Domestic Cricket Daily: Ford Trophy #4
Part of the fun of following domestic cricket is that you get treated to the rise of younger players. As we rolled through Plunket Shield stuff and now with the Ford Trophy, some of the performances from our crop of youngins' are super exciting, just look at the lads who scored runs in Auckland vs Otago; Glenn Phillips, Sean Solia, Mark Chapman, Rob O'Donnell, Tom Bruce and Dane Cleaver, heck even George Worker's still got his best ahead of him. These aren't grizzly veterans dominating, they are Aotearoa's next wave of talent and you'd be wise to stand up and take notice.
Also take notice of how stacked our wicket-keeping depth is at the moment. Phillips and Cleaver are both quality batsmen and Northern Districts' Tim Seifert also hit a half-century this round. These are the blokes who are putting pressure on Tom Blundell, who appears to be next in line and all of them are putting pressure on BJ Watling, or Tom Latham.
Auckland vs Central Districts (Auckland win D/L)
Notables
Auckland 392/3
Martin Guptill - 112, Glenn Phillips - 102, Sean Solia - 70, Mark Chapman - 43, Rob O'Donnell -44.
Blair Tickner - 3/55 @ 5.50rpo.
CD 249/3 off 34.4 overs
George Worker - 107, Tom Bruce - 50, Dane Cleaver - 77.
Notes
We'll start with the centuries, of which there were three. Martin Guptill simply slots back into domestic cricket every time with runs and in four innings' for Auckland, Guptill has hit scores of 56, 128*, 151 (PS) and 112 (FT). There isn't much more you could ask from a Blackcaps batsman who is forced to play more domestic cricket than he would probably like and as long as he's smacking it around, there'll always be that whisper about Guptill.
Some low key competition for Guptill in that back up openers spot in any format is George Worker and his century here only adds fuel to the fire that he deserves another crack at some stage. Worker's FT scores so far; 90, 25, 5, 107*.
Phillips is at the opposite end of the career spectrum, although that hasn't stopped him from putting up Guppy-like numbers. In four innings' Phillips has hit two centuries, one here and one in their last T20 game; big numbers for a 20-year-old.
Not quite as big as Sean Solia's numbers though as the Auckland No.3 put up his third notable score in three innings', owning a List-A average of 153. It remains to be seen if Solia can keep this going and I highly doubt that he can, but the confidence he will gain from immediately scoring runs at No.3 in the Ford Trophy could set him up for a big tournament. The funkiest thing about Solia's batting is that he's averaging 153 while also striking at 119.06sr.
Blackcaps T20 player Tom Bruce had struggled in the opening stanza of the Ford Trophy with three single-digit scores. With the freedom to give it a nudge, Bruce was able to hit 50 off 34 balls and keep CD in this game and it will be interesting to see how Bruce performs in the coming fixtures. Teams will put a high price on his wicket and with Jesse Ryder either going big or getting out and Will Young struggling to buy a run, Bruce will have all eyes on him.
Please don't sleep on Dane Cleaver in the Blackcaps wicket-keeping situation; he's probably my second choice behind Blundell. Cleaver hit 77 off 50 balls and his List-A average of 30.85 isn't as good as his FC average of 41.69.
Will Young's FT scores; 8, 12, 12, 10.
Northern Districts vs Otago (ND Win)
Notables
ND 259 off 49.4 overs.
Dean Brownlie - 71, Tim Seifert - 56.
Michael Rippon - 3/36 @ 3.60rpo, Jimmy Neesham - 2/53 @ 5.48rpo, Christi Viljoen - 3/45 @ 5.62rpo.
Otago 134 off 38.3 overs.
Derek de Boorder - 43.
Scott Kuggeleijn - 2/31 @ 3.44rpo, Zak Gibson - 4/31 @3.44rpo, Ish Sodhi - 2/30 @ 3rpo.
Notes
First it was Brett Randell, then it was Ben Hampton and now it is Zak Gibson's turn to roll through some wickets for ND. Gibson destroyed Otago's top order, picking up four of their top-five batsmen in the first 10 overs and while these three have chimed in with big performances, Scott Kuggeleijn is steadily leading the attack with 2 wickets in each of the four games so far.
Ish Sodhi has moved seamlessly back into domestic cricket, backing up his 2/28 last round with 2/30 here. ND have two bowlers in Kuggeleijn and Sodhi who can be relied upon to take at least a wicket, more importantly though they are both tidy domestic bowlers who aren't be scored on so easily at the moment.
Michael Rippon was Otago's best bowler and while he didn't do much with the bat (two-ball duck) opening alongside veteran Brad Wilson, the Dutch international could be an interesting lad to follow. Rippon is coming into the FT hot off the Desert T20 tournament where he put up impressive numbers with bat and ball; 4/35, 7, 1/15, 40, 2/33, 42. He's a left-arm spinner and at only 25yrs, there could be room for him to extent his stay with Otago beyond this competition.
Dean Brownlie appreciation; 0, 55*, 47, 71.
Wellington vs Canterbury (Wellington win D/L)
Notables
Wellington 166/6 off 27 overs
Matt Taylor - 43.
Logan van Beek - 2/34 @ 8.50rpo, Tim Johnston - 2/25 @ 5rpo.
Canterbury 123/6 off 22.2
Jack Boyle - 68.
Hamish Bennett - 3/9 @ 2.25rpo.
Notes
The two main run-getters in this game are largely unknown quantities with Matt Taylor emerging as a strong hitter for Wellington and Jack Boyle is quietly going about his business in his first three FT games, averaging 50.66. This was Taylor's second notable innings in three FT games after he burst on to the scene with a 48* full to the brim with sixes in the Super Smash final.
Boyle is part of a very low key Canterbury opening partnership alongside South African Chad Bowes. Having passed 40 in all three of his FT games so far, Boyle hit his first half-century and how these two young openers carry the load of responsibility for Canterbury will be interesting to observe.
Leaders
Bat
Sean Solia (Aux): 306 runs @ 153avg/119.06sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
George Worker (CD) 227 runs @ 75.66avg/86.97sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Josh Clarkson (CD): 186 runs @ 186avg/126.53sr, 2 x 50.
Dean Brownlie (ND): 173 runs @ 57.66avg/68.65sr, 2 x 50.
Luke Woodcock (Welly): 159 runs @ 79.50avg/84.12sr, 2 x 50.
Ball
Anurag Verma (Welly): 9 wkts @ 12.55avg/4.64rpo.
Lockie Ferguson (Aux): 8 wkts @ 11.75avg/4.17rpo.
Anaru Kitchen (Otago): 8 wkts @ 14.87avg/3.96rpo.
Scott Kuggeleijn (ND): 8 wkts @ 17.25avg/3.94rpo.
Hamish Bennett (Welly): 7 wkts @ 15.28avg/4.45rpo.