Domestic Cricket Daily: Kyle Jamieson and Cameron Fletcher Return To Dominate
Coming in hot off their Aotearoa 'A' excursion, Canterbury's Kyle Jamieson and Cameron Fletcher were in dominant form in their win over Otago Volts. Canterbury has gone through a bit of a refresh in recent seasons as veterans retire and a young crop now fills all 1st 11 spots, meaning that for the two Aucklanders who have settled with Cantebury, this is the time to bring their growth and development with Aotearoa A back into Canterbury with some leadership vibes.
Jamieson was especially impressive in his second Plunket Shield appearance, taking 4w @ 2.29rpo, then hitting 67 batting #8 and helping to maintain Canterbury's strong position by taking 3w @ 1.90rpo in the second innings. That's 7w and a cheeky 67 runs, which is even funkier when we chuck in Jamieson's first Plunket Shield game of the summer a week prior in which he hit 15 and 51, along with 2w and 1w against Auckland.
Oh, we interviewed Kyle Jamieson back in the day. Give it a geeze.
In just two games, Jamieson has put himself in the upper half of the wicket-taking rankings with 10w @ 15.30/2.28rpo and he's got 133 runs @ 44.33avg (plus a relatively almighty strike-rate of 73.88). For the unique seamer, this is the product of being available to play - he's battled various injuries throughout his short career - and swinging back into domestic cricket after being part of the tour to United Arab Emirates as well as four-day cricket vs India A.
Playing one four-dayer vs Pakistan A and then two vs India A, Jamieson didn't exactly demand attention with the ball. Jamieson bowled in 6inns, taking just 4w with 3w coming in the first innings of the Pakistan A game then 1w in the first innings of his first game vs India A; Jamieson went wicket-less in 4 of 6inns. Things were slightly better with the bat as he put up scores of 7, 30 and 53.
The beauty here sits in how Jamieson has performed coming back into the domestic circuit. He has clearly taken what he has learned being with Aotearoa A and plugged that growth into Plunket Shield cricket. What I love about Jamieson's bowling is that he combines his natural uniqueness with skill and has the ability to wiggle the ball around. Peep these two second innings wickets below, the first is Jamieson pegging Mitch Renwick lbw with the ball coming into a front pad locked in concrete and then Jamieson nips the ball away from Josh Finnie to catch the outside edge:
Jamieson's plight over the past 2 months raises the idea of not judging A performers to intensely and instead, allowing them to suss out the difficulties of playing overseas or against foreign batsmen before returning to domestic cricket. Sure, exceptional performers like Will Young benefit from strong A showings but for the bulk of these lads it is what they do upon returning to domestic cricket that matters most.
Cameron Fletcher on other hand, has played all four Plunket Shield games as wll as featuring in two four-dayers vs India A. Part of Aotearoa's tremendous wicket-keeping depth, Fletcher is stuck behind the likes of BJ Watling, Tom Blundell, Tim Seifert and Dane Cleaver but is taking the challenge of such hostile competition in his stride.
Anchoring a middle order fight back, Fletcher hit 108 in Canterbury's first innings vs Otago. Batsmen around Fletcher also passed 50 with Leo Carter hitting 78, Henry Shipley 76 and Jamieson 67. Fletcher faced 220 balls, significantly more than the others though and after passing 50 in his last three First Class games, Fletcher must be sizzling with confidence.
Fletcher has two 50+ scores in his four Plunket Shield games this summer, a century (the 108 last round) and a 79 he hit in the previous round. Another way to slice that is Fletcher scoring 202 of his 221 runs, in the last two games and you already know where I'm going with this; Fletcher's scored his Plunket Shield runs since coming back from Aotearoa A duties.
With 19 runs from 3inns prior to Ford Trophy starting, with two ducks, Fletcher didn't have the best start to the Plunket Shield. Then came a solid 228 runs @ 38avg/91. 56sr with one 50+ score in the Ford Trophy before Fletcher was called up to the Aotearoa A team to face India A. That Fletcher was selected for the four-dayers vs India A after the sloppy start to Plunket Shield and then his typically strong middle/late innings hitting in white ball cricket, may suggest that Fletcher was promoted with the intent to 'see what he can do'.
Further taking me down that path was Tim Seifert being listed as the wicket-keeper for Aotearoa A, while Glenn Phillips also played. Dane Cleaver played the first four-dayer as wicket-keeper and hit 53 (also with Seifert and Phillips in the team), making me feel like they gave Cleaver a crack and know he's an underground run-scoring machine before giving Fletcher some game time at this level.
All of that, resulted in Fletcher having a generally alright start to the summer across Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy. He carried that alright-ness into the first game vs India with a duck, then came an innings of 103 in the second game and Fletcher has taken that confidence into his Plunket Shield return with scores of 79, 15 and 108 since.
Both Jamieson and Fletcher have the ability to catch fire in domestic cricket without experiencing the level above. However, the way that they have taken what they learned at the A level and then brought back into Plunket Shield cricket is exactly what kiwi cricket fans want. That's a credit to Jamieson and Fletcher, as well as what a substantial A system can churn out.
Need further Aotearoa A/Plunket Shield musings? Here ya go:
Will Young's rise through Aotearoa A.
Scott Kuggeleijn, Tim Seifert, Glenn Phillips benefit from Aotearoa A stuff.
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Peace and love 27.