2020/21 Plunket Shield: Early Seam Landscape Notes

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Plunket Shield seam bowling in October, even stretching into November is perhaps one of Aotearoa's funkiest sports pockets and that's why the 14 bowlers who have taken 6+ wickets after two games are all of the seam variety. Among those 14 seamers are Auckland Aces opening batsman Sean Solia who is currently ranked 3rd with 11w @ 8.27avg/2.85rpo and Canterbury's all-round maestro Daryl Mitchell who is ranked 6th with 8w @ 15.50avg/2.59rpo, both of whom aren't frontliners and that paints the picture of how Plunket Shield bowling things are skewed towards the seamers.

There are some big donnies among the best bowlers thus far in the Plunket Shield and for those keeping tabs on the Blackcaps Battlers; Tim Southee has 7w @ 19avg and Neil Wagner has 7w @ 21.85avg. The star of the show and given what happened earlier this year, maybe the most dominant kiwi seamer in operation right now is Kyle Jamieson who snared a hatty in Auckland's win over Central Districts Stags, finishing with 7w in that game to go with the 8w he took in the first game.

Watching Jamieson's work early in his career was a exciting task as he combined the gifts of his physical stature with low key skill in moving the ball. That's why back in the summer of 2015/16, Jamieson took 21 First Class wickets @ 27.33avg and followed it up with a 2016/17 summer with 24w @ 18avg before battling a bunch of injuries. Jamieson ate up wickets as soon as he entered steady Plunket Shield cricket and obviously Jamieson is learning his craft, adding new skills and knowledge around using his stature; Jamieson's been moving the ball and taking wickets for a long time though.

Jamieson's 5w @ 2.41rpo in the first innings vs CD, featured the hat-trick and this dismissal of Ross Taylor - luring Taylor into a wide flash after Taylor had faced 27 deliveries...

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This was Jamieson's second first innings five-wicket-baggy in two games. Apparently Jamieson loves the first innings, what he did in the second innings is low key funky though as Jamieson dismissed George Worker early, for 5 and then grabbed the wicket of Tom Bruce for 1 as CD Stags fell 25 runs short of their target. Remember that big hooping in-ducker from Jamieson for his hat-trick? Jamieson can do that for sure, as well as angling in to lefty Worker and skittling his stumps...

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Then the height/bounce combo to dismiss Bruce...

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Right now, Jamieson has a FC average of 23.86 after 29 games and after last summer, Jamieson is cruising at the top of the wicket-taking charts with 15w @ 8.80avg/2.36rpo. Not shabby.

Just behind Jamieson in 2nd spot is Will Williams for Canterbury and William has a near-identical record to Jamieson's, although no one knows who Williams is. After 27 FC games, Williams averages 23.68 and he took 2w @ 1.33rpo in Canterbury's first innings vs Wellington, then 5w @ 2.23rpo in the second innings. Williams dismissed four of Wellington's top-five batsmen in the second dig, including Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway (after Conway hit a cheeky 94).

Of the 14 seamers with 6+ wickets, Williams is the only bloke to concede less than 2rpo and after two games, Williams has 12w @ 9.50avg/1.81rpo. Williams may be the least eye-catching seamer in operation at the moment as he is often bowling with Canterbury wicket-keeper Cam Fletcher standing up to the stumps and Williams doesn't appear to be moving the ball in drastic fashion as some of the other bowlers are.

Williams seems to fit the mould of the tight, wicket to wicket seamer and if that's resulted in him having a similar FC record to Jamieson then A) pay attention and B) what's going on? I'm intrigued as to how Williams moves forward, in regards to the sustainability to his current work and what other signs, insights start to emerge. Here are two notes on Williams' action starting with his back foot landing close to the stumps, pointing forward into a front-on bowling action...

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Then we have this weird flexibility or angle of Williams' delivery point where his bowling arm drifts across his front leg, kinda behind his body. I reckon this takes some pace off his delivery as he is battling a bunch of different angles here and this may add to the juice, how he moves the ball in the air and off the pitch...

These are just ideas that I have to explore when I see a bowler dominating without a hefty x-factor, or in the case of Jacob Duffy and Doug Bracewell the combination of grizzly experience and standard swing/seam. Williams isn't quick, but appears to be accurate and aggressive in attacking the stumps, which when coming from his stump-to-stump action and funky/awkward whip could be the recipe.

Duffy and Bracewell are lurking among the best bowlers, each coming from a slightly different spot on the kiwi cricket landscape as Duffy's hunting for a promotion after years of toil and Bracewell is hunting a come back after a bunch of injuries. Duffy took 4w @ 2.60rpo in the first innings vs Northern Districts Knight for Otago Volts, dismissing Jeet Raval and BJ Watling, then 2w @ 4.08rpo in the second innings with Henry Cooper and Joe Carter his victims (after they'd both passed 50).

That's 9w @ 18.33avg/2.70 all up for Duffy and he's ranked 4th, a spot ahead of Bracewell who also has 9w but has been slightly more expensive with 9w @ 19.33avg/2.85rpo. Remember that Duffy finished last summer as the best Plunket Shield bowler with 22w @ 22.86avg/3.39rpo, meanwhile Bracewell played one Ford Trophy game and one Plunket Shield game last summer. Bracewell took 3w @ 1.13rpo in the first innings vs Auckland, dismissing opener Graeme Beghin, Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman before taking 4w @ 4.36rpo in the second inning with the wickets of Martin Guptill and Rob O'Donnell.

As long as Duffy and Bracewell are in the top-five or close enough, I'll be fascinated by how the seam landscape progresses over the summer as we've already had an injury to Matt Henry that will likely open things up for Jamieson. Duffy and Bracewell should be viewed as the best swingers in the Plunket Shield and if there's a like for like opportunity with the Blackcaps and these two are still bagging wickets, the funk will be heavy.

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Peace and love.