What better way to start the kiwi cricket summer than a couple lower order hundies and piles of wickets? The first round of Plunket Shield cricket is in motion and I'm going to let the Northern Districts Knights vs Central Districts Stags game meditate as Hamilton's in slow motion as far as playing cricket goes, in stark contrast to how fast the other two games are moving.

Auckland Aces are hosting Otago Volts and Wellington Firebirds are hosting Canterbury (surely we need a name thingy for the Cantabs?) and while both games have plenty of top order batting funk, in the seven innings played across these two games there are just two 50+ scores from top order batsmen. The two blokes who have hit centuries are Michael Rippon for Otago and Ben Horne for Auckland, both of whom batted #7 in their respective line ups.

Rippon's century came first, scoring 106 after Otago were 33/6. The key note for anything Rippon is doing early in the Plunket Shield is that he had an awesome Plunket Shield campaign last summer where he finished 9th in total runs with three 50+ scores in four games, while also taking 12w @ 23.33avg/3.07rpo.

Here's how Rippon finished last summer with the bat: 41*, 16, 78, 30, 6, 95*.

Guess who dismissed Rippon eventually? Aces seamer Kyle Jamieson, who steamed his way to 5w @ 3.04rpo to catch a similar vibe to Rippon as Jamieson was sizzling in the back end of last summer and took that form into this first up Plunket Shield game. The easy ... kinda lazy insight on Jamieson is how tall he is and wow he gets so much bounce, overlooking a fairly impressive skill-set for a seamer and when you combine the height/bounce package with the skill of moving the ball, then we're cooking.

First, Jamieson nipped one back into righty Mitch Renwick...

Then came the height/bounce combo to get Anaru Kitchen caught behind...

After moving the ball into a righty, Jamieson went through the gate of Nick Kelly by appearing to nip it back into the lefty...

Jamieson offered a juicey out-swinger to Rippon...

And Michael Rae probably wasn't ready for a massive in-ducker...

In his 5 wickets, Jamieson moved the ball both ways as well as using his height/bounce. Auckland's been a bit humid over the past few days and obviously pitches are as green as your green thumb, making all the movement of the ball that bit easier. This is a key aspect of Jamieson's bowling though there have been many signs of Jamieson having skills to go with his physical stature.

In Auckland's innings with the bat, Ben Horne hit a cheeky 162. Martin Guptill started his campaign with 65, batting #5 and Danru Ferns supported Horne late in the innings with 63* batting #10.

Big Gup had a low key solid Plunket Shield last season, scoring a century and two halfies in just three games to average 45.83. If you're a domestic cricket freak, you'd be wise to catch Guptill batting for Auckland over the next few weeks and while there are plenty of Blackcaps battlers doing the Plunket Shield rounds, Guptill's chillin' in Auckland's middle order and that sounds like a recipe for some Guppy funk.

As for Horne, Auckland's wicket-keeper. Guptill scored 275 runs last summer in the Plunket Shield and Horne was right behind him on 273 runs, averaging 45.50 via three not-outs. Horne appears to be nicely suited to whacking boundaries in coloured clothing and he has strike-rates that reflect his (103.57sr in List-A, 137.27 in T20), although he's earning his stripes in First Class cricket with an average of 31 after 28 games.

It's Horne who has made it easier for Glenn Phillips to play as a batsman (batting #3 for Aces) and I'm refraining from bumping up the Aotearoa wicket-keeper hype just yet, yet Horne's showing a lovely ability to finish innings.

In Wellington, Matt Henry took 4w @ 1.45rpo for Canterbury and again, this is a continuation o Henry's steady work last summer. If you were only buzzing about the Blackcaps, you'd think Henry fell of a cliff with his bowling and you may not have noted that after returning from Australia, Henry took wickets in both Ford Trophy games he played, then Henry took 8w in his return to Plunket Shield - the last game of the season.

That means that Henry has taken 4w in each of his last 3inns bowled. How about the fizz from Henry...

Not too many runs have been scored in Wellington as Hamish Bennett led the Firebirds attack with 4w for himself and then Will Williams and Daryl Mitchell both took 4w for Canterbury in their second dig with the ball. Devon Conway did manage 81 for Wellington to set up the final innings where Canterbury start today chasing 120 runs.

Here's Conway's last 10 games of last season: 69, 49 (T20), 138, 59, 57, 112, 1 (LA), 26, 0, 0, 19*, 94 (FC).

Soooooooo how the fuck do you get Conway out? Maybe Mitchell knows as he snared Conway's wicket in both innings.

First Mitchell pushed one across Conway, perhaps with a splash of nip off the pitch after Conway had toiled for 31 off 86 balls...

Then Mitchell hit up the other side of the stumps and brought the ball back into Conway to peg him lbw on 81...

No trend here other than the moving ball, so who knows. Mitchell does know a lbw appeal/celebration transition though...

Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache. Or the best way to support the Niche Cache is on Patreon - where we’ve got a couple special All Blacks podcasts waiting for ya.

Peace and love.