2023/24 Super Smash Scout: All Things Auckland
Auckland ran rampant to snatch the soul out of Hagley Oval with two wins over Canterbury. The capitulation of Canterbury women and a clunky effort from their blokes will be digested in our Monday newsletter, with this Super Smash Scout zoning in on some key wrinkles for Auckland Hearts and Aces.
The best performers for Auckland wahine against Canterbury are also the only players doing anything of note this season for the Hearts. Skye Bowden led the bowling effort with 3w @ 9rpo while lefty seamer Bree Illing was the only other Auckland bowler to take a wicket with 2w @ 7rpo as Canterbury put up 152/7.
Maddy Green was the only Hearts batter to score 20+ runs in the winning run chase. Green stacked up 71 runs @ 133sr and her dismissal late in the 19th over came at a time when Canterbury handed the game to Auckland via their errors. Anna Browning made the most of these errors with 16*@ 160sr as Auckland to seal the win.
Green's 133 runs @ 44avg/116sr makes her Auckland's only batter averaging 20+ in Super Smash and she is also their only batter with a strike-rate over 100. Only three Auckland batters have scored 50+ runs with Saachi Shahri and Prue Catton joining Gren in this mix, both are averaging below 20 with strike-rates below 100.
This points to Green's emergence as a dominant figure in Aotearoa cricket. This starts with her presence on the field as she controls the tempo with bat and as skipper by rolling through a variety of funky fielding positions to shake things up. Green is also in a phase where she has averaged 30+ in ODIs and T20Is for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023), which is bonkers considering Green averaged 30+ in just one year across both formats since her debut in 2012.
Bowden is the only Auckland bowler with 3+ wickets in Super Smash and she is well past that marker with 10w @ 10avg/7.2rpo. This comes after Bowden played in just two HBJ Shield games which included a knock of 39 runs and no wickets in her lone bowling appearance. Eight other bowlers have been used by Auckland and they have combined for 9 wickets, meaning Bowden has more wickets than the rest of the Hearts bowling group combined.
The above is intriguing considering that Auckland has three of the youngest White Ferns in their team Add in Bella Armstrong who made her White Ferns debut this year and this highlights where Auckland can improve, as well as reflecting the White Ferns selection policy that does not lead to winning cricket.
Auckland have missed a few Super Smash games due to rain so the stats below are delivered with their career T20 stats...
Bella Armstrong: 16 runs @ 5avg/80sr (15avg/93sr)
Izzy Gaze: 19 runs @ 6avg/55sr (11avg/82sr)
Fran Jonas: 2w @ 29avg/49rpo (25avg/5.6rpo)
Molly Penfold: 1w @ 71avg/8.8rpo (35avg/7.1rpo)
Auckland Aces restricted Canterbury to 140/5 thanks to impressive mahi from Danru Ferns (1w @ 5.7rpo) and Louis Delport (2w @ 5rpo). Finn Allen (78* @ 169sr) and Mark Chapman (38 runs @ 118sr) led the run chase as Auckland wrapped this game up early in the 16th over, with Rob O'Donnell snaring a funky not-out (2*).
O'Donnell not-outs are funky because he only sits behind Dean Foxcroft and Devon Conway for the highest T20 batting averages of current kiwis. All three sit behind Chris Harris...
After four knocks of Super Smash this season, O'Donnell has 91 runs @ 45avg/113sr. Auckland lost Martin Guptill to injury ahead of their chase vs Canterbury while Allen, Chapman and Lockie Ferguson will soon depart the mix as well. This amplifies the funk around O'Donnell his runs gain importance and Auckland shouldn't have any issues in the bowling department…
Louis Delport: 9w @ 11avg/6.6rpo
Danru Ferns: 9w @ 12avg/6.7rpo
Ben Lister: 8w @ 14avg/7.8rpo
Delport and Ferns are Auckland's best bowlers across all three formats this summer. Lister has been in and out of the team while quietly building an impressive record in the three formats with averages of 27.51 in First-Class, 35.14 in List-A and 25.24 in T20. Delport has a fabulous T20 average of 21.16 and hovers around 30 in the other formats, while Ferns also rolls out his best mahi in T20s (26.57) and is slightly above 30avg in the other formats.
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Peace and love.