2016/17 Super Smash Debrief: Team Grizzly Veterans
Chin up BJ, you're a gun T20 batsman no matter what they say.
So we've dropped Team Youngins' on the masses and with three of the top-five batsmen and bowlers in the Super Smash being veterans, it's time to drop Team Grizzly Veterans. While having such a wave of young talent coming through domestic cricket is incredibly exciting as we look towards the next five years, the presence of so many experienced cricketers and their quality is what's holding domestic cricket together like glue.
It's understandable that the youngins' are well trained in playing T20 cricket as they've grown up with the game. Take the Super Smash's leading run-scorer Glenn Phillips for example; T20 cricket is nothing new for him, neither is the transition between formats as he would have been doing that all throughout school. While these veterans have all played plenty of T20 cricket, it's testament to their ability as cricketers that they have fine-tuned their respective games and undoubtedly dominated the Super Smash.
As I said in the Team Youngins' report, all of this is great for kiwi cricket and although many of these veterans won't represent Aotearoa again, they are ensuring that the bar is set very high in domestic cricket.
Team Grizzly Veterans
Michael Papps, Dean Brownlie, Mahela Jayawardene, BJ Watling, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Todd Astle, Neil Wagner, Hamish Bennett, Seth Rance, Brent Arnel. 12th Man - Tymal Mills.
Michael Papps: You can't go wrong with an opener who averaged 32.50 and stood up as the season reached its climax. Papps' last four innings' saw him hit 80*, 9, 45 and 29 which ensured that Wellington were off and rolling with a platform from which they could attack from. Part of the fun with these Grizzly Veterans is to take a look at their career stats and Papps can sleep well at night, safe in the knowledge that he has an ODI average of 51.75 and over 10,000 First-Class runs.
Bat: 12 inns, 325 runs @32.50avg/120.37sr.
Dean Brownlie: There's not too much power-hitting in this Grizzly Veterans team, yet the opening pair of Papps and Brownlie reflect a more crafty nature to the work of the vets. Brownlie is very similar to Papps in that he was super-solid at the top of the Knights' batting line up; he only had one score less than 14 in 10 innings'. Papps and Brownlie hit two half-centuries each and along with Henry Nicholls, they were the only batsmen to hit over 300 runs without a century.
Bat: 10 inns, 308 runs @30.80avg/139.36sr.
Mahela Jayawardene: The silkiest Grizzly Veteran in the Super Smash, Jayawardene oozed class throughout the tournament and had me wondering why he wasn't over in the Big Bash League with his Sri Lankan comrade Kumar Sangakkara. I reckon Jayawardene enjoyed the leisure activities away from the cricket which makes the Super Smash the perfect destination for him, especially when he had the highest strike-rate of any batsman to score over 200 runs.
Bat: 9 inns, 367 runs @45.87avg/175.59sr.
BJ Watling: The Blackcaps wicket-keeper will wear the gloves for Team Grizzly Veterans and while everyone's hyping up the likes of Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips, it was Watling who had the highest batting average of batsmen with over 200 runs. Watling hit three half-centuries in a row and six of his seven innings' saw him score over 20 runs, forming a dangerous opening combination with Brownlie. Papps deserves to open and Watling's capable to batting anywhere, so Watling slides down to the prestigious No.4 spot.
Bat: 7 inns, 265 runs @53avg/113.73sr.
Neil Broom: The next-best average with over 200 runs is that of Mr Broom, who continues to be a wrecking-ball in domestic cricket with the willow. He only played in six games for Otago, but those six games saw him hit two half-centuries and a 42* plus a 23 and 28, which when you're striking at 140.13 is nothing short of destructive.
Bat: 6 inns, 206 runs @51.50avg/140.13sr.
Grant Elliott: While he scored some handy runs in the Super Smash, Elliott's work with the ball makes him a certain all-rounder selection. Four bowlers had more wickets than Elliott's 11 wickets, only the Central Districts Youngins' (Blair Tickner and George Worker) had better averages than Elliott and his stingey 7.29rpo made him arguably the best seam bowler in the competition.
Bat: 9 inns, 159 runs @22.71avg/129.26sr.
Ball: 11 inns, 11 wickets @20.54avg/7.29rpo.
Todd Astle: Just like there's some room for debate as to whether Elliott finished up as a better seamer than Seth Rance or Brent Arnel, Astle finished tied with George Worker as the leading wicket-takers of the spinners and you could make a case for either as the best spinner overall. Only Jeetan Patel bowled more overs than Astle's 38.2 overs and Astle is more than capable of influencing a game with his batting.
Bat: 6 inns, 60 runs @30avg/122.44sr.
Ball: 10 inns, 13 wickets @20.76avg/7.04rpo.
Neil Wagner: I'm going with a hard-and-fast pace attack, which sees me selecting Wagner over spinner Tarun Nethula. Despite still being shafted from the Blackcaps limited-overs teams, Wagner showed that he can do a sound job in T20 cricket and while he wasn't spectacular, I like the prospect of Wagner and Hamish Bennett offering some hostilities.
Ball: 10 inns, 9 wickets @29.11avg/7.70rpo.
Hamish Bennett: Screw Grant Elliott, his Wellington homie Hamish Bennett was superb in just seven Super Smash games and he took 5 of his 9 wickets in the last two games #Clutch. Bennett also conceded the least runs-per-over of all bowlers not named Tymal Mills and along with Mills, these two were the only bowlers to concede less than 7rpo and take more than 6 wickets.
Ball: 7 inns, 9 wickets @19.22avg/6.92rpo.
Seth Rance/Brent Arnel: These two shared 15 wickets each, so it'd be rude not to make them share a paragraph. Arnel took the trophy home, but it was Rance who took more wickets in his last five games as he took 8/15 wickets while Arnel did most of his damage at the start of the tournament with 3/15 wickets coming in the last five games.
The fact that Arnel is still truckin' around the domestic scene at 38-years-old and sharing the leading wicket-takers spot in T20 cricket is freakish, while Rance is simply continuing his fantastic domestic work, especially in limited overs cricket. Seriously, there's many other names that are perhaps more 'sexy' in terms of being the premier seamers in Aotearoa, but you can't go past Rance who has a List-A bowling average of 20.82 and a T20 average of 21.08.
Rance: 11 inns, 15 wickets @23.93avg/9.01rpo.
Arnel: 12 inns, 15 wickets @24.46avg/8.15rpo.
12th Man
I'm giving the 12th Man spot to English import, who despite being just 24yrs slides into the Grizzly Veteran category thanks to his experience as an international and T20 star. Mills now moves on to the Brisbane Heat as a replacement, largely thanks to his Super Smash exploits which saw him take 10 wickets @23.70avg and finished with the lowest economy rate of the best Super Smash bowlers