Domestic Cricket Daily: Glory To The Gatherers
While Wellington Firebirds batsmen Devon Conway blasted the most runs in all three competitions this summer, it's a vastly different scenario for the bowlers between the formats and between seasons. There is minimal cross-over in formats this summer for the leading wicket-takers and in an interesting little twist, only two bowlers from the top-10 in wickets from last summer doubled up for this summer.
Auckland seamer Matt McEwan finished 5th in wickets for last summer's Plunket Shield and led the Auckland seamers to finish 10th this summer, while Canterbury's Matt Henry finished 7th last summer then 9th this time around. Other than those two, there is a completely different look to the best bowlers and that offers a little nugget of insight into the bowling stocks around Aotearoa.
This isn't reason to get crazy about the bowling depth in Aotearoa, just a little bit of guidance in helping us understand the landscape. There is a distinct tinge of seam at the top of the wicket-taking charts, with Auckland's Louis Delport grabbing the most wickets for spinners (7th) and while some of Aotearoa's best spinners were under-whelming in their Plunket Shield performances, a gang of spinners averaged under 25.
Central Districts Stags spinner Ajaz Patel took 14w @ 26.07avg, not quite under 25avg but close enough. As Patel currently sits in my mind as Aoteaora's best spinner, this is reinforcement for the argument and that's especially relevant considering that Ish Sodhi took 3w @ 80avg, Mitchell Santner took 7w @ 57.42avg, Todd Astle slid into red ball oblivion and Will Somerville is on the brink of doing the same after suffering a season-ending injury - thus opening the door for Delport.
All of that is to say that after Patel earned the Test call up, his performances in the Plunket Shield lined up to the other Blackcaps contenders have him chillin' as the top dawg. The deeper funk is in that group of lesser known spinners, who all averaged under 25 this season...
Louis Delport (Auck): 155.4ov, 17w @ 24.11avg/2.63rpo.
Malcolm Nofal (Well): 73ov, 15w @ 16.13avg/3.31rpo.
Michael Rippon (Otago): 91.1ov, 12w @ 23.33avg/3.07rpo.
Josef Walker (ND): 80.3ov, 10w @ 20.10avg/2.49rpo.
Michael Bracewell (Well): 79.1ov, 10w @ 22.10avg/2.79rpo.
Theo van Woerkom (Cant): 67ov, 9w @ 22.66avg/3.04rpo.
Brad Schmulian (CD): 62.3ov, 8w @ 24avg/3.07rpo.
Of the above group, four are kiwi-Africans. Cool, huh?
To roll further with the spinners, here are how are some notable spinners who did solid work across two formats - not quite super dominant but solid across the formats.
Louis Delport 24.11avg (PS) / 28.27avg (FT).
Michael Rippon 23.33avg (PS) / 28.12avg (FT).
Ajaz Patel 26.07avg (PS) / 17.20 (SS).
Otago's Jacob Duffy finishes the Plunket Shield as the best bowler overall, taking 22w @ 22.86avg/3.39rpo. That's the same number of wickets as ND's Neil Wagner (22w @ 25.59avg/3.29rpo), with Duffy getting the top spot via somehow bowling less overs than Wagner, despite Wagner bowling in fewer innings.
Duffy: 10inns, 148.2ov.
Wagner: 6inns, 170.4ov.
We all know what Wagner is and chur to Wagner in celebration of his Plunket Shield brilliance, I just find Duffy's work a wee bit more interesting. Last summer, Duffy took 17w @ 46.82avg in the Plunket Shield and that's an example of why Duffy's First-Class average is up over 30, compared to his List-A and T20 averages which sit in the early-20s. This season though, Duffy was excellent across all three formats and his last 13inns featuring Aotearoa A, Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield saw Duffy take 2+ wickets in 10 of those innings.
That's beautiful gathering of wickets. Such gathering may have put Duffy up as the best domestic bowler this summer when considering his work in the Ford Trophy and Super Smash. Duffy took 21w @ 19.19avg to finish 2nd in Ford Trophy wickets and 11w @ 27.81avg to finish 9th in the Super Smash, making Duffy the only bloke to sit among the leading wicket-takers in all three competitions.
Central District Stags seamer Willem Ludick and the Canterbury duo of Fraser Sheat and Will Williams were the surprise risers of the Plunekt Shield...
Willem Ludick: 3rd, 154.3ov, 21w @ 19.57avg/2.66rpo.
Fraser Sheat: 5th, 115ov, 18w @ 20.38avg/3.19rpo.
Will Williams: 8th, 180.1ov, 17w @ 26.82avg/3.25rpo.
Ludick's explosion was perhaps boosted by greater opportunities in the Stags bowling group as the Stags' collection of the best seam department in Aotearoa never really played together in this Plunket Shield campaign. That opened things up for Ludick to get through plenty of work and as I've touched on in recent Domestic Daily entries, Ludick's a nifty gatherer of wickets; never taking more than 4w in an innings and somehow averaging 19 despite a heavy workload.
Same case for Ludick’s Stags comrade Blair Tickner, who finished 6th with 18w @ 25.22avg/3.20rpo in 141.4ov. Tickner is similar to Duffy in how his red ball work hasn't quite matched his white ball antics, before rectifying this somewhat via a strong Plunket Shield campaign. For both Ludick and Tickner, I reckon this is thanks to greater opportunities in the Plunket Shield and greater responsibility with the ball. This sets up an interesting situation for the Stags when/if they do get a full strength bowling department to work with moving forward and how the different pieces fit together - same goes for Auckland with Delport and Somerville.
In comparing the firepower of the Stags seam bowling to that of Canterbury, even including Matt Henry this was a no contest prior to the season starting. Canterbury however, weren't having a bar of that and finished the Plunket Shield with seamers in the top-10 and they were the only team to have that honour. Sometimes that may be due to plenty of overs, thus leading to averages of 30+ but Sheat and Williams both had slick averages to got with their decent workloads, both doing better than Henry's 17w @ 29avg/3.25rpo in 151.2ov.
Sheat took a wicket in every Plunket Shield innings bowled, taking 2+ wickets in 6 of 8inns bowled and in true gatherer fashion he didn't take more than 3w. With a FC career average of 24, Sheat is quite clearly enjoying Plunket Shield cricket, although this is a notable jump up from his campaign last summer where he averaged 36.20.
Williams had a fantastic Super Smash, taking 12w @ 21.91avg and put together a similar Plunket Shield campaign. Finishing this season with a FC career average of 26.51, Williams joins Sheat and Henry as being the main weapons for Canterbury; of Canterbury's notable seamers these three are the only three to average below 30 in FC cricket.
Of the leading wicket-takers in the Plunket Shield, I've got Duffy and Tickner as being the closest to the Blackcaps Test squad and I'm going to chuck Logan van Beek into that bucket as well. Van Beek finished 4th in wickets, taking 19w @ 25.63avg/2.91rpo in 167.1ov and while there isn't anything too funky to say about van Beek after breaking him down in a recent Domestic Daily entry, I'm low key eager to see who from this trio is able to kick on and command further opportunities.
Van Beek was the only Wellington bowler in the top-10 for Plunket Shield wickets, I am going to leave this Ben Sears bit at the end here as Sears was low key freaky this season. Sears didn't play much cricket this summer, but he did manage to take 14w @ 18.57avg/3.30rpo to finish 13th in wickets. With a FC average of 21.43, Sears averages under 30 in all three formats and is someone to keep tabs on moving forward.
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Peace and love 27.