2023/24 Ford Trophy: Opening Notebook (Adam Milne, Matt Bacon, Dale Phillips, Cameron Paul, Brett Hampton)
The Ford Trophy season is underway with Otago, Canterbury and Northern Districts grabbing wins in the opening round. Next cluster of games is on Wednesday and The Niche Cache will be here as often as possible to roll through key performers and funky trends. This starts with Dale Phillips hitting 107 runs for Otago in their big tally of 302/6 against Auckland and Phillips is fresh off selection in the Plunket Shield First Stanza Emerging All Stars.
Phillips finished the first stanza of Plunket Shield as Otago's lading run-scorer and he adjusted to one-day cricket nicely as he scored his 107 runs @ 108sr. One thing to keep tabs on throughout the summer is Dean Foxcroft's mahi, or lack of runs as he scored 72 runs @ 14.4avg in PS and managed 18 runs @ 60sr in the first FT game. Foxcroft earned a Blackcaps call up thanks to his fantastic all-round cricket and yet Phillips is Otago's best batter to start this summer.
Also watch out for Max Chu, who was also selected in the Emerging All Stars and offered a 25* @ 208sr flourish at the end of Otago's innings. Chu's worst format is T20 (11.3avg/116sr) but after a steady start in PS, Chu has flashed his attacking ability in the opening game of FT.
Otago were led by Matt Bacon's 5 wickets @ 4.3rpo in dismissing Auckland for 260. Bacon was Otago's most economical bowler and his best mahi comes in T20, followed by List-A cricket. While Bacon worked his way back into Otago's 1st 11 for PS there weren't many wickets (9w @ 44avg) for him working alongside Jacob Duffy (21w @ 18avg). Bacon starts FT with 5w to help Otago win and Otago will need Bacon's best white-ball antics to be a factor.
Adam Milne also snared 5w @ 2.5rpo for Wellington in their loss to Canterbury. Milne averages 27.6 in LA and 23.4 in T20 as one of Aotearoa's best white-ball bowlers, although he can't quite settle into Blackcaps 1st 11 duties. Despite not taking a wicket and conceding 6.3rpo, Ben Sears was also in Wellington's bowling attack for an intriguing Milne/Sears combo.
Assessing bowling speeds is tricky through the video footage but we know Milne and Sears bowl fast. Neither Zak Foulkes or Cameron Paul appear to be in the same hostile zone as Milne and Sears, yet both these young Cantabrians have zip at the very least. Keen cricket fans should be tuned into Foulkes as a fantastic all-round talent and after roughing up a few CD batters in PS, Foulkes showcased his delightful in-swing to dismiss Wellington opener Nick Greenwood.
18-year-old Paul made his debut for Canterbury and there were signs of his talent in grabbing two wickets by banging in short balls. Paul also dismissed Callum McLachlan who played on to his stumps and the way the ball flies down to fine-leg perks up the 'oh there's a bit of zip there' antenna. Paul finished with 3w @ 2.8rpo and he captained the NZ Under 19 team earlier this year, also hailing from the Darfield Cricket Club which has produced Foulkes and Henry Shipley.
Matt Fisher has slippery pace and the ND seamer is part of an enticing ND bowling unit who helped ND defeat CD. Fisher took 2w alongside Kristian Clarke, Tim Pringle and Joe Walker while Scott Kuggeleijn and Brett Hampton didn't take any wickets. Hampton just snared 7w in PS and Kuggeleijn is the best seamer below Blackcaps right now. Fisher averages 20.9 in LA and Clarke is right there with him averaging 20.7, while Pringle and Walker are at their best in T20 cricket so keep track of them heading into Super Smash.
Two all-rounders stood out in this game with Hampton doubling-down on being the best hitter in domestic cricket and CD's Will Clark continuing to show signs of his talent. Jeet Raval led ND's batting innings with 96 runs and Hampton chimed in with 88* @ 120sr down the order. Raval and Hampton took ND from 94/6 to 223/7, while Hampton has 10 sixes across PS and FT which is the highest combined tally this summer.
Clark took 2w @ 4.1rpo for CD and backed it up with 43 runs in support of Dane Cleaver's 93 runs. The 22-year-old didn't play PS and has gathered four games in each format as he competes for opportunities in an experienced CD group. While there isn't enough mahi here to dive into his stats, Clark has already got a LA strike-rate of 107 and T20 strike-rate of 124. There is scope for Clark to get more overs if he can gather wickets and despite not having a 50+ score yet, Clark's last 10 games feature nine not-out or 30+ knocks.
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