2021/22 Plunket Shield: Auckland And Northern Wins
Auckland continue to dominate their home turf with a third consecutive Plunket Shield win in Auckland, after stringing together four consecutive Ford Trophy wins in the city of sales. Auckland were too slick for Canterbury and a bit further north in Whangarei, Northern defeated Wellington for their second win in four games. Here's how each team looks for results...
Auckland: 3-0.
Canterbury: 3-1-1.
Northern: 2-2.
Central: 1-1-2.
Otago: 1-3-1.
Wellington: 1-4.
All of Canterbury's wins came late last year and their depth was stretched for the fixture in Auckland, leaving me intrigued as to how they finish the campaign. Auckland need to play some games outside Auckland as well and the next round of games features Otago hosting Auckland in Alexandra, as well as Central hosting Northern in Napier. This will help provide clarity for the PS rankings and the overall Most Runs/Most Wickets stuff is niggly to dive into with the disparity between teams in games played.
I'll keep the focus on Auckland and Northern for this PS update. Auckland jacked up 547/9 in their first innings vs Canterbury thanks to Martin Guptill's 195 and Rob O'Donnell's 223. Auckland then dismissed Canterbury for 200 runs as Henry Shipley scored 61 runs, before Auckland declared on 131/2 via swift hitting from Glenn Phillips (57* @ 183sr). Auckland set Canterbury a target of 479 and despite another knock from Shipley (70 runs), Auckland dismissed Canterbury for 254.
Fresh off the Ford Trophy championship, Auckland repeated the batting mahi with the red ball. Guptill has two centuries in his last 5inns, stacking up form in both competitions...
Ford Trophy: 8inns, 367 runs @ 52.42avg/102.51sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Plunket Shield: 4inns, 325 runs @ 81.25avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
O'Donnell also has a Ford Trophy century in his recent knocks, although O'Donnell is either going large or not going anywhere; 68, 5, 0, 4, 5, 100*, 2, 7, 7, 223.
That's 10inns and three scores over 50, with seven scores below 10 mixed in. Auckland's first innings resembled this vibe as well considering how Guptill, O'Donnell and Sean Solia (33) were the only batters to pass 30 runs. Guptill then cracked 36 runs @ 124sr in the second innings and Phillips continues to do funky things.
No Will Somerville for Auckland in this game and while that saw Louis Delport promoted to the frontline spin option, Phillips snared 3w in the game and Delport took just 1w. Here is a comparison between Phillips and Somerville's PS spin bowling this summer...
Phillips: 43.3ov, 6w @ 14avg/1.93rpo/43.5sr.
Somerville: 61.4ov, 7w @ 18avg/2.04rpo/52.8sr.
Auckland also enjoyed fine mahi from seamer Simon Keene. Keene took 2w @ 2.46rpo in the first innings, then rolled through Canterbury with 6w @ 1.62rpo and has quietly entered domestic cricket in fine form. Keene has now played two PS games with 15w @ 7.60avg/2.02rpo and appears to bowl lovely out-swing to righties, which compliments Ben Lister's funky lefty-seam. Lister has also been low key impressive with 9w @ 17.44avg and how these two perform in fresher conditions will be crucial to Auckland's PS campaign.
Northern batted first in Whangarei and put up 243, led by Kristian Clarke hitting 63* at #10 on debut. Jimmy Neesham and Rachin Ravindra took 3w each, but couldn't help Wellington respond with the bat as they were all out for 119. Brett Randell led Northern's bowlers with 3w @ 2.76rpo, while Scott Kuggeleijn, Joe Walker and Mitchell Santner all took 2w. Clarke also snared his first PS wicket.
Joe Carter hit 76 and Santner hit 74 to take Northern to 314/8dec, which meant a target of 439 for Wellington to chase. Knocks of 70 runs from Nathan Smith and 56 runs from Callum McLachlan weren't enough for Wellington as they were all out for 225. Walker took 4w @ 1.81rpo, Clarke took 2w @ 3.41rpo and Ish Sodhi took 3w @ 1.77rpo for Northern.
Randell now has 21w @ 14.76avg in the PS and here is how his campaign looks: 4w, 3w, 5w, 2w, 1w, 2w, 3w, 1w. Randell only seems to be deployed in PS cricket (Matt Fisher is Northern's white ball weapon) and this serves up unique nuggets like Randell only playing two PS games so far in 2022. Randell's last 10 games stretch back to December 30th, 2020 and he appears to have found a groove in PS.
Joe Carter and Mitchell Santner in PS...
Carter: 198 runs @ 33avg, 2 x 50.
Santner: 192 runs @ 48avg, 2 x 50.
Joe Walker continues to impress and Northern have a notable spin trio in Walker, Santner and Sodhi. Walker was Northern's best bowler in their Super Smash championship and is now second to Randell for Northern's most PS wickets...
Super Smash: 16w @ 12.93avg/6.67rpo.
Plunket Shield: 13w @ 16.84avg/2.17rpo.
Kristian Clarke was a notable inclusion to Northern's contract list ahead of the summer and had an immediate impact on debut. A knock of 63* and 3w across this game showcase his all-round class, with his previous outing being a warm up game vs Bangladesh where he and Randell took 2w each. Clarke played in the 2020 Under 19 World Cup and his last three games there, plus the game vs Bangladesh and his PS debut have Clarke taking wickets consistently: 2w, 4w, 1w, 2w, 1w, 2w.
That's three different formats/levels across multiple years and Clarke still bags wickets. Clarke also had a knock of 11* to go with his 63* on PS debut and if we include the U19 World Cup games, Clarke has four not-out innings (46* and 9*) in his last five innings batting at these levels.
Consider Clarke the latest addition to Northern's impressive depth. The thing to keep close tabs on is their batting with just one century (Henry Cooper's 200) in their four games and there isn't a dominant force in their batting unit. This is also evident in Clarke needing to score runs, while Randell has two 50+ scores down the order as well.
Northern's batting is good enough though with the bowling firepower in their ranks. Randell is among the best seamers in PS and Northern have the best spin bowling department in Walker, Sodhi and Santner. No more Test cricket will likely see Neil Wagner return as well. Chuck in Clarke's bowling mahi on debut and Zak Gibson stacking up 11w @ 19.54avg earlier this summer and Northern could make a hearty Plunket Shield push late in the season.
Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.
Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email with bonus content. Sign up here!
Peace and love.