2020/21 Aotearoa Super Smash: Update #8
Aotearoa's Super Smash is close to winding up, with a trio of games to be played later this week before we move into finals cricket. Lot's of funky little things are happening, so I'm going to groove through a few key ideas that I've been pondering of late.
Finn Allen And The Second Tier
Finn Allen is the best batsman on the men's side, scoring a similar amount of runs as Central Districts Stags opener George Worker but with a far greater strike-rate. Allen and Worker are the only batsmen with 400+ runs, in fact they are the only two blokes with 300+ runs and Allen's smoking anyone who wants a crack with 194.03sr while Worker's operating at 139.79sr. Allen has the most sixes of the competition with 21, next best is Worker's 16 big'uns.
As I outlined a few days ago, the Blackcaps T20I landscape is rather cluttered. I'm not against Allen earning a call up and I'd love to see Allen gain some valuable Blackcaps squad experience, in building a T20 World Cup group though it's hard to see where Allen fits in. Between Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill and Colin Munro there are three opening contenders, plus the likes of Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips and Tim Seifert all have recent T20I street-cred behind them.
Things got trickier over the weekend with Mark Chapman chipping in with highly efficient knocks for Auckland Aces. Chapman hit 36 @ 156.32sr on the weekend, taking him to 50.75avg/167.76sr and there are no not-outs to boost that average. Chapman is another with T20I experience and he's making a hefty case to hold on to his next up batting spot in the squad.
Allen sits in a group of cricketers who give reason to stay excited about where kiwi cricket is heading. Josh Clarkson is 5th in runs, scoring @ 166.44sr with CD Stags and Rob O'Donnell's having a solid campaign upon the backdrop of him having the second highest T20 average all time. The Auckland Aces skipper is 8th in Super Smash runs @ 156sr and as always, my favourite kiwi cricket stats nugget is that O'Donnell's T20 career average of 46.05 is second to that of Chris Harris.
Cole McConchie is doing a fine job as a glue-guy for Canterbury. McConchie is 9th in runs @ 119.89sr and with 4w @ 43.75avg/6.73rpo, McConchie doesn't have a notable strike-rate nor is he lethal as a wicket-taker. Watch McConchie play though and he rarely makes a mistake batting, capable of wiggling through any scenario along with being one of the most economical bowlers in the competition.
From that, here is a quick team of these second tier lads who make Aotearoa cricket so deep: Finn Allen, Chad Bowes, Ken McClure, Michael Bracewell, Rob O'Donnell, Josh Clarkson, Michael Rippon, Logan van Beek, Will Somerville, Ross ter Braak, Ben Sears.
Spin vs Seam
10 bowlers have 10+ wickets in the men's competition and two of them are spinners; Will Somerville is ranked 2nd, Rippon is 9th. Auckland's young seamer Ross ter Braak and Otago's Mitchell McClenaghan are the only lefty seamers, leaving us with six right-arm seamers at the top of the bowling rankings; Blair Tickner, Danru Ferns, Matt Henry, Hamish Bennett, Scott Kuggeleijn, Doug Bracewell. This can be stretched out even further as there are 16 bowlers with 8+ wickets and it's still just Somerville and Rippon as the spinners.
Slide over the the most economical bowlers and they are mainly spinners. This does include some small sample size antics as ND's Ish Sodhi and Canterbury's Blake Coburn have only played one game while CD's Jayden Lennox has two games. Regardless of how many games they have played, seven of the top-10 economy rates are spinners...
Christian Leopard: 1ov @ 4rpo (seam).
Jayden Lennox: 7ov @ 4.57rpo.
Ish Sodhi: 4ov @ 6rpo.
Fred Walker: 13.5ov @ 6.07rpo.
Ben Sears: 18ov @ 6.50rpo (seam).
Blake Coburn: 4ov @ 6.50rpo.
Todd Astle: 30ov @ 6.60rpo.
Joe Walker: 23ov @ 6.65rpo.
Cole McConchie: 26ov @ 6.73rpo.
Jimmy Neesham: 18.4ov @ 6.96rpo (seam).
