2022/23 Ford Trophy: Wellington and Canterbury Wins
The wonky ol' summer of 2022/23 continued this week as Ford Trophy games slowed down a sizzling streak of Super Smash cricket. This is a phase of the summer in which Ford Trophy and Super Smash blend together, something that Wellington seemed to enjoy in their destructive batting effort against Otago.
Wellington whacked 392/6 batting first. Rachin Ravindra scored 113 (110.78sr) along with frisky assistance from Devan Vishvaka (45 runs @ 145.16sr), Nick Kelly (61 runs @ 93.84sr), Troy Johnson (78* @ 165.95sr) and Logan van Beek (36* @ 150sr). Dean Foxcroft was Otago's best bowler as he took 2w @ 4.2rpo and was the only Otago bowler who conceded less than 6.5rpo.
Otago finished up on 282 with Hamish Rutherford's 63 runs @ 123.52sr their only knock over 40. Van Beek took 3w @ 6.6rpo and Luke Georgeson snared 4w @ 5.36rpo for Wellington.
Ravindra's century is his second in FT this season, now second for Wellington runs in FT, SS and Plunket Shield. Ravindra is second to Finn Allen in SS and Tom Blundell in PS which serves as a lovely marker of Ravindra's exploits this summer, while being just 2 runs behind Nick Kelly in FT. Ravindra is also averaging 30+ in all three formats this season and has made a hefty leap in T20 batting, taking his career record of 16.78avg/123.35sr up to 34.66avg/131.64sr in Super Smash this summer.
There is still a weird pocket of Wellington batting that offers context around Ravindra's mahi as a young cricketer with Wellington. Troy Johnson, Tim Robinson and Georgeson have struggled to find consistent runs this season and Johnson's stats below received a nice boost after his recent FT knock...
(PS | FT | SS)
Troy Johnson: 19avg | 23.66avg | 21avg
Tim Robinson: 5.25avg | 12.83avg | 8.33avg
Luke Georgeson: 12.87avg | 15.25avg | -
After bowling 16 overs with 9w @ 8.88avg/5rpo, Foxcroft bowled in his first FT game of the season. Foxcroft's offies have been solid in PS with 3w @ 26.33avg/3.95rpo and there is now a steady trend of Foxcroft having an impact as a bowler, especially in limited overs cricket.
Canterbury defeated Central, thanks to a typically solid bowling performance and match-winning runs from Ken McClure and Cameron Fletcher. Central put up 250/8 batting first with Brad Schmulian scoring 87 runs along with Dane Cleaver's 60 runs, while Zak Foulkes took 3w @ 4.22rpo and Will O'Rourke took 2w @ 4rpo.
Canterbury were chillin' on 75/4 when Fletcher came to the crease. Fletcher finished on 68* and McClure was not-out on 100 as they steered Canterbury to victory with an over to spare. Brett Randell was the best of the Central bowlers with 2w @ 2.9rpo, while Josh Clarkson took 2w @ 5.83rpo.
McClure played his first game of the summer last weekend in Super Smash, hitting 32 runs @ 228.57sr. In his second game of the summer McClure went large and with a List-A average of 42.55, McClure slid straight back into his regular mahi. Fletcher was also absent for Canterbury early in the summer and didn't play any PS games, now returning to add some oomph to Canterbury’s middle order batting.
Foulkes made his SS debut last weekend and he bolsters an already funky Canterbury seam bowling unit. Foulkes seems to bowl with decent pace and while he hasn't played as many games as O'Rourke across the formats this season, Foulkes has taken wickets in all three formats. Keep in mind that Canterbury lost Henry Shipley to Blackcaps as an all-format seamer, which has been absorbed by their never-ending list of promising seamers.
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