2023/24 Super Smash: Mikaela Greig, Doug Bracewell, Cole McConchie And More From Central Districts vs Canterbury
Central Districts won their women's game against Canterbury which was impacted by rain, but the Canterbury blokes returned the favour with a win in their full 20-over encounter. Central Hinds had crucial knocks from Hannah Rowe (24* @ 109sr) and Mikaela Greig (16* @ 160sr), before Rowe snared 1w @ 6.5rpo and offie Ashtuti Kumar took 2w @ 6.5rpo.
Rowe enters 2024 as the third best batter in Super Smash and her 24 runs against Canterbury is more than her 21 runs in four HBJ Shield games so far. Rowe was fantastic with the ball in the first stanza of HBJ Shield and the stats below lay out how her mahi has flipped with the formats...
(batting | bowling)
HBJ Shield: 21 runs @ 5avg/41sr | 7w @ 21avg/5rpo
Super Smash: 70 runs @ 70avg/101sr | 2w @ 35avg/7rpo
Greig is quietly brewing as the best domestic batter this summer. Greig and Wellington's Rebecca Burns are the only HBJ Shield batters with strike-rates over 100 (10+ runs), but with Burns operating at 92sr in Super Smash, Greig is the only batter with a batting strike-rate over 100 in both competitions. Greig is yet to register a big knock in Super Smash, but she has scored 33 runs @ 117sr and this is the highest batting strike-rate for CD in Super Smash of their five batters who have batted three times.
Kumar is second to Leigh Kasperek as the best spinner in Super Smash. This follows Kumar's HBJ Shield mahi of 2w @ 76avg/4.9rpo and the departure of Jess Watkin to Northern Districts has opened up an off-spinning opportunity for Kumar. Watkin, Kumar and Kasperek are joined by Frances Mackay and Xara Jetly as spinners who have 4+ wickets. Five of the eight bowlers with 4+ wickets are spinners.
A funky comparison for Kumar is Wellington's Jetly. Both are shorter bowlers who rip their offies with accuracy, while also being good fielders. Both are similar to Eden Carson in that regard and there are plenty of young spinners on show in wahine Super Smash.
Flora Devonshire's an emerging lefty for CD and Ocean Bartlett's leggies haven't been seen in Super Smash yet this season. Sophie Oldershaw (Otago) and Sarah Asmussen (Canterbury) are always factors in Super Smash. Wellington has their crop noted in the most recent Super Smash Scout. Auckland has young leggy Rishika Jaswal as a funky talent to track.
The blokes game was led by Cole McConchie's 79* @ 168sr with support from Michael Rippon's 58* @ 175sr. Canterbury were also boosted by the return of Ken McClure who hit 16 runs @ 160sr and he's a nifty slugger with a career strike-rate of 129, boosted by 143sr last season.
In a younger Canterbury team, McConchie and Rippon's solid T20 mahi will be crucial...
Cole McConchie: 22avg/124sr | 32avg/7.4rpo
Michael Rippon: 22avg/118sr | 27avg/7.6rpo
Will O'Rourke bowled in his first Super Smash game of the summer, taking 2w @ 8.2rpo. Zak Foulkes snared 2w @ 6.2rpo which were his first wickets of the campaign and he's only batted once with 14 runs @ 140sr.
Doug Bracewell also bowled in his first Super Smash fixture this season, offering a typically tidy 1w @ 5.7rpo. This was followed by 18 runs @ 138sr which takes Bracewell to 56avg/230sr and his all-round mahi will be interesting to track this season. Bracewell has a fantastic T20 record of 24avg/8.5rpo with the ball and 29avg/152sr with the bat, which has already been on display in a couple games this campaign.
Bracewell's T20 batting average is higher than Dane Cleaver (24avg/132sr) who led CD's batting innings vs Canterbury with 47 runs @ 130sr. Bracewell also has a higher T20 batting average than McConchie, Rippon, Tim Robinson, Jeet Raval, Nick Kelly and Jake Gibson who are the leading run-scorers so far. Josh Clarkson's 29.14avg is a smidge higher than Bracewell's 29.12avg.
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