Notice that the two spinners in the top-10 for wickets, aren't in this group. Rippon's steady @ 7.27rpo and Somerville is in the more expensive pocket with 9.20rpo. The wicket-takers are mainly seamers, while the bowlers who tighten up an innings via their economy rates are mainly spinners.
White Ferns Combos
Aotearoa's White Ferns have some funky combinations available to them as the best spinners are also nifty T20I batswomen.
Frances Mackay: 17w @ 9.17avg/4.87rpo/11.2sr | 138 runs @ 107.81sr.
Leigh Kasperek: 13w @ 10avg/5.57rpo/10.7sr | 102 runs @ 110.86sr.
Amelia Kerr: 7w @ 22.57avg/4.93rpo/27.4sr. |275 runs @ 139.59sr.
Anna Peterson: 6w @ 20.33avg/5.30rpo/23sr | 165 runs @ 133.06sr.
All four have played international cricket, yet Kerr was the only one who played against Australia late last year. Peterson suffered an injury in yesterday's game for Auckland vs Otago and Mackay doesn't seem to get the White Ferns opportunities that her domestic work suggests she should, so I'm eager to see how this shapes up. These are Aotearoa's four premier spinners and it's an absolute luxury that they all have 100+ strike-rates, playing key roles with bat for their respective teams.
Maddy Green is in this category as well. Green has 8w @ 6.51rpo/14.6s which has her third of this specific group and 177 runs @ 101.14sr. Green's not quite the front-line spinner like the other four, it does give us five legit international players who are effective with their spin and scoring runs efficiently.
Kerr has the most upside and we could see her hit a nek level in the upcoming internationals, if she takes her batting form into the T20I arena. Holly Huddleston and Lea Tahuhu are the premier Super Smash White Ferns seamers, closely followed by Jess Kerr, presenting an enticing possibility of two/three seamers and a cluster of spinners in a playing 11 without losing any run-scoring prowess.
The presence of Amy Satterthwaite, Katie Perkins and Katey Martin in the middle order would be valuable, especially with bit hitting around them. Satterthwaite is 2nd behind Devine for runs, while Martin has been solid in a struggling Otago as the leading Sparks run-scorer and 10th overall. Perkins provides the most intrigue as she has hit four consecutive knocks of 20+ runs to be 7th in runs @ 110.25sr. Perkins and Martin are veterans, alluding to a slightly new look White Ferns team on offer.
New look, lots of experience though. This Super Smash has proven to me that the best wahine cricketers in Aotearoa are older, more experienced and even though the abundance of young players are another season or two away from international cricket, I reckon they are stacking up some competitive vibes across the women's circuit. Take Kate Ebrahim for example as she's done more than enough for Canterbury, alongside Mackay to earn a White Ferns re-call and this would then bump a couple younger White Ferns back down the pecking order.
This White Ferns group simply feels the strongest possible team on offer:
Sophie Devine, Maddy Green, Amy Satterthwaite, Amelia Kerr, Katie Perkins, Katey Martin, Anna Peterson, Leigh Kasperek, Holly Huddleston, Lea Tahuhu.
Frances Mackay can easily slot in to open or play down the order, as she has done both roles for Canterbury this season. Kate Ebrahim can cover all batting roles as well, plus remember that Suzie Bates is out injured at the moment and she is a major factor. Jess Kerr could start ahead of any bowler, seam or spin as well.
I've seen the White Ferns struggle in recent years against the world's best and I've quietly observed how domestic squads (men's and women's) have skewed younger in the last few summers. At a domestic level, this makes winning games a bit trickier as teams are counting on younger cricketers as role-players and I reckon the same theory applies to the White Ferns as they have leaned into younger players to plug holes around the world-class kiwi players.
We are in the early stages of an exciting generation of women's cricketers from Aotearoa and I have no doubt that they will level up over the next 12-18 months. Right now, for the White Ferns to win games ahead of an ODI World Cup, I'm all in on building out a grizzly White Ferns team that has world-class players and experienced troopers to play their roles.
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Peace and love.