2021/22 Plunket Shield: CD Stags Defeat Wellington Firebirds
Central Districts Stags grabbed their first win of Aotearoa's Plunket Shield, defeating Wellington Firebirds to jump up to 2nd on the ladder. Canterbury are chillin' in 1st and are the only team with more than one win, while Otago Volts are holding on to 3rd despite not playing this round. With a bunch of Blackcaps gone, Wellington have now lost three games in a row and are yet to score 300+ in an innings this season.
Michael Bracewell hit 51 and Nathan Smith hit 56 in Wellington's first innings of 238, while Seth Rance and Blair Tickner both took 4 wickets for CD. The Stags responded with 358 thanks to 88 from Brad Schmulian, 68 from Doug Bracewell and 59 from Ben Wheeler as Ben Sears took 5w, as well as 3w from Smith. Bracewell and Smith again held the batting innings together with Bracewell scoring 47 and Smith 72*, while Wheeler took 4w. Sears took 2w in the final innings as CD reached 134/3 to seal the win with Dane Cleaver not-out on 54.
Smith has found an all-round pocket since moving up to Wellington and he's tied with Matt Henry on 21w at the top of the bowling charts, as well as being the only Wellington batsman to hit two 50+ scores so far. This is already Smith's best season with the ball as it's the first summer in which he has taken more than 16 First-Class wickets and along with Sears being effective, this is an enticing bowling combo.
Smith averages 28 with the bat and 31.46 with the ball in FC cricket, presenting plenty of room for him to blossom as a Firebird. Smith's best format is T20 cricket though where he averages 23.46 with the ball and while Wellington won't have the luxury of supreme Super Smash talent this season, Smith should be a key factor in the Firebirds T20 outfit.
Same goes for Sears, who has also matched his best FC season already. Sears took 14w @ 18.57avg back in 2019/20 and he's sitting on 14w @ 24.42avg this season, quietly building an impressive FC record to go with a fantastic T20 record. Sears averages below 20 in all domestic formats which is a key indicator of quality, then his FC average of 26.33 drops to 18.25 in T20 cricket.
This is even more impressive as Sears got a taste of international cricket in Bangladesh prior to the T20 World Cup and he's brought that confidence into Plunket Shield cricket. Every kiwi cricket fan knows about Sears and how he's the speed-stud, which brings a vibe of hype or expectation and Sears continues to impress as a red ball sniper. I'm not sure if we can say the same about Finn Allen.
The issue for Wellington is Allen being the leading run-scorer with 183 runs @ 22.87 (14th) and Wellington have no batsmen who have scored 200+ runs despite playing every game at home. 11 batsmen have scored 200+ runs an seven batsmen have scored 300+ runs, while Allen's accumulated his runs without a score over 50.
Allen's been a puzzle since his move to Wellington as his Super Smash slugging didn't translate to nifty Ford Trophy or Plunket Shield mahi - unless Allen is slugging like it's the Super Smash. For example, Allen hit his first List-A century last summer in whacking 128 @ 216.94sr vs Otago and this was his only 50+ score in the Ford Trophy with a record of 34.42avg/140.93sr. Allen has two 50+ scores in 20 LA games, averaging 25 and after 16 FC games Allen is averaging 20.23.
In three Plunket Shield games last summer, Allen hit 40 runs @ 6.66avg. This season Allen has scored 15+ in six of eight innings, which means Allen hasn't been terrible and he's found a start in most innings.. This is all a puzzle to me and while I believe Allen is the best slugger in Aotearoa, I don't think him slugging in LA/FC games is a recipe for success. At the same time, I'm not sure if Allen can stack up runs in tune with Plunket Shield vibes and I remain eager to see how Allen develops.
CD have five batsmen who have scored 200+ runs thus far and the two blokes leading all run-scorers require attention. Dane Cleaver is going blow for blow with Canterbury wicket-keeper Cameron Fletcher for the most runs as a gloveman which is pretty damn interesting considering one of these two could be next in line behind Tom Blundell for Blackcaps duties. Cleaver averages 42.72 in FC cricket and he's averaged 40+ in five of the last seven summers, now with five 40+ scores in eight innings this season.
Schmulian averages 40.02 in FC cricket and he has three 50+ knocks in three consecutive games. This is Schmulian's fifth summer of Plunket Shield and he's got a century in three of them, two 50+ scores in all of them while averaging 35+ in four of them.
With plenty of batsmen up the top of the run-scoring charts, CD haven't been a dominant force because their bowlers haven't snared big wickets. Seth Rance's return was a boost for this win over Wellington as he took 6w in his first outing and he's the only CD bowler who has taken a wicket and averages below 30 with the ball; Blair Tickner, Ben Wheeler and Doug Bracewell all have 8+ wickets while averaging over 30.
I do like Tickner's Plunket Shield progress though. Tickner forced his way into Blackcaps T20I teams by averaging 20.72 in T20 cricket and now Tickner is settling into a perch among Aotearoa's best Plunket Shield seamers...
2018/19: 20th - 14w @ 29.64avg.
2019/20: 6th - 18w @ 25.22avg.
2020/21: 4th - 23w @ 25.39avg.
2021/22: 5th - 14w @ 30.42avg.
Tickner's interesting because he offers a different style of seam bowling. I'm not saying that Tickner is the next Test seamer, this is merely a note that Tickner is trending in the right direction and with continued improvement, Tickner could bolster Aotearoa's seam depth. That depth features the Kyle Jamieson package, Lockie Ferguson's speed, Matt Henry's nibble and other lads such as Tickner or even Sears in the future will add a twist to the regular styles of Tim Southee and Trent Boult.
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