2020/21 Plunket Shield: Canterbury's Domination
The 2020/21 kiwi cricket summer has been all about Canterbury. Canterbury women won the Super Smash and Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield, the only female competitions to win while Canterbury men have added Plunket Shield glory to their Ford Trophy win. Five competitions, four trophies and Canterbury only fell short in the men's Super Smash where Wellington Firebirds chased down the Cantabs target with a mere two deliveries in the bag.
The Plunket Shield has been stripped down to just eight games these days and Canterbury went undefeated through their eight games. That features three draws and five wins, with Northern Districts Knights the next best team on three wins. No other team had more than two wins. Accumulating Plunket Shield points is an mathematics exercise, all that we need to know is that Canterbury finished with 109 points and no other team had 70 points.
Domination. Ford Trophy and the women's competitions weren't quite as dominant from Canterbury, however when packaged all together this is pure domination of kiwi cricket. Credit to all involved in building a successful organisation where Canterbury Cricket hasn't just enjoyed a strong summer in one format, or with just the wahine. When winning is a through-line across formats and genders, there is obviously a beautiful culture germinating in the mid-south.
Domination. In pondering that, there's only one place to start in debriefing Canterbury's Plunket Shield campaign. Not one place exactly, but one bloke. There has been no other bowler in the domestic circuit this summer as Will Williams and for all the quality in Canterbury's roster, the double-W geezer is the dominant force.
Having made his First-Class debut way back in 2012 (in the same Canterbury team as George Worker, Peter Fulton, Shanan Stewart, Dean Brownlie and Brad Cachopa), Williams has only played 30-odd games in each format. Williams also averages mid-20s with the ball in each format and across his seven seasons of FC cricket, Williams has averaged 30+ in just one of those seasons. All of which suggests Williams is a nifty seamer and this season he found a pocket; a cross-format domination pocket.
Plunket Shield: 1st - 31w @ 17.03avg/1.91ro in 275.5ov.
Ford Trophy: 1st - 20w @ 18.05av/4.33rpo.
This is perhaps the key aspect of Canterbury's Plunket Shield success as Williams was one of five Canterbury seamers who bowled 100+ overs and averaged under 25. Ed Nuttall doesn't fit that category, although he still bagged 21w and all together, Canterbury had six seamers who took 10+ wickets each. Nuttall is also the only lefty in this group, so all of those 100+ overs/sub-25 average bowlers are righty seamers.
Fraser Sheat: 3rd - 27w @ 20.92avg/2.77rpo in 203.3ov.
Ed Nuttall: 8th - 21w @ 30.42avg/3.65rpo in 174.4ov.
Daryl Mitchell: 12th - 17w @ 17.64avg/2.46rpo in 121.4ov.
Sean Davey: 17th - 15w @ 18.60avg/2.46rpo in 113.1ov.
Matt Henry: 23rd - 13w @ 21.30avg/2.17rpo in 127.2ov.
You can have ideas about the best seam attack in Aotearoa, which may stem from various headline acts or more fancied names. The proof is in the pudding here though as Canterbury had the most effective seam attack in a winning team, to the point where spinners Cole McConchie and Theo van Woerkom didn't bag big wickets but were tasked with tidy work. McConchine took 9w @ 33.11avg and van Woerkom took 8w @ 40.87avg, both conceded less than 2.50rpo.
Across domestic cricket and specifically Plunket Shield, there were mini-teams of Blackcaps in operation. As you can see above, Henry wasn't high up on the wicket-taking charts and the same goes for Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham. Daryl Mitchell's move to Canterbury also elevated him and his wicket-taking is the only aspect of these four players that was ranked highly. The rest is all about efficiency.
Henry averaged 21.30 with the ball in three games.
Mitchell averaged 17.64 with the ball and 48 with the bat in five games.
Latham averaged 52.14 in five games.
Nicholls averaged 57.25 in three games.
Blackcaps come and go throughout a domestic season, sometimes these lads don't quite contribute as they would hope despite the drop down in level. Part of Canterbury's Plunket Shield success is due to highly efficient and effective work from their best players, which was also the case in their Ford Trophy success...
Henry averaged 22.60 with the ball in nine games.
Nicholls averaged 121.66 in five games.
Latham averaged 70 in six games.
Two insights filter through from this wrinkle. First is the quality of these players and I've steadily noted that while Nicholls and Latham have been out of sight for many Blackcaps fans, they are certainly among the best five batsmen in Aotearoa - reinforced by what they've done for Canterbury. Then we also have a team culture which creates the environment for these performances. This is a through-line across Canterbury cricket as Frances Mackay, Kate Ebrahim, Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu performed for Canterbury regardless of their White Fern context.
Williams, Sheat and Davey are three up and coming seamers to tap into. With the bat, it's all about Leo Carter and Ken McClure. McClure finished 2nd in Ford Trophy runs (five 50+ scores in 8inns), which came after a strong Plunket Shield first stanza in which he hit a big ol' 165 and he couldn't quite kick that on in the second stanza but still managed some decent starts. Carter managed a century and two half-centuries in his 8inns, plus he added to his tally of sixes.
Carter only hit 3 sixes in 11inns during the Super Smash and 3 sixes in 6inns of Ford Trophy. Come around to Plunket Shield and Carter hit 8 sixes in 8inns, which takes Carter to 0.42 sixes per FC innings. That's on par with Carter's T20 record where he averages 0.48 sixes per T20 innings. I simply find this fun, especially as Carter doesn't strike the viewer as a noted six-hitter like Colin de Grandhomme for example.
As far as future Blackcaps from this Canterbury roster goes, McClure and Carter are the batsmen to watch out for. Cameron Fletcher may wind up in that mix, although he's in a busy field of Blackcaps wicket-keeping contenders. Fletcher and Cole McConchie are crucial to Canterbury's success, not only for their performances but also because they reflect the landscape of domestic cricket in being young-veterans. Many older veterans have moved on from domestic cricket in recent years and as domestic cricket skews younger, the young-veterans are vital.
McConchie was typically solid and could be injected into every 1st 11 as the perfect job-doer. McConchie's Plunket Shield campaign finished with three 50+ scores in 11inns, averaging 28.80 and tidy spin bowling mentioned above. Keep in mind that Todd Astle retired from red-ball cricket, amplifying importance on McConchie as a leader and spinner. No big, sexy numbers here. Just a really good cricketer leading Canterbury to dual-Championships.
Fletcher on the other hand had the best FC season of his career. Making his debut in 2013 for Northern Districts, Fletcher didn't crack a FC century until 2017/18 and averaged below 30 in each of his first five seasons. Fletcher has now averaged 30+ in each of his last four seasons, headlined by 473 runs @ 78.83avg this season. Slide back into Ford Trophy and Fletcher played his role perfectly as he had three not-outs in his 5inns as a finisher, pointing to him doing his job even though he didn't register a 50+ score.
That's how you win. Across Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy, Canterbury rode the waves of changes perfectly. Maybe it's McConchie playing a greater role with bat or ball, then falling back to do a job when the Blackcap return. Maybe it's the Blackcaps adjusting to their roles within the Canterbury set up. Maybe it's the fresh crop of seamers needing to maintain a consistent level of performance.
Canterbury are Plunket Shield champions because everyone did their job, even though those jobs were always changing. Canterbury are the dominant force in all of Aotearoa cricket because they enjoyed fabulous performances from their best players, while also creating an environment where their domestic troopers chime in no matter what is going on around them. Canterbury are kiwi cricket champions.
Peace and love.