2023/24 Plunket Shield: Round One Notebook

Plunket Shield cricket is underway for the 2023/24 summer with Northern Districts, Central Districts and Wellington grabbing big wins. This yarn breaks down the teams selected across the first round so check in with that if you haven't yet. The table is fairly easy to assess right now with the three winning teams stacking up points. Northern's win over Otago gave them 20 points, while Central and Wellington took 19 points from their first round wins.

Otago were the best losers on six points, Canterbury snared four points and Auckland are chillin' on three points. Here's how that looks in more simple fashion...

  1. Northern Districts: 1-0 | 20 points

  2. Central Districts: 1-0 | 19 points

  3. Wellington: 1-0 | 19 points

  4. Otago: 0-1 | 6 points

  5. Canterbury: 0-1 | 4 points

  6. Auckland: 0-1 | 3 points

Here are the best batters and bowlers after the first round...

Most Runs

  • Sandeep Patel: 145 runs @ 145avg/78sr

  • Greg Hay: 115 runs @ 115avg/40sr

  • Muhammad Abbas: 98 runs @ 49avg/63sr

  • Sean Solia: 97 runs @ 48avg/50sr

  • Joe Carter: 94 runs @ 94avg/70sr

  • Nick Greenwood: 89 runs @ 44avg/54sr

  • Brad Schmulian: 86 runs @ 86avg/62sr

  • Josh Clarkson: 83 runs @ 83avg/95sr

  • Finn Allen: 83 runs @ 41avg/74sr

  • Tom Bruce: 81 runs @ 81avg/60sr

Most Wickets

  • Scott Kuggeleijn: 9w @ 9avg/2.4po

  • Zak Foulkes: 7w @ 11avg/2.9rpo

  • Peter Younghusband: 6w @ 8avg/3.6rpo

  • Nathan Smith: 6w @ 11avg/2.6rpo

  • Fraser Sheat: 6w @ 16avg/2.6rpo

  • Ray Toole: 5w @ 12avg/2.1rpo

  • Ben Sears: 5w @ 15avg/3.5rpo

  • Blair Tickner: 4w @ 22avg/3.2rpo

  • Adithya Ashok: 4w @ 35avg/4.5rpo

Auckland vs Central Districts

Central started with a typically classy batting innings in Auckland. Greg Hay hit a hundo while Brad Schmulian, Tom Bruce and Josh Clarkson all scored 80+ runs. Dane Cleaver chimed in with 63* as Central jacked up 509/8 declared in their lone batting effort. The Central trio of Hay (41.95avg), Schmulian (41.3avg) and Bruce (49.8avg) all have hefty First-Class batting averages and this is matched by a bowling attack full of slick Plunket Shield performers; Ray Toole, Blair Tickner, Doug Bracewell and Ajaz Patel all took 3+ wickets vs Auckland.

Clarkson is brewing as a funky lad on the rise. Last summer Clarkson was instrumental in helping Central win Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy championships, then he whacked 83 runs @ 95.4sr vs Auckland. Clarkson also took a wicket and he is steadily building up his FC mana, playing his 17th game while he's got 66 List-A games and 78 games in T20.

Auckland did some nice things against Central. Adithya Ashok racked up 31 overs and took 4 wickets, although he was Auckland's most expensive bowler (4.5rpo) as they put up 500 runs. Sean Solia scored 81 runs in their first innings, followed by Finn Allen's 79 runs batting seventh and then George Worker put up a 67 runs as his comrades crumbled in the second innings.

I'm tracking the plateau of Simon Keene who took 25w @ 14.2avg in 2021/22 but could only muster 8w @ 49.6avg last summer, then didn't take a wicket in 22 overs vs Central. Auckland were also the only home team to lose in the first round and Eden Park's outer oval is no fortress as Central just rolled Auckland, while they lost two of three home games last summer.

Northern Districts vs Otago

Scott Kuggeleijn and Bruce were the best players in the Aotearoa A tour of Australia, then Bruce scored runs for Central and Kuggeleijn took 8w overall against Otago. Kuggeleijn's 6w @ 3rpo led Northern to dismiss Otago for 267 in Hamilton as Max Chu offered 80 runs and Ben Lockrose toiled away for 40 runs in Otago's resistance.

Sandeep Patel led Northern's response with 145 runs alongside 94 runs from Joe Carter. This was Patel's first 50+ score in FC but he flashed his potential back in December 2019 with 69 runs for an NZ 11 against the touring Sri Lankans, then in November 2019 he scored 56* in a similar game against an England 11. Carter started this season nicely and he'll be eager to slide back into the groove which saw him average 40+ in three consecutive summers (2018-20).

Jacob Duffy and Matthew Bacon took 3w each as Northern declared on 376/9. Otago then had one batter score more than 10 runs with Lockrose having a whack (34 runs @ 117sr) down the order as Northern ripped through the visitors line up, all out for 77. Kuggeleijn took 3w while Brett Hampton, Kristian Clarke and Jose Walker took 2w each.

As noted in the team selection breakdown, Lockrose is an intriguing lad to track. This was Lockrose's fifth game of FC cricket with 13 games in both white ball formats and while his FC stats need improving (73avg with the ball, 12.5avg with the bat), Lockrose showed his potential in round tahi. Otago used Dean Foxcroft to bowl more spin overs and he was more economical than Lockrose (3.8rpo vs 6.2rpo) with both taking a wicket; how Lockrose builds into the summer will be crucial for Otago.

Wellington vs Canterbury

Wellington put up 325 runs at the Basin Reserve with opener and Jersey international Nick Greenwood leading the way, scoring 79 runs. Nick Kelly and Muhammad Abbas chimed in with 50+ scores, while Nathan Smith was right there with them on 49 runs. Canterbury's bowlers were led by Zak Foulkes who took 4w @ 2.8rpo. Fraser Sheat, Michael Rae and Michael Rippon took 2w each before Canterbury were dismissed for 156 in reply.

Rippon was the only Cantab to score 30+ runs (31). Ben Sears and Smith took 3w each to make a hefty dent in Canterbury's batting line up before Peter Younghusband's leggies ripped through the tail, taking 3w in 2.1ov.

Wellington then stumbled to 145 with Abbas the only Wellington batter to score 20+ runs. Abbas scored 41 runs and after eight FC games he is averaging 41.4. The best bowlers for Canterbury were Sheat (4w) and Foulkes (3w), taking Sheat to a FC bowling average of 25.3 (30 games) while Foulkes is cruising along with a FC average of 20.6 after seven games.

Chasing 315 for victory, Canterbury were all out for 185. Mitch Hay put up 44 runs before he smacked his own stumps as Canterbury's best batter and he now averages 41 after 12 games. Sears (2w) and Smith (3w) once again played key roles with the ball and Younghusband worked his way through the middle order this time with another 3-wicket-baggy.

Smith is now averaging 27.1 with the bat and 29.4 with the ball in FC cricket. If the first game of this summer is a sign of things to come, Smith could soon hit the all-rounder mark of averaging over 30 with the bat and under 30 with the ball.

Abbas offers a funky wrinkle here as he dismissed opener Dylan Hunter and Leo Carter who batted fourth, both of whom faced 60+ deliveries and were preparing to fight back. Abbas hasn't been as effective with his lefty seam as he has been with the bat (40+ averages in both), but when he's in a bowling groove, Abbas offers a delightful skillset.

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Written by Scott Miller On Tagged ,