Domestic Cricket Daily: Wellington Firebirds vs Central Districts Stags Stuff
Two Plunket Shield games came to an early conclusion yesterday as Wellington Firebirds were too slick for Central Districts Stags and Otago Volts defeated Canterbury, while Auckland Aces vs Northern Districts Knights heads into the fourth day in Auckland. Following on from the Blackcaps Tests vs India that saw reasonably low scores via lovely bowling conditions and local knowledge used to make the most of such conditions, Otago and Wellington both grabbed wins on home decks. Here, I'll stick to Wellington vs Central Districts.
The Firebirds vs Stags battle was headlined by two Blackcaps in Jimmy Neesham and Blair Tickner battling away, well that's what perked my antenna any way. Stags opener Greg Hay scored the first of his back to back half-centuries as the Stags were rolled for 96 and along with 3w @ 3.78rpo from Logan van Beek, Neesham snared 3w @ 1.76rpo.
Neesham's wickets were three of the Stags top-four, snaring Will Young and Ben Smith before coming back around to dismiss Hay as the last batsman. Neesham tends to angle the ball into righties thanks to a similar wrist position that we've recently seen in Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah. In lovely seam conditions, Neesham had both Young and Hay lbw, nipping one away from Smith off the deck to catch the outside edge...
Then the Firebirds enjoyed runs from Rachin Ravindra (76), Michael Bracewell (70) and Neesham (63) as they fought off Tickner's challenge. Tickner grabbed 5w @ 3.56rpo and I discussed Tickner's wee disparity between his white ball and red ball antics, because Tickner had started the second stanza of Plunket Shield with all sorts of wickets. Tickner has taken 4w, 2w, 5w and 0w in the second stanza thus far, taking him to 15w @ 22.20avg/3rpo.
Neesham again took 3w in the second innings as Wellington dismissed CD for 298, setting up a chase of 53 for victory ... which they chased. Let's zone in on Neesham, here are his performances in the last two Plunket Shield games:
Runs: 61, 3, 63.
Wickets: 2, 3, 3.
I've kept a close eye on Neesham's domestic work this summer as he has been rather steady in taking wickets and scoring runs for the Firebirds. Here is Neesham's domestic summer so far...
Super Smash
Batting: 45.80avg/134.70sr.
Bowling: 9w @ 19avg/8.47rpo.
Ford Trophy
Batting: 38.40avg/98.96sr.
Bowling: 8w @ 18avg/5.33rpo.
Plunket Shield
Batting: 36.75avg/66.21sr.
Bowling: 9w @ 20.22avg/3.05rpo.
This game had a bunch of funky contributions and notes, so I'll roll through them...
Greg Hay hasn't quite had the summer that he would like, or to his usual standards that had me viewing him as a hard and fast back up for the Blackcaps Test opener role. With scores of 62 and 54 vs Wellington, Hay is showing signs of life with the run-scoring consistency that blew my mind for a few summers. Hay has gone 50+ in each of his last 3inns and these are his only 50+ scores of the Plunket Shield this season in 9inns.
That window for Hay to enjoy some time in my meditations as Test opener fill-in, may have closed though as we've obviously got the fascinating case of middle-order bastman/wicket-keeper Tom Blundell operating as the Blackcaps Test opener. Blundell may not even play as an opener for Wellington (!!) as youngin' Ravindra is chewing up runs, however his opening comrade Fraser Colson is only averaging 18.50 this season.
Ravindra's 76 takes him to 313 runs @ 52.16avg, with three 50+ scores in 8inns. In returning to Plunket Shield cricket, Ravindra has scored 70-odd in back to back games and one would be wise to stay off his pads because Ravindra smokes anything straight through mid-wicket. Young matua loves to see Ravindra's wee 'clip off them legs flourish'...
The next two notes are for the domestic cricket nerds.
Willem Ludick is the best bowler in the Plunket Shield. Quietly gather wickets, Ludick has grabbed 1+ wickets in all 4inns of the second stanza and is currently 1st in wickets for all bowlers with his 21w @ 17.38avg/2.50rpo slightly better than Jacob Duffy. This is in alignment with Ludick's First-Class career 21.93avg, which is far superior to his white ball stuff and the funky thing about Ludick is that word 'gather'.
29 FC wickets and Ludick has only taken 4+ wickets twice, which points to consistently taking a wicket or two and gathering them up. This is a similar vibe to what I was trying to describe in yesterday's Niche Cast when talking about Tim Southee (Blackcaps summer MVP). Southee can deal in big hauls, yet I've come to appreciate those who can reliably take 2w and Southee's a good bloke for that in the Test arena, while Ludick's doing that in the Plunket Shield.
Why does Ludick matter other than being 1st in wickets? Ludick and his former Stags home Dean Foxcroft (now with Otago) both came to Aotearoa having represented South Africa Under 19 and at the start of their professional cricketing journey. Both have had a low key impact on the domestic circuit with bat and ball, following the lead from Devon Conway.
Furthermore, the Stags have struggled to roll out their 1st 11 and in a squad that features the likes of Ben Wheeler and Doug Bracewell who have both been out of action, then Tickner and Seth Rance , it's Ludick who has risen through the murk. Ludick hasn't done anything with the bat this season, literally averaging 11.33 and this may point to a stronger focus on his bowling as he's already jacked up a FC century in his 10 games played.
Then we have the underground king himself, Brad Schmulian. I mention Schmulian every Stags entry, because the dude is putting up impressive numbers with a rather freakish level of consistency. Schmulian didn't take any wickets in this game, bumping his season average to 21.62 and his 68* in the second innings vs Wellington now has Schmulian averaging 50 this season with four 50+ scores in 9inns.
After 15 FC games, Schmulian averages 40.50 with the bat and 27.08 with his leggies. Schmulian is 47 runs behind Dane Cleaver for the Stags leading run-scorer and sits ahead of Hay, George Worker and Tom Bruce. Also notable here is that Schmulian batted #7 in this game vs Wellington and while he can float up the order when there is an opening, he tends to stay down the order and as Ajaz Patel has been with the Test team, Schmulian is playing as the big man spinner.
For those wondering; George Worker has 227 runs @ 22.70avg, of which 130 runs came in one innings.
For those wondering; Devon Conway has scored 30+ in his last four outings in Plunket Shield. Conway still leads the Plunket Shield run-scorer rankings, 200 runs ahead of Joe Carter (who hit back to back centuries for ND vs Auckland) and after hitting two centuries and two halfies in four consecutive Ford Trophy games prior to the final, Conway scored 1 in the FT final, then 26, 0, 0, 9*.
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