2021/22 Men's Super Smash: Five Notes Ahead Of Christmas
As we approach the good vibes only season, we dive deeper into Super Smash. The games flow swiftly and every few days over the peak Super Smash period, I'll pop up with five notes to ponder across both competitions. Obviously we're doing the blokes here and every team has played two games, which for Auckland resulted in two losses to Northern. Otago and Wellington have 1-2 records while Canterbury, Northern and Central have winning records.
Matthew Fisher
Big Matthew Fisher buzz after two Northern games. No speed radars in Super Smash and Fisher doesn't look rapid on the telly, but Fisher demands observational speed-notes from the commentators and carries a slippery vibe that you can catch on the telly. Good start to Super Smash with 3w @ 6rpo and while he doesn't have fantastic Super Smash mahi in the previous two seasons, last season's Ford Trophy saw Fisher take 11w @ 25avg in six games. Interesting battle to tap into is Fisher vs Wellington's Ben Sears for the young speedster pocket and Sears is even with Fisher in Super Smash (3w @ 10.35rpo) while fantastic in the Plunket Shield (14w @ 24avg).
Anurag Verma
Another Northern bowler sparked my nerd antenna this weekend as Anurag Verma took 4w across two games vs Auckland, taking him to 6w @ 6.20avg in three games. Verma is a steady seamer with a deep bag of tricks which when combined with experience (he was part of the famed 2008 Under 19 World Cup squad) makes him a fun bowler to learn from and observe. What tickled my intrigue was Verma's consistent excellence in T20 cricket and this can easily be laid out by noting Verma's solid 35avg in First-Class cricket, 31 in List-A and 23avg in T20.
Playing 46 games and averaging 23 is exceptional, add in 15.9sr for further reinforcement. For bowling strike-rate context take Trent Boult's 18.9sr in T20s, Tim Southee's 19.2sr or Ish Sodhi's 18.8sr. For Verma, this stems from averaging 27 or below with strike-rates below 20 in six of his seven Super Smash campaigns.
Apparently Verma found Indian Premier League interest back in 2018 and he's only got better since then. I'd chuck Verma up as a solid T20I Blackcaps job-doer if Verma keeps rising and someone like Jacob Duffy (2w @ 60avg) can't keep up, otherwise enjoy one of the best T20 craftsmen in Aotearoa.
Greg Hay vs George Worker
Last summer George Worker finished third in runs while with Central, now Central have top-order duo Dane Cleaver and Greg Hay as the two leading run-scorers in the Super Smash. Cleaver is coming in at #3 and he's got 175 runs @ 180sr, but I'm curious about the Worker vs Hay match up given that Worker is the celebrated white ball batter and Hay is the bloke escaping from his Plunket Shield prison. Worker opened in Central's semi-final loss last season and Hay wasn't even playing, now Hay is second in runs with 145 runs @ 120sr and Worker hit 41 runs @ 146sr in two games v Northern.
This will be one to track over the competition, otherwise I'm enjoying the Greg Hay T20 vibes. Hay has a T20 record of 31avg/122sr across 20 games and he offers funky insights into scoring T20 runs without going bonkers.
Young Sluggers
Young sluggers do go bonkers and alongside Hay in the Central batting line up is Josh Clarkson (24yrs) with 215sr. Wellington's Finn Allen (22yrs) is the best slugger in Aotearoa and he also fits into the young slugger bucket, a bit behind Clarkson though with 192sr. Those two are the monsters while Katene Clarke (Northern - 22yrs - 115sr), Llew Johnson (Otago - 21yrs - 175sr) and Bayley Wiggins (Central - 23yrs - 135sr) are all youngsters who want to smack boundaries. Clarke, Wiggins and Allen all bat up the top, while Clarkson and Johnson are middle order operators.
Matt Henry Excellence
Matt Henry is already second in Super Smash bowling with 7w @ 7.58rpo and those who haven't been tapped into domestic cricket need to know that like Tom Latham or Henry Nicholls, Matt Henry stays excellent in all formats. You can see below that Henry averaged sub-25 in all formats last summer and I'm confident Henry will snare Ford Trophy wickets to take that average down in alignment with all his other mahi...
2020 PS: 13w @ 21.30avg (21w @ 17.76avg).
2020 FT: 15w @ 22.60avg (2w @ 43avg).
2020 SS: 14w @ 24.64avg (7w @ 13avg).
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Peace and love.