Domestic Cricket Daily: Ford Trophy #10
The Ford Trophy final is set with Wellington beating Central Districts yesterday, giving them a shot at Canterbury in Rangiora on Saturday. CD did alright to reach 247 from their 50 overs thanks to George Worker's 85, Will Young's 57 and Josh Clarkson's 42 but with CD's bowling attack lacking a strike-weapon or two and Wellington's batting line up full to the brim with experience perfectly designed for a high-pressure chase, you had to back the Firebirds to grab the win.
Which they did, reaching their 248-run target in 49.3 overs thanks to 80 from Michael Papps and solid contributions from everyone else, especially Luke Woodcock who hit 41* off 25 balls to steer Wellington to victory.
You can't really go wrong with having Woodcock batting down the order as he does in 50-over cricket as he's got a wealth of experience to handle all situations and he'll more than likely slot back in as an opener for Wellington once the Plunket Shield sparks up. Despite batting No.6, Woodcock is averaging 41.50 in the Ford Trophy and this score came at a crucial time as he had hit two half-centuries to start the Ford Trophy before he was unable to pass a score of 18 in five innings' before this match-winning knock.
It was fitting that Woodcock and Matt Taylor were the two not-out batsmen as they are currently Wellington's two best run-scorers and they offer a yin-yang middle order combination. Woodcock only has a strike-rate of 76.38 in the Ford Trophy this season but makes up for that in other aspects of his batsmanship - and he can turn it up when it matters - while Taylor's averaging 65.50 at a strike-rate of 112.44 in the Ford Trophy. In this game it was Taylor who played second-fiddle with Woodcock hitting 2 sixes while Taylor hit didn't hit any.
Wellington are in this position though because of Anurag Verma and Hamish Bennett, both of whom have 15 wickets and are 2nd/3rd in wickets. Taylor is the only Wellington batsman in the top-10 run-scorers and the Bennett/Verma combination did the trick once again as Bennett took 2/49 @ 4.90rpo, while Verma took 4/49 @4.90rpo.
Verma especially, has enjoyed a breakthrough in the Ford Trophy this summer as he'd sat around the fringes of Northern Districts before then moving to Wellington. He's the only bowler to take a 5-wicket-haul in the Ford Trophy and he's taken his 15 wickets in just six innings' which is only matched by Ish Sodhi's 14 wickets in six innings. Bennett for example has taken his 15 wickets in eight innings.
Jeetan Patel didn't do a whole lot in this game (0/57 @ 5.70rpo) but his 11 wickets have him ranked 7th in wickets, giving Wellington three bowlers in the top-10 wicket-takers list. Compare that to Canterbury and Wellington have a clear advantage with the ball as Canterbury only have Tim Johnston (5th with 12 wickets) and Logan van Beek (9th with 10 wickets) in the top-10.
Neither team has been overly impressive with the bat as Canterbury only have Henry Nicholls in the top-10 run-scorers, meaning that there's only one batsman from either team in the top-10. Nicholls makes up for that though with his 350 runs coming from just five games and he's the only batsman in the top-10 who has played less than seven games.
This does set up an intriguing battle between Wellington's bowling attack (Bennett/Verma) and what should be a strong Canterbury batting line up thanks to the inclusion of Tom Latham. If Latham plays, he and Nicholls will be crucial wickets and Wellington have pace, seam and spinning variety to test those two and the likes of Peter Fulton, Andrew Ellis and Todd Astle.
Canterbury have a gun in Nicholls, although I'm struggling to see Canterbury's bowling attack being capable of rolling through Wellington's batting crew. Wellington have leaned on their bowlers so far but in a big ol' final like this, a veteran batting line up is crucial and I suspect we'll see the likes of Papps, Woodcock, Taylor, Hamish Marshall, Michael Pollard, Tom Blundell stand up to lead the Firebirds to victory.