2021/22 Plunket Shield: Canterbury Defeat Wellington Again
Every sports competition has a phase that feels like a grind. This is where competitive stamina is the low key asset to cultivate and as Plunket Shield games get rinse/repeat treatment that grindy phase feels like it's come a bit earlier than usual. Canterbury grabbed their second win over Wellington in back to back games, while the Otago vs Central Districts game moves into the final day today (Wednesday).
There was a fresh twist for the latest round of Plunket Shield though as blokes named in the Blackcaps Test squad to tour India jumped out of the mix. For Canterbury this meant Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls depart, while Wellington lost Tom Blundell and Rachin Ravindra. Two high quality batsmen for both teams out of the mix and yet the general vibe was exactly the same from Canterbury's hefty win last week.
Wellington have put up scores of 154, 161, 115 and 134 vs Canterbury. Chuck in scores of 193/4 and 195 against Otago in their first game of the season and Wellington are yet to score 200+ runs in one of their six batting innings. That's somewhat understandable given the juicy spring time conditions, however the three other teams have scored less than 200 runs in just two of their combined 13 innings.
This is the shadow of my intrigue in Wellington's young batting unit. A heavy reliance on young players is exciting, fun to track and various insights are easily presented while not being conducive to stacking up wins. Amplify that for Wellington as this recent loss to Canterbury came with Ravindra's 41.66avg (125 runs - 1 x 50) missing, as well as Troy Johnson's 53avg (106 runs - 1 x 50). Blundell's scored 56 runs @ 17.33avg, so his absence is more of an experience thing as Michael Bracewell was the only certified veteran in Wellington's line up this round.
Wellington's leading run-scorer is Finn Allen with 142 runs @ 23.66avg and while Allen hasn't had a 50+ knock yet, he's got some kind of start in five of his six innings. We know Allen is an excellent slugger and I'm still curious as to how Allen rolls through the different formats this summer; he's got a First-Class average of 20.20 after 15 games.
No Wellington batter has scored a century and while new recruit Nathan Smith is leading all wicket-takers at the time of writing, he's the only Wellington bowler averaging below 20. Smith has 18w @ 14.22avg and this is in tune with the boost Hamish Bennett, Logan van Beek and even Jimmy Neesham enjoyed in their bowling mahi when moving to Wellington. Ben Sears is taking wickets too and he's a smidge over that 30avg marker with 7w @ 30.57avg.
Canterbury's seamers were again fantastic - keep in mind that they were dominant against a stronger Wellington batting unit last week and repeated the dose this week against a far younger outfit. Five Canterbury seamers have 7+ wickets and the most intriguing seamer is still Henry Shipley as Matt Henry, Will Williams, Ed Nuttall and Fraser Sheat are backing up their excellent mahi from last summer.
Canterbury's runs came from Chad Bowes (59) in the first innings, then Ken McClure hit 130 as he replaced Tom Latham up top while Leo Carter (56) and Cameron Fletcher (78*) added middle order runs. This was McClure's first big knock of the summer and McClure is now in his third consecutive Plunket Shield season with a century, while hitting a century in five of his seven seasons.
Fletcher is Canterbury's leading run-scorer and he's got a century to go with two half-centuries, which is only matched by Hamish Rutherford's three 50+ scores (at time of writing). This chucks up the wicket-keeper yarn again and CD's Dane Cleaver isn't too far behind (more on that tomorrow) and both are well ahead of Blundell's mahi in the first two games. Fletcher has found a groove...
Fletcher made his debut in 2013/14 and hit his first century in 2017/18. Prior to 2019/19, Fletcher averaged below 35 in all six seasons and since then Fletcher averages 40+ in three of the last four seasons including this season. Fletcher's 288 runs @ 96avg is the best Plunket Shield campaign of his career and given BJ Watling's retirement, this is a low key timely leap for Fletcher.
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