2022/23 Plunket Shield: Blackcaps Intrigue and Notes For All Teams
The latest round of Plunket Shield cricket featured lots of runs, busy spinners and more youngsters sprinkled into the circuit. Four Blackcaps lead this yarn thanks to their four-day funk and there are some notes about each team’s best players down below.
Mitchell Santner was highly influential in Northern's win over Central, his second PS game of the season. Remember that Santner was a Super Smash monster for the second summer in a row and he has started the second stanza of PS with four scores of 40+ including his big donnie century this week. Santner only took 1w in Northern's loss to Canterbury last week and the trip to Aotearoa's spinniest deck at Bay Oval saw Santner pounce with 8 wickets.
Santner took his first 5-for in First-Class cricket and is still hovering around 45avg in FC and Test bowling. Santner is now averaging 31 with the bat after 58 FC games. This performance is a lovely reminder of Santner's talent and while some better stats would help solidify selection arguments, Santner’s pure talent is undeniable.
Lockie Ferguson only took 2 wickets in each innings for Auckland against Wellington. Auckland's spinners did most of their mahi as Will Somverille and Adithya Ashok were the only Auckland bowlers to churn out 20+ overs in both innings, although Ferguson's return to PS is the most notable yarn.
Ferguson last played PS in the summer of 2019/20 and while Ferguson has missed a few campaigns, he's averaging under 25 in his seventh consecutive season of FC bowling. Ferguson bowled 800+ deliveries and averaged less than 23.5 in four consecutive seasons as he commanded a Test debut. While maintaining his efficiency, Ferguson has bowled less than 550 deliveries in his last three seasons which is impacted by Blackcaps stuff and injuries.
Ferguson bags wickets whenever he is playing PS. We have no idea how fast Ferguson is bowling in PS, although his glorious angle/swing into righties and away from lefties was on display vs Wellington. There is an 'unfinished mahi' flavour to Ferguson's Test career. Don't overlook Ferguson when exploring Blackcaps Test bowling depth and as availability is the best ability, tracking Ferguson's workload will be a funky wrinkle as we enter autumn.
Ish Sodhi took 3w in both innings against Otago and has wickets in 13 consecutive innings across different formats and countries. Sodhi was among the best Blackcaps performers in the Pakistan Test series and after being released from the Blackcaps Test squad, Sodhi has stayed in a longform groove.
With Northern last season, Sodhi took 9w @ 17.44avg. Now Sodhi is playing for Canterbury and he has 8w @ 25.37avg, averaging 33.13 in FC bowling. This is how Sodhi's FC average compares to other notable kiwi spinners...
Will Somerville: 29.4avg
Ish Sodhi: 33.13avg
Ajaz Patel: 33.31avg
Mitchell Santner: 45.17avg
Michael Bracewell: 46.48avg
Rachin Ravindra: 50.85avg
Sodhi's batting in his last four games of longform cricket: 65, 11, 69, 27*, 46.
Glenn Phillips is also whipping up all-round production, led by his knock of 147 runs against Canterbury as Otago valiantly salvaged a draw. Phillips cracked 25 runs @ 166sr in the first innings and tightened up with the game on the line. Combine two different batting knocks with wickets in both innings for a showcase performance from Phillips.
Phillips' FC bowling average of 40.61 stacks up alright to the lads listed above, although Phillips is entrenched in the 'there if we need him' bowling bucket. Any Blackcaps selection yarn about Phillips revolves around his run-scoring and after hitting 61* @ 150r in the third ODI vs Pakistan (series winning knock), Phillips lost his form in India.
That form dip stretched into Ford Trophy as Phillips had eight games scoring below 40, with four consecutive scores below 10 prior to the second stanza of PS. Phillips found form in four-day cricket with scores of 61, 47, 25 and 147 in PS. Release the ODI/T20I view of Phillips as he has a FC average of 41.38 and PS excellence is a staple of his career thus far.
Auckland (6th / 1-2-2)
Mark Chapman: 150 runs @ 150avg
Sean Solia: 356 runs @ 39.55avg
Will O'Donnell: 245 runs @ 27.22avg
Will Somerville: 19w @ 26.47avg/2.33po
Adithya Ashok: 12w @ 22.33avg/2.71rpo
Northern (2nd / 2-3-1)
Bharat Popli: 603 runs @ 54.81avg
Jeet Raval: 502 runs @ 45.63avg
Colin de Grandhomme: 242 runs @ 34.57avg/100sr
Central (4th / 2-2-1)
Brad Schmulian: 445 runs @ 55.62avg | 7w @ 13avg/3.68rpo
Greg Hay: 165 runs @ 82.5avg
Tom Bruce: 618 runs @ 68.66avg
Ajaz Patel: 11w @ 45avg/3.7rpo
Doug Bracewell: 23w @ 20.04avg/2.97rpo
Wellington (3rd / 2-2-2)
Rachin Ravindra: 469 runs @ 39.08avg | 11w @ 45.63avg/3.36rpo
Muhammad Abbas: 243 runs @ 60.75avg
Nick Kelly: 443 runs @ 36.91avg
Michael Snedden: 19w @ 19.26avg/2.44rpo
Canterbury (1st / 3-0-3)
Cole McConchie: 665 runs @ 73.88avg
Mitch Hay: 356 runs @ 39.55avg
Chad Bowes: 279 runs @ 34.87avg
Will O'Rourke: 19w @ 30.68avg/3.03rpo
Henry Shipley: 15w @ 26.66avg/3.16rpo
Otago (5th / 1-2-3)
Dean Foxcroft: 485 runs @ 44avg | 4w @ 28.75avg/3.38rpo
Dale Phillips: 285 runs @ 25.9avg
Thorn Parkes: 346 runs @ 31.45avg
Jacob Duffy: 28w @ 27.78avg/3.44rpo
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