Understanding Important Aotearoa T20 Cricket Ideas
Aotearoa Test cricket funk is percolating away in the background and we are also up to our neck in T20 cricket. The Super Smash has been rolling along and I'm intrigued as to how kiwis have been absorbing Super Smash antics. Are you checking scorecards? Are you watching the Youtube highlights? Are you working with twenty different screens?
In the Super Smash, there is a day of semi-final cricket thingys today and then the respective finals on Saturday. Then we move into the Aotearoa vs Australia series and this gives us a double dose of high-intensity T20 cricket, leading into T20 World Cups where the intensity is obviously amplified further. Here are a couple T20 pockets to keep an eye on and frame your T20 experience...
Athletes and Athletics
Under the guidance of Chris Donaldson, Aotearoa's best cricketers are fit, powerful and available. T20 cricket is played at a quicker tempo than the other formats and Aotearoa has a solid baseline of fitness that can cause genuine cricket headaches for their opponent. In the field, players have to be able to make repeated sprint efforts while maintaining concentration for an accurate throw or snaring that crucial catch. Aotearoa has funky fielders like Martin Guptill, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and we are now seeing the best athletes take up boundary-riding positions while the big seam bowlers have the agility tested at short fine-leg or third-man.
Speed and fitness can turn a single into 2 runs. Then repeat that for a couple overs and under fatigue, a batsman must still be able to gauge each delivery and try crack a maximum. Only bowling 4 overs is a bit of an illusion in this instance as bowlers don't have the same downtime in the field of other formats; less overs bowled is countered by more mahi in the field.
The more fielders in a team who are above average across the turf and contorting their body to stop a boundary, the better equipped a team is to limit boundaries as well as apply pressure in the circle. I've seen Devon Conway tasked with riding the boundary early in an innings, giving the Blackcaps the ability to keep Guptill, Phillips etc in the circle. If a team only has two or three high quality fielders, it becomes tricky to plug holes in the circle and out on the boundary.
There has also been a trend of the Slink. Santner put this on display in a Test vs Pakistan, snaring a run-out by releasing his throw under the line of his knees (as opposed to above the shoulder). This is deliberate and shaves off a second in the grab/release process, which when combined with the speed of these lads is a double-whammy fielding ploy; speed to the ball, swift release.
When watching T20 cricket, peep who are the blokes who impact a game with fielding. Amazing catches are great, although there is a surface level element to them and often they stem from multiple deliveries of pressure applied by fielders. Wickets limit run-scoring and consistently restricting runs with ground fielding is the low key aspect that slowly adds up.
Who are the blokes stopping runs being scored?
Who is generating momentum or buzz with their efforts in the field?
How have the Blackcaps built their fielding unit - where are certain fielders placed?
Grit and Class
Two words with different vibes, both are present at the same time in a game of T20 cricket in a more undercover fashion that Test or ODI cricket. Commentators love talking about targets and where a batting innings should end up, often ignoring the flow of an innings or the situation facing the batsmen. T20 cricket appears to be all about whacking big boundaries, but what happens when batsmen are under pressure and their innings is in a perilous position?
Show some grit and bask in batting class. This is especially evident in the middle stages of an innings, while also being present at the start and end of an innings. At the start, the bowlers may be doing a great job in tough batting conditions and the batsmen need to simply get through that stage to set up the innings. Maybe after 7 overs and a couple wickets down, rebuilding is required and ain't no boundaries going to be whacked if the tail-enders are at the crease in over 15. Maybe it's the death and whether it's genuine batsmen or tail-enders, it's not 'hit out or get out' because getting out leaves your team 10-20 runs short.
Batting grit is keeping good balls out, while running hard to score some runs. Class stems directly from that because a dirty slogger can't find a pocket in the field where running 2 is possible. Class batsmen know where their boundary spots are, as well as knowing how they can rotate strike and tick runs over. Game awareness is crucial here, self awareness as well.
Who are the batsmen who can hold an innings together?
Who steadily chimes in with a 30 of 25, 45 of 40 type of innings?
Who can stop the flow of wickets to set up some late innings slugging?
Bowling grit is fighting through an over, bouncing back from a crappy first over. If a bowler gets whacked around the park, does that have an impact on how their bowling looks throughout that game?
As a team, what happens when the opponent is 130 runs and 14 overs into an innings having not lost a wicket? Ignoring the wicket tally, teams can still zone in on restricting runs and that gritty mentality may again take 10-20 runs of the end total. Grit in this context starts with defence (bat or ball, maybe via fielding) and in taking a minor defensive stance, class then ensues to either score runs or execute the right delivery.
My favourite element of this is the squeeze; team gets their first wicket 7 overs in and the new batsmen isn't on the same flow of boundaries, fielding team pushes a fielder on either side closer in or keeps an extra fielder in the circle. Depending on the batsman and bowler, this could last a couple deliveries or a couple overs and completely flip the momentum.
Death Bowling and Bowling Plans
This summer, the Blackcaps have used the following bowlers for the 19th and 20th overs...
vs Pakistan
Kuggeleijn/Tickner.
Boult/Jamieson.
Southee/Jamieson.
vs WI
Santner/Bennett.
Southee/Sodhi.
Bit all over the place huh? This is perhaps the most pressing aspect of Blackcaps T20I cricket to gauge against Australia, especially considering the Aussies will be hunting for the shorter Aotearoa boundaries - goes both ways with the kiwis understanding how to use the dimensions in their favour. The Blackcaps need to suss out who their reliable death bowlers are and as fans we need to understand what the bowlers are doing to limit run-scoring.
Not only at the death though as it's fun to watch Ish Sodhi flip between leggy and wrongy depending on who the batter is in the middle stages and how Santner ties up batsmen in his overs. Seamers may aim for the wide yorker spot and that's easy to assess as in the Super Smash this usually results in multiple wides per over; does the bowler hit the wide yorker without wides or are their guaranteed wides?
Change of pace can be a full delivery, or digging it in to hit the deck and muddle the batsman. Aotearoa has a lot of 'hit the deck' seamers and this was evident in the Super Smash as the four best seamers are Blair Tickner, Hamish Bennett, Matt Henry and Scott Kuggeleijn. Even moving into the all-rounder spot there are similar types of bowlers in Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Doug Bracewell, Colin de Grandhomme. Chuck in Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson for a fiesta of righty-seamers.
What are these blokes doing to be effective in their roles?
While all being righty seamers, they have a wide range of skills to unleash and some will better at this than others. Ferguson and Jamieson stand out as having x-factor, while the others will need to showcase their bag of tricks to restrict Australia's batsmen.
What's the difference between Tickner and Bennett?
What's Neesham doing that makes him more effective than front-line seamer?
Are the seamers doing the job or should the Blackcaps stick to the Sodhi/Santner combo?
Each bowler has something they do really well and we will soon see who can execute their specific skill the best under pressure. This is a wee bit funkier when we see that a lot of these seamers are similar in style, stature and what they do best. When there are such similarities, someone will stand out and the best Blackcaps T20I bowling unit is all about assembling a group who can each execute their skills under pressure.
Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache.
Peace and love.