2021 Kiwi County Tour: T20 Blast Update #2
Credit to the Blackcaps legends who don't need T20 cricket gigs. Double down on that and chur to the true avant-garde Test cricketers who are chillin' in isolation - as true artists tend to do. On the Kiwi County Tour though, it's all about T20 cricket and the kiwi domination has been at such funky levels that I've got to tap in more frequently. Especially now that we have some of the other Blackcaps Test players moving into T20 Blast domination; beat England for the third Test series in a row and then snatch T20 Blast attention.
Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell, Colin de Grandhomme and Kyle Jamieson have all stepped into T20 Blast gigs. Jamieson's playing for Surrey and he hasn't taken a wicket in his two appearances, conceding 8.89rpo. Jamieson did crack 7* @ 140sr and that's pretty cool, while Surrey are 3rd in the South Group.
Conway is fresh off a 51*(@ 115.90sr) this morning for Somerset after a knock of 5 in his first appearance. In my last KCT entry, I compared Finn Allen batting alongside Liam Livingstone (Lancashire) to Wellington's Allen/Conway tandem and now I'm going to flip that around because Conway is opening with Tom Banton for Somerset and Banton's doing Allen type things; 217 runs @ 43.40avg/195.49sr. Somerset are 5th in South Group (3-2-2NR).
Mitchell and de Grandhomme have had some epic moments as well. De Grandhomme dismissed Conway in his only game so far, on his way to 2w @ 10.25rpo and 66 @ 194.11sr. Hampshire are last (9th) in South Group with just 1 win so far, here's hoping CDG can bring the groove to Hampshire. Mitchell's Middlesex are only a win ahead of Hampshire and that's not due to any lack of runs or wickets from Mitchell.
Mitchell has scores of 29, 58 and 32 and at a combined strike-rate of 163sr. Chuck in 6w @ 10.16avg/8.71rpo and Mitchell continues to build on a strong summer in Aotearoa where he averaged 55.12 in 9 innings of First-Class cricket as well as an ODI century in his first ODI series, plus 419 runs @ 38.09 in T20 cricket. Everything around the Test cricket in England has been fantastic for Mitchell and he's steadily breaking free.
Speaking of breaking free or emerging, here's a quick break from T20 Blast stuff to suss out Wellington's Luke Georgeson who is playing for Northern Knights in Ireland. Georgeson has averages of 27.57 (bat) and 16.60 (ball) in his 4 FC games, leadinng into Ireland's T20 competition where Georgeson has...
Runs: 93 runs @ 31avg/125.67sr.
Wickets: 5w @ 12.40avg/7.75rpo.
The Ireland T20 competition will take a break for a month or so, while there is one more game of the 50-over competition tomorrow. Georgeson has scores of 46, 58, 22 and 63 to go with a couple of wickets...
Runs: 189 runs @ 47.25avg/66.31sr.
Wickets: 4w @ 43.25avg/6.92rpo.
Big up to the Pakistan Super League as well...
Colin Munro: 285 runs @ 57avg/169.64sr.
Martin Guptill: 69 runs @ 11.50avg/104.54sr.
Glenn Phillips and Logan van Beek are in disgusting form. Phillips leads all run-scorers in the T20 Blast thanks to these last three knocks: 41*, 94* and 94*. Phillip has an overall strike-rate of 172.24sr and of his 7inns, Phillips has just one score below 30 to take Gloucestershire to 1st in South Group.
Van Beek isn't quite doing enough to help Derbyshire win as they are 7th in North Group, but he's still in fabulous bowling form. Tied with two other bowlers at the top of the wicket-taking charts, van Beek has 15w @ 20.26avg/9.54rpo and he has nine consecutive games with a wicket.
Finn Allen has had scores of 16 and 2 since our last check in with Lancashire just ahead of Derbyshire in North Group. Lockie Ferguson and Yorkshire are 1st in North Group and Ferguson hasn't taken a wicket in his last two games.
Jimmy Neesham had a knock of 33 @ 136.35sr, to go with 3w in his last two games for Essex. This takes Neesham to 156 runs @ 22.28avg/152.94sr and Ish Sodhi is also steadily trucking along with 3w in his last two games for Worcestershire, bouncing back after four games without a wicket.
Adam Milne played his first game of T20 Blast with 3ov @ 11.66rpo for Kent this morning against Conway's Somerset. Milne is an interesting case to keep an eye on as he'll be eager to slide into the Blackcaps T20 World Cup group and he was solid for Aotearoa earlier this year in T20Is vs Bangladesh; 3w @ 19.33avg/11.60rpo. What's weird here is that Milne hasn't been as effective in T20 competitions...
BBL: 5w @ 66.60avg/7.56rpo.
IPL: 3ov @ 11rpo (one game).
T20 Blast: 3ov @ 11.66rpo (one game).
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