Domestic Cricket Daily: T20 Super Smash #1
Glenn Phillips is another South African-kiwi rippin' up in Aotearoa
The Super Smash is underway and as cricket is a beautiful thingy regardless of the format, we'll be all over the T20 stuff as we are Plunket Shield cricket and soon Ford Trophy cricket.
Before I get into some specific stuff for each game, I'll start with a note on the three batsmen to score over 50 runs; Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman for Auckland, along with Tom Blundell for Wellington. Blundell was the wicket-keeper selected for the NZ 'A' team to face Pakistan - a game that never took place - and that basically means that the national selectors view Blundell as the bloke right now who is next up to replace BJ Watling.
Blundell's best chance will come in the limited overs formats, which means a 63 of 42 balls in the first game of the Super Smash is ideal. Interestingly, Auckland opening batsman Phillips also keeps-wicket and he blazed 55 off 32 at the top of the order for the Aces. Phillips has been a name that many eager kiwi cricket fans have had jotted down in their notepads for a few years now and it looks as though he'll be taking over from Brad Cachopa as the Super Smash wicket-keeper.
The most impressive individual performance however came via Hong Kong international Mark Chapman, who hit 76 off just 32 balls at a strike-rate of 237.50 including no less than seven maximums. Chapman's just 22-years-old and while he doesn't appear to be a powerful hitter of the ball, he does exactly that and along with Phillips who is just 19yrs, there's some intriguing talent on display for Auckland.
Auckland vs Otago (Auckland win)
Notables
Auckland 198/5 @9.90rpo.
Glenn Phillips - 55 (171.87sr), Mark Chapman 76 (237.50sr)
Bradley Scott - 2/34 @ 8.50rpo.
Otago 176/7 @8.80rpo
Anaru Kitchen - 42 (140sr), Derek de Boorder - 44 (125.71).
Donovon Grobbelaar - 2/36 @9rpo, Tarun Nethula - 2/28 @7rpo
Notes
Both of Otago's notable scores came from batsmen who have moved down to Otago from Auckland (Kitchen, de Boorder) which is cool, while Mitchell McClenaghan's return to the bowling crease for Auckland didn't exactly yield any great results.
McClenaghan conceded 11.33rpo in his 3 overs and only Otago's Jacob Duffy conceded more runs-per-over.
Don't sleep on Auckland's spin-twins. Tarun Nethula and Rob Nicol both bowled their full 4 overs and only went at 7rpo and 7.25rpo respectively, while Chapman also chipped in with an over of his left-arm tweakers that only conceded 5 runs. Compared that to Otago's Kitchen and Josh Finne, who combined for just 5 overs.
Northern Districts vs Wellington (ND win)
ND 142 @7.28rpo
Nathan Reardon - 34 (141sr), Corey Anderson - 34 ( 125.92sr)
Brent Arnel - 3/21 @5.25rpo.
Wellington 135/9 @ 6.75rpo
Tom Blundell - 63 (150sr).
Darryl Mitchell - 4/35 @8.75rpo, Ben Laughlin - 3/13 @3.25rpo.
Notes
The Knights got great value from their imports with Aussies Nathan Reardon and Ben Laughlin leading the way with bat and ball. Reardon was part of a ND top order that scored the bulk of their runs and their small total was well defended thanks to the expertise of Laughlin who is earning a living from T20 cricekt. Compare the contributions of these two to that of Wellington's English import Jade Dernbach who took 3/35 @10rpo and ND will be chuffed with their purchases.
Darryl Mitchell enjoyed a bag of wickets and his medium-pace could be an interesting asset to keep an eye on as he's very much a wicket-to-wicket bowler that has a few options up his sleeve, especially if he can score some runs in the ND middle order as well.
Jeetan Patel and Ish Sodhi conceded just 5.25 and 6.75 respectively as they took the new-ball.
Central Districts vs Canterbury (CD win)
Notables
CD 198/6 @9.90rpo
George Worker - 36 (112.50sr), Tom Bruce - 39 ( 162.50sr), Doug Bracewell - 37 (176.19sr).
Andrew Ellis - 3.49 @12.25rpo.
Canterbury 77/3 @8.71rpo (chasing 85 off 8.5 overs).
Notes
The only major take-away from this game is how beneficial getting a bunch of quick-fire scores of 30-odd can be. CD didn't have anyone go big, however all for batsmen who scored over 30 runs (Worker, Will Young, Bruce, Bracewell) scored those runs at strike-rates over 100. Bruce and Bracewell scored at over 150sr , while Josh Clarkson and Ben Wheeler only faced 11 balls between them but they both score at over 200sr.
Canterbury's revised target forced them to whack it from the outset, but the CD innings shows how you can build a solid target without one major contribution. Just get a few 30/40's and make sure they are scored quickly.
That doesn't reflect too well on Canterbury's spinners, with Tim Johnston and Jeremy Benton conceding 13rpo (2 overs) and 10rpo (3 overs) respectively.
Leaders
Batsmen
Mark Chapman (Aux): 76 runs, 1 inns, 76avg, 237.50sr.
Tom Blundell (Welly): 63 runs, 1 inns, 63avg, 150sr.
Glenn Phillips (Aux): 55 runs, 1 inns, 55 avg, 171.87sr.
Bowlers
Darryl Mitchell (ND): 4 wickets, 4 overs, 8.75rpo.
Ben Laughlin (ND): 3 wickets, 4 overs, 3.25rpo.
Brent Arnel (Welly): 3 wickets, 4 overs, 5.25rpo.