2022 Plunket Shield: Thorn Parkes and Otago's Win Over Auckland
As the other Plunket Shield games enter the fourth day, Otago are kicking back after a first up win over Auckland. Otago made the trip north and enjoyed a 168-run victory, passing 200 runs in both innings thanks to Thorn Parkes' scores of 54 and 58. Parkes was the only Otago batter to pass 50 and George Worker was the only Auckland batter with a half-century as Otago's bowlers flourished.
Parkes is from Gisborne and went to King's College in Auckland before moving down to Otago where he is studying. Having made his Plunket Shield debut last summer alongside Jacob Cumming, Parkes' 54 in the first innings was his first 50+ knock in First-Class cricket and he delivered a double banger of halfies.
Everything about this game suggests that batting was niggly and Parkes didn't dominate Auckland’s bowlers, riding waves of adversity to lead Otago's batting mahi. Parkes batted fifth and with Hamish Rutherford in his regular opening slot, Otago's batting unit is low key funky. Cumming starts the season opening alongside Rutherford and also snared catches at first slip. Dale Phillips batted third and praise Jah for the return of Dean Foxcroft to Aotearoa cricket to bat fourth for Otago.
Max Chu batted after Parkes as well which gives Otago five interesting young cricketers in their batting line up. Parkes got the runs in this game and while form will bite, each of these batters will showcase their talents at some point this season. Last season Phillips hit two centuries and averaged 45.15. Chu hit his first century and averaged 34.11, while Cumming stacked up eight games averaging a solid 26.83 without a big score.
Foxcroft scored his second half-century on March 10th, 2020 in his last game prior to the pandemic. Foxcroft averages 40+ in List-A and T20 cricket, dipping down to 25.40 in FC. This FC average should get a boost with consistent runs from Foxcroft as he settles back into Aotearoa cricket. Despite FC being his worst format, he showed development with six consecutive starts to Plunket Shield innings before the pandemic.
Otago's bowlers restricted Auckland to scores of 139 and 173 on their home deck. Jacob Duffy led the attack with 8w @ 12.25avg/2.70rpo, closely followed by Travis Muller's 7w @ 9.85avg2.37rpo. Michael Rae and Michael Rippon also took key wickets. Given that no Otago bowler averaged below 30 last season, this is an impressive start for Otago's bowlers.
Duffy has been simmering in the Blackcaps environment and took 2w in four of his five innings bowled for Aotearoa 'A' in India recently. Against Auckland, Duffy took wickets with his natural swing away from righties/into lefties as well as nibbling deliveries either way. That's part of the development bump bowlers get when sitting in Blackcaps squads and Duffy must be fizzing to improve on last summer's 13w @ 54.84avg in Plunket Shield.
Otago's next game is against Northern Districts in Tauranga. They then play Canterbury in Christchurch before their first home game in round four against Northern.
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