Domestic Cricket Daily: Ford Trophy #8
While other batsmen have more familiar names or catch the eye with their powerful strokes, ask most folk about the most talented young batsman in the country and they'll say that it's Will Young. The captain of the 2012 New Zealand Under 19 team, Young is now the skipper of Central Districts at just 24yrs and in 44 First-Class games he has taken his average with the bat to 40.11avg.
Somehow though, Young slumped in the opening stanza of the Plunket Shield and averaged 25.85 through seven innings'. That slump continued into the Super Smash where Young averaged 21.88 and these struggles of Young, followed those of Northern Districts batsman Bharat Popli who took domestic cricket by storm last season. Young slipped well below his career average and Popli was simply unable to back up his Plunket Shield domination as he also took his FC average of 42.78 and emerged with an average of 20.90 after five Plunket Shield games.
We're in a fortunate position in kiwi cricket where we have numerous batsmen of a high quality doing the rounds (especially in their early/mid-20s), so while Young and Popli have generally struggled this summer, guys like Henry Nicholls, George Worker, Sean Solia, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Bruce, Nick Kelly and Matt Taylor are scoring runs. Saviour that folks.
Yesterday though, Young hit a century for CD in their win over Auckland. CD's top-five batsmen is about as good as they get (Worker, Ryder, Young, Taylor, Bruce) but while Ryder smacked 54 and Bruce enjoyed a return to form with 70 off 53, it was the skipper who demanded attention as he hit 106 off 104 balls. Young hit 15 fours and no sixes while Bruce (6) and Ryder (2) combined for 8 sixes; classic Will Young.
This signals the climax of Young's return to his standing as Aotearoa's best young batsman as he was already riding a wave of handy scores (63, 44, 87) prior to this century. Before this streak of four notable scores, Young had scored 42 runs in four Ford Trophy innings as his slump from the Plunket Shield and Super Smash worked its way into the opening few games of the Ford Trophy.
CD will now face ND in one of the finals on Saturday and even though CD have a batting line up that is stacked, they'll be looking to their captain to lead the way and they don't get much more clutch than Young being on a streak leading into finals cricket.
In that finals game, Young will come up against Popli and the ND opener also enjoyed a little taste of run-scoring success in ND's loss to Otago. Popli hit 69 opening the innings alongside Dean Brownlie and despite Nick Kelly and Daryl Mitchell both hitting half-centuries, Popli's knock could see him gain confidence at a crucial stage.
Still trying to settle on his niche in limited overs cricket, Popli made his Ford Trophy debut this season after playing 26 FC games and prior to this game he had scores of 7, 19, 0, 39 and 14. Five Ford Trophy games and Popli was able to get his first half-century, great timing for Popli and ND.
Yesterday's round of games saw spinners put up some crazy numbers...
George Worker didn't score many runs but he did take 4/22 @ 3.66rpo for CD against Auckland and that's his second-straight game with 4 wickets.
Another lefty, Wellington's Luke Woodcock took 4/50 @ 5rpo and Woodcock sent four of Canterbury's top-five back to the sheds; Latham, Nicholls, Fulton and Astle.
Ish Sodhi couldn't stop Anaru Kitchen's onslaught (143 off 85 balls) but he did blaze his way through Otago's middle/lower order with 4/85 @ 8.50rpo. Sodhi dismissed Neil Broom and Jimmy Neesham.
Todd Astle also wanted in on the fun as he took 3/41 @ 4.10rpo and he snapped the top off Wellington's batting line up, even if Hamish Marshall hit 108 off 100. Astle skittled the stumps of Tom Blundell, Marshall and Luke Ronchi.
Consider the calibre of batsmen who were dismissed by spin this round; Jeet Raval, Colin de Grandhomme, Mark Chapman (Worker - he also got Lockie Ferguson), Latham, Nicholls, Fulton, Astle (Woodcock), Broom, Neesham, Finne, de Boorder (Sodhi), Blundell, Marshall and Rochi (Astle).