2022/23 Ford Trophy: Northern Defeat Wellington, Otago Defeat Canterbury
Two games of Ford Trophy were played on Wednesday with Northern Districts defeating Wellington and Otago defeating Canterbury. Northern's win took them to a 3-1 record and Wellington are now 2-3 after a whack-a-thon in Wellington, in which 25 sixes were hit.
Northern batted first and put up 381/5 in their 50 overs. Katene Clarke hit 71 runs @ 102.89sr, Tim Seifert hit 103 runs @ 118.39sr, Jeet Raval hit 81 runs @ 128.57sr, Henry Cooper hit 49 runs @ 122.5sr and Brett Hampton spread icing all over this cake with 31* @ 206.66sr.
Wellington's spinners were their most economical bowlers. Michael Bracewell conceded 4.9rpo from his 10 overs and Rachin Ravindra took 1w @ 4.7rpo, while the four seamers all conceded more than 8rpo.
Northern could have jacked up 450 runs and still had a few nerves considering that Wellington had Finn Allen opening the batting alongside Devon Conway, then Rachin Ravindra, Michael Bracewell and Tom Blundell. Allen hit 90 runs @ 166.66sr while Blundell (49 runs @ 104.25sr) and Nick Kelly (66 runs @ 117.85sr) chimed in as Wellington reached 348 and fell short of their target.
Here are Allen's Ford Trophy strike-rates, highlighting how important the move to Wellington was and that Allen is Aotearoa's best slugger...
2018/19: 61.19 (Auckland)
2019/20: 80.71sr (Auckland)
2020/21: 140.93sr
2021/22: 123.85sr
2022/23: 166.66sr
Wellington's most expensive bowler was Ben Sears (11rpo) and in the game prior, Sears conceded 7.5rpo against Canterbury. Sears didn't take a wicket in either game and is currently Wellington's most expensive bowler in FT with 7.33rpo. Sears averages below 25 in T20I, First-Class and T20 cricket while averaging 32.33 in List-A cricket; his current mahi is aligned with his career.
Northern's batting unit knew they had to score plenty of runs and while they lack the Blackcaps headliners or trendy talents, Northern are low key batting monsters. Seifert hit just his second LA century, his first since 2016/17 and his LA average of 25.23 feels underwhelming.
This throws up an intriguing juncture for Seifert as he has fallen behind Dane Cleaver in the T20I wicket-keeping ranks, both of whom are sitting behind Conway. Seifert last played a T20I last November and his last ODI was in 2019, while he did appear in the Caribbean Premier League prior to the kiwi summer. Seifert hit 221 runs @ 24.55avg/93.24sr with one 50+ score in nine innings and this is the kind of pocket that has seen Seifert slip out of the Blackcaps mixer.
Seifert is part of Aotearoa's wicket-keeping depth and an interesting comparison is Cameron Fletcher who played his first game of the summer in Canterbury's loss to Otago. Both these lads seem to be behind Blundell and Cleaver as the specialist wicket-keepers, with Seifert shining in the 2018-20 period and Fletcher elevating since 2020. Blackcaps will soon be away on tour which will present an opportunity for Seifert and Fletcher to dominate Super Smash.
Katene Clarke isn't as good as Allen, but he isn't far behind as an aggressive top-order batter. Clarke has the highest strike-rate of Northern batters in FT (105.42sr) and this style of batting doesn't align with consistent run-scoring, but Clarke is slowly settling into the one-day format. Clarke has a LA record of 29.63avg/93.28sr; an opening batter who averages 30-ish with a strike-rate over 100 is pretty funky.
Clarke has scored 20+ in four of his five FT games so far, with strike-rates of 100 or more in those four innings. Clarke will be a major Super Smash factor once again with his T20 strike-rate of 148.
Jeet Raval deserves some aroha too as he averaged below 35 in his first six seasons of LA cricket, then over 35 in five of his next six seasons. Raval's worst season in his last six summers (34avg in 2020/21) was better than all of his first six seasons and this season's 57.66avg is his best LA campaign ever.
Despite a batting line up of Henry Nicholls, Chad Bowes, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, Cole McConchie and Fletcher, Canterbury were rattled by Otago's bowlers. Otago dismissed Canterbury for 160 with Latham's 35 runs the highest score, then Otago reached 161/5 to seal victory.
Jacob Duffy took 3w and knocked the top off Canterbury's batting order, while Michael Rippon's 4w wrapped up the tail. Duffy and Rippon are in their own grooves this summer...
Jacob Duffy: 22w @ 21.36avg/3.15rpo (PS) | 11w @ 11.27avg/3.49rpo (FT)
Michael Rippon: 15w @ 28.13avg/4.35rpo (PS) | 8w @ 22avg/5.41rpo (FT)
Hamish Rutherford led the Otago run-chase with 76* and with no other Otago batter scoring 20+ (Rippon was 16*), this was a crucial knock from the skipper. Also crucial because Rutherford did not have a score over 30 in four Plunket Shield games and three FT games prior to this win.
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Peace and love.