Domestic Cricket Guide - Ford Trophy #3
Canterbury and Auckland both grabbed their third win from four games yesterday with Central Districts the other winner on a full day's play in the Ford Trophy. In beating Otago, Canterbury now sit on 15 points, two ahead of Auckland who beat Wellington with the Stags perched in third on 11 points after their win over Northern Districts.
That leaves Otago scrambling at the bottom of the table, with no wins and only two points to their name. Wellington and ND will still be holding on to hope of bridging the gap between them and the leaders, they are however teetering on joining the Volts as the cellar dwellers.
Sizzle, You're On Fire
Jesse Ryder
CD's top order did the trick against ND and it's now official that Jesse Ryder is on fire. The talented lefty hit his second 58 in a row and also chipped in with 2/16 off 6 overs, with his 58 helping CD blaze 363 and his medium-pacers helping CD restrict ND to 282 in reply.
As we know, Ryder doesn't mess around and this 58 came off 42 balls as Ryder came in at No.3. Runs in domestic cricket always sees Ryder's name thrown into the mix for higher honours, I'm of the opinion that that ship has sailed and won't be returning to pick up Ryder which doesn't mean I don't want the best for Ryder. There's still a career to be had and Ryder's shown that he performs where ever he plays which is all we can ask for as fans of Ryder.
Daryl Mitchell
After a lean Super Smash T20 campaign, Daryl Mitchell backed up his 55 against Auckland with 120 off 107 balls in a losing effort for ND. It felt like this was brewing for Mitchell and in what is quickly becoming his trademark style, he effortless he 8 sixes, more than the rest of his team combined.
Unfortunately for the Knights they haven't been able to get their form players working together with Mitchell's strong displays coming after Daniel Flynn had hit back to back 60s. Joel Baker was the next best run-scorer with 48 at No.10 as Mitchell blazed his own trail which wasn't quite enough.
Luckily for everyone, you can get a signed picture of Mitchell
Seth Rance | Ed Nuttall | Lachie Ferguson
As has been the case after each round of games, it's jam-packed at the top of the leading wicket-takers list with Seth Rance, Ed Nuttall and Lachie Ferguson all on 10 wickets. Rance has taken his 10 wickets in 3 innings and has an economy rate of 4.22 so he's ahead by a whisker and if we are taking into account their efficiency as well as pure wickets, Nuttall is hot on Rances' heels.
Nuttall is quickly becoming my favourite domestic bowler. That's no disrespect to Mr Rance as they share similar numbers; Rance averages 11.40 vs Nuttall's 11.60, Rance's economy rate is 4.22, Nuttall's is 4.29. Ferguson's playing the role of the Wild Thing, conceding 5.89 runs an over but you can never sleep on a quick bowler's ability to simply take wickets.
Kudos
Stags Top Five
George Worker continues to enjoy domestic cricket with 62 at the top of the Stags' line up and the Stags made the most of that good start with a timely knock from the young prodigy Will Young (85) and Tom Bruce's second List A half-century. Four of the Stags' top five scored over 50 runs as Ryder, Young and Bruce all had strike-rates over 100 and hit 12 sixes between them.
Canterbury's Middle
Todd Astle was the only Cantabrian to pass 50 with 59 off 85 balls, so he deserves his own kudos ... cool.
Astle's knock was however part of a Canterbury fight back after losing their top three batsmen quickly as Andrew Ellis hit 47 at No.4, Astle hit 59 at No.5, Cameron Fletcher hit 47 at No.7 and Cameron McConchie hit 45 at No.8. This helped Canterbury set Otago 257 to win, which they couldn't quite manage, all out for 210.
Michael Guptill-Bunce | Mark Chapman
Opening with Jeet Raval in place of Glenn Phillips, Michael Guptill-Bunce played a steady hand for Auckland in their win over Wellington. Matt McEwan took 3 early wickets for Wellington and Guptill-Bunce absorbed that pressure to cash in with 73 in his Ford Trophy debut before young Mark Chapman scored his 6th half-century.
I've talked Chapman up a fair bit recently so it was nice to see him amongst the runs; the 21 year old averages 53.15 in List A cricket which includes games for Hong Kong and the Aces.
Michael Papps | Tom Blundell
As a true-blue OG of domestic cricket, Michael Papps continues to do the business for Wellington, it just wasn't enough for the win. Papps and Tom Blundell both hit 70s as the Firebirds tried to chase down Auckland's 289 to win with Papps hitting his 30th List A half-century (72) and Blundell smacking 11 boundaries in his 73.
This came with support from Craig Cachopa who scored 49 after back to back ducks.
Joel Baker | Todd Astle
ND's right-arm medium-pacer Joel Baker is creeping under the radar in terms of wickets as he's got 9 to his name (more expensive that the lads on 10 wickets) while Canterbury's leg-spinning veteran Todd Astle also can't be slept on. Astle is arguably the best bowler so far in the Ford Trophy having taken 8 wickets at an average of 9.87 and an economy rate of 3.29 runs an over.
Canterbury are at the top of the table, which should come as a surprise when you consider that Nuttall and Astle both feature in the top-five most dangerous bowlers so far. One's a left-arm swinger, one's a leggy, how cool's that?
Hmm...
Young/sters
Will Young's 85 for CD is his first major score of this Ford Trophy campaign and I'm interested in where he goes from here. I've got Young as our most talented young batsmen, but there's a fair crop of youngster's competing hard for that title and with the Stags competing strongly so far, Young could flick the switch.
BJ Watling
We all wondered what the world was coming to as BJ Watling struggled for runs in Test cricket and it seems like that lack of form has continued into his Ford Trophy campaign. Watling has hit scores of 10, 21, 39 and 26 so far with the Knights struggling one only one win so far.
Shitty Otago
In terms of experienced talent, Otago might take the cake yet here they are, currently holding the wooden spoon. Brad Wilson, Michael Bracewell, Neil Broom, Hamish Rutherford, Jimmy Neesham, Sam Wells, Derek de Border, Mark Craig, Neil Wagner, Jacob Duffy and Warren Barnes are all know names to domestic cricket nerds, they just can't win cricket games.
Otago = All the gear, no idea?