirds batting line up featuring the Kiwi-African trio of Andrew Fletcher, Malcolm Nofal and Devon Conway; all of whom have received decent air-time in Domestic Cricket Daily. Jimmy Neesham comes in one spot below Bracewell and despite being a 27-year-old skipper, Bracewell isn't the bloke who fans would point out as the one to watch in that Wellington batting group.
In hitting 120 off 127 balls in Wellington's loss to Auckland, Bracewell has continued his hot start to the season. The lefty played all his strokes, pulling anything short and elegantly driving on any over-pitched bullkaka as he hit his third 50+ score in 5inns of domestic cricket so far this summer. Bracewell had scores of 53, 32* and 87 in the Plunket Shield before a 10 in round one of the Ford Trophy and now this hundy. This has Bracewell averaging 86 in Plunket Shield and 65 in Ford Trophy.
Bracewell hit a bit of a plateau, either side of moving from Otago to Wellington but he's now a senior figure in the Wellington batting group and appears to be relishing this opportunity. Like Rutherford, it's too early in the season to suggest that Bracewell could be playing himself into the Blackcaps mixer, however given Bracewell's experience at this level, he's the type of player who be called upon if the stars aligned; he's young, but not too young and knows his game well.
In the Plunket Shield, Rutherford hit a century against a Northern Districts bowling attack featuring Trent Boult, Neil Wagner, Colin de Grandhomme and Ish Sodhi. Boult and Wagner were present as Rutherford hit his second century of the summer, again vs ND as the streaky opener was brutal on anything slightly down leg-side.
With a hundy in both competitions, Rutherford joins Bracewell in the top-10 run-scorers for both competitions. Funnily enough, Bracewell and Rutherford a tied on 130 runs in the Ford Trophy, with a not-out for Rutherford bumping his average up to 130. Of the top-five batsmen, Bracewell has the highest strike-rate with 97.74sr, while Rutherford's 75.14sr is more par for the course.
There was a lot of action on the cusp of the Blackcaps mix and as I watched the highlights of these knocks, I kept thinking that this group of guys could force their way into back up positions over the next 24 months. Sure, there are younger lads who are the sexier names, but as Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham both notched up scores of 63 in that Auckland vs Wellington game, I came to appreciate the grizzly domestic veterans in their mid-20’s.
Neesham helped take Wellington close to their target of 277 (all out for 263), with 63 off 59 balls batting #5. This was Neesham's second 50+ score of the summer after he registered a Plunket Shield half-century and he's now got the second highest strike-rate of the notable Ford Trophy batsmen of 115sr. Neesham and Bracewell are weirdly similar as powerful lefties, who play shots all around the wicket and tend to score swiftly in the one-day format, plus they were Otago homies.
76 off 109 from Mitchell took ND to a total of 179, which was easily chased down by Otago via Rutherford's hundy and 50* from Neil Broom. Mitchell is officially on a streak now with two 50+ scores in two Ford Trophy games, which is only matched by Auckland's Sean Solia. Keep in mind that Mitchell was 3rd in Ford Trophy run last summer, averaging 59.16 with a reasonable strike-rate of 104.41 and now he's gone back to back with halfies.
Mitchell is the best batsman in ND's line up and his runs are crucial given that the next best ND batsman is Brett Hampton, who gives it a whack (119.14sr). Mitchell is 3rd in runs, Hampton is 6th and then you need to go all the way down to 24th where Dean Brownlie sits to round out ND's leading batsmen.
Of course, there's only one lad to finish with and that's Sean Solia who hit 63 for Auckland vs Wellington and now has a century and half-century from 2inns. This is getting creepy with the resemblance to Solia's 2016/17 Ford Trophy campaign and while it's weird to discuss his 196avg, I'm still intrigued by his slick strike-rate of 88.28 - which took a dip as his 63 runs came from 84 balls.
Solia has a clear record of scoring swiftly at the top of the order for Auckland, not in a brutal way but in a silky kinda way. His 63 featured 3 sixes and just 2 fours, sixes that stem from a mere flash of the hands. Solia is the youngest of this crew mentioned here and is probably the furthest away from the Blackcaps mix, yet he has already shown signs of being the most dominant Ford Trophy force in Aotearoa and we've seen what happens when Solia's is batting with runs/confidence behind him.
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