Domestic Cricket Guide - Ford Trophy #7
Duff-man, Duff-meister, Duff-o-do-little
Oh you've gotta love some finals cricket. Especially when efforts like Central Districts getting themselves out of a hole at 5/106 to chase down Canterbury's 295, especially when Jesse Ryder is the second best batsmen and especially when the best Ford Trophy batsman in Neil Broom is also hitting centuries in the clutch.
Led by fine performances with the bat from Ryder and Ben Wheeler, CD fought back to beat Canterbury, who now face Otago after the Volts touched up Auckland. Otago play Auckland tomorrow, there's a bit of a preview all the way down the bottom of this thingy-ma-jig.
Sizzle, You're On Fire
Jesse Ryder
It's brought me great joy to watch Ryder ride this wave during the Ford Trophy as his 136 off 114 balls was his fifth 50+ score in eight games. Ryder averages 55.50 so far this season in Ford Trophy cricket and his 444 runs have been scored at the highest strike-rate of any batsman in the top-10 (122.31).
Ryder came to the crease in the second over of CD's innings and carried his bat to the 44th over, hitting 13 fours and 7 sixes - 4 sixes came off Todd Astle who went for 84 runs off his 10 overs.
For the record, Jesse Ryder should never be talked about in any conversation regarding the BLACKCAPS. I'm all in on #TeamRyder but #TeamRyder is about supporting Jesse Ryder as I'd support my favourite cricket team, I just want the best for Ryder so any team that he's scoring runs/taking wickets for has my support.
#TeamRyder
Tom Latham
After opening the innings for Canterbury, Tom Latham was also dismissed in the 44th over after also scoring a century. Latham hit 126 off 135 balls to steer Canterbury through the majority of their overs, he just didn't have much support to push Canterbury's score up over 300.
This is a great sign for kiwi cricket fans as Latham has been up and down between domestic cricket and international duties; Latham joined the BLACKCAPS after this game to open in place of Brendan McCullum. Canterbury didn't get the win, but for Latham to showcase his class was a nice little feel good factor.
Neil Broom
Jesse Ryder has scored 50+ runs five times, so to has Neil Broom. The only thing is that Broom has three centuries to Ryder's one and Broom has 508 runs to his name with an average of 84.66.
Broom made light work of Auckland's bowling attack, hitting 109 off 120 balls, carrying his bat from the third ball to the 40th over as Otago set Auckland 313 to win.
Kudos
Ben Wheeler
While Ryder's innings was crucial to CD's win, the Stags would have been playing off for the Grand Final against Otago if it wasn't for Ben Wheeler. Despite playing for the BLACKCAPS as a left-arm swing bowler, Wheeler obviously has talent with willow in hand as his 80* off 77 balls got the Stags home.
Wheeler has only batted in three innings' but he's already got two 50s and has 140 runs to his name, which when compared to Colin de Grandhomme for example who played nines games and only managed 87 runs, is rather staggering.
Michael Bracewell | Jimmy Neesham
Supporting Broom were Michael Bracewell and Jimmy Neesham, two hard-hitting lefties who have had very different Ford Trophy campaigns. Bracewell has found form in conjunction with the Volts' run into the finals, as his 69 off 75 balls was his third 50+ score in a row.
Neesham's 59 off 54 balls was his first half-century of the entire Ford Trophy.
3-Wicket-Bowlers
No bowler really stood out as being on fire, there were however a collection of 3-wicket-hauls that deserve some loving. Seth Rance took his wicket tally to 17 with 3/56 off 10 while Doug Bracewell also chipped in with 3/55 off his 10 overs, which rather suprisingly were Bracewell's first wickets in the Ford Trophy.
Kyle Jamieson continues to deliver for Canterbury, after I highlighted him as someone to keep an eye on which is nice. Jamieson took 3/59 off his 10 overs, including CD's three best batsmen (George Worker, Ryder and Will Young). Ed Nuttall kept his spot as the leading wicket-taker, with 2/45 off 8.3 overs keeping him one wicket ahead of Rance.
Donovan Grobbelaar took 3/48 off 8 overs, but Auckland lost so who cares. Auckland were rolled for 159 thanks to young Otago swinger Jacob Duffy's 3/16 off 6 overs which sees Duffy creep up the bowling charts after missing a few early games; Duffy has 13 wickets in six games at an average of 16.07 and an economy rate of 4.73, only Rance has a better average and economy rate than Duffy.
Hmm...
So this gives us the battle of the South Island as the qualifying final with Canterbury hosting Otago. Canterbury won't be able to call on Latham or Henry Nicholls as they will be with the BLACKCAPS which leaves a large hole in the Cantabs' batting line up while Otago have a settled team and are simply on a roll.
I've been watching this roll that Otago are on for a few weeks now and the last box that needed ticking was some runs from Neesham. That's ticked and I can't look past picking Otago in this game as their team sheet simply has no weakness and it's nicely balanced with two quality spinners, two quality seamers and destructive batsmen.
One match up or battle that I will be paying close attention to is Ed Nuttall vs Jacob Duffy, two of the premier up and coming swing bowlers in Aotearoa. Nuttall will need to make a dent in Otago's top order, if he could get the likes of Bracewell, Broom, Rutherford and Neesham cheaply then that'd be ideal. Duffy won't quite have the same pressure as his batting line up could chase 400 if asked of them, however it will be Duffy who will be tasked with extracting any swing/seam as Neil Wagner will be up to his usual Wagner antics.
I picked both semi-finals, so go put some money on Otago.