2024/25 Ford Trophy: Canterbury Go Back To Back
Canterbury has gone back to back with Ford Trophy championships and have won three of the last five one-day competitions in Aotearoa after defeating Auckland in the final. Auckland put up 250 runs batting first with youngster Lachlan Stackpole scoring 58* @ 90.6sr as their leading run-scorer, followed by Simone Keene's 48 runs @ 98sr and Louis Delport's 36 runs @ 106sr.
Zak Foulkes (4rpo) and Ish Sodhi (5.3rpo) snared 3 wickets each for Canterbury. Fraser Sheat (3.7rpo), Michael Rae (5.8rpo) and Angus McKenzie (5.2rpo) took a wicket each to round off a strong bowling performances from Canterbury. Henry Nicholls returned to Canterbury's 1st 11 as an opening batter and he scored 52 runs @ 75sr, while Matt Boyle chimed in with 41 runs @ 95sr before Mitch Hay came to the crease.
Hay has a habit of banging sixes and his 86* @ 113sr featured more sixes (six) than fours (four) as he steered Canterbury to victory, reaching 254/4 in 46 overs. This was Hay's third 50+ score in the Ford Trophy and all three came in the second stanza after Super Smash, with two of these knocks featuring more sixes than fours and all three over 100sr.
Mitch Hay 50+ scores
56 runs vs Otago: 133.33sr, 0x4, 5x6
51 runs vs Northern Districts: 106.25sr, 6x4, 1x6
86* vs Auckland: 113.15sr, 4x4, 6x6
Hay finishes with the most sixes for Canterbury in the Ford Trophy as their only batter with 10+ sixes. It would have been slightly cooler if Hay had more sixes than fours, but his 13 fours and 12 sixes is still lovely. List-A cricket is Hay's weakest format as he averages 48.4 in First-Class and has a T20 strike-rate of 143.6.
The next up Blackcaps wicket-keeper is moving in the right direction though. He didn't have a 50+ score in his first three seasons of Ford Trophy in which he played five or fewer games, then he played all 10 games in 2023/24 and had two 50+ scores. Hay has backed that up by playing all 10 games again with three 50+ scores.
Canterbury has the best concentration of young talent in Aotearoa and along with Hay, Matt Boyle and Scott Janett hit centuries this season, Rhys Mariu hit his first 50+ scores in Ford Trophy and Zak Foulkes finished as Canterbury's best bowler.
20-year-old Janett made his Ford Trophy debut after Super Smash and started with a cheeky knock of 115. This gives Janett a century and a knock of 93 runs in Plunket Shield, two big scores in his first eight innings of domestic cricket.
22-year-old Boyle was the best batter in Super Smash and then smacked 131 runs in the second game after Super Smash finished, again flashing his effortless power in the final with two sixes.
23-year-old Mariu wasn't always in Canterbury's 1st 11 and only played two Super Smash games, but he found his way to Ford Trophy runs heading into finals. Mairu had scores of 87 and 63 prior to the final, adding to his First-Class average of 71 which will be fun to track as Plunket Shield swings back around.
You already know about 24-year-old Hay and by now, all kiwi cricket fans should be familiar with 22-year-old Foulkes taking lots of wickets. Foulkes is averaging below 26 in all three formats and below 24 in the two limited overs formats. Having recently been in the Blackcaps environment, Foulkes is Canterbury's best bowler when combining all three formats this season.
Zak Foulkes this summer
Plunket Shield: 8w @ 30.3avg/3.6rpo - tied 1st
Ford Trophy: 16w @ 25.5avg/5.2rpo - 1st
Super Smash: 13w @ 21.1avg/8rpo - 2nd
Sticking with the Canterbury youngster theme, Cameron Paul (20yrs) and Matt Rowe (19yrs) took a wicket each in their lone appearance of the season. Both are high quality seamers who will continue to add value to Canterbury's bowling unit, helping absorb the absences of Matt Henry and Will O'Rourke who didn't play a game of Ford Trophy this season as well as Kyle Jamieson who only played twice.
Chad Bowes scored a massive double century earlier in the season but only played four games of Ford Trophy and didn't play since the end of Super Smash. Henry Shipley whacked 12 runs @ 240sr and took 3w @ 6.1rpo in his one game of Ford Trophy. Obviously Henry, O'Rourke and Jamieson didn't play in the final as they are at the Champions Trophy but Bowes and Shipley were notable lads who were missing given their abilities in domestic cricket.
Led by one of Aotearoa's best cricketing leaders Cole McConchie, Canterbury are at their best when lads like the skipper, Ish Sodhi, Michael Rippon, Fraser Sheat, Angus McKenzie and Michael Rae are called upon to to most of the domestic grind. McConchie finished as Canterbury's leading run-scorer in Super Smash and their only batter to reach 350 runs, while Sodhi finished Ford Trophy with at least a wicket in five consecutive games and his best mahi in the final.
Rippon averaged 26 with the bat and the ball. Sheat and McKenzie both took 8w with averages below 28. Rae was less productive throughout the summer but took a wicket in the final along with Sheat and McKenzie. Five Canterbury bowlers took 8+ wickets in Ford Trophy and along with Rae, plus Sean Davey who only played three games, Canterbury had seven bowlers who took 4+ wickets.
Eight batters had a 50+ score. One of those batters was Nicholls but he didn't reach the 100-run mark and Foulkes did without a 50+ score, giving Canterbury eight batters who scored 100+ runs this season. McConchie was joined by Boyle in scoring 300+ runs with Bowes and Mariu joining the 250+ run group.
Here's a quick comparison to last summer's group who won Ford Trophy...
O'Rourke, Leo Carter, Bevon Jacobs and Ed Nuttall played at least five games last season and didn't play for Canterbury this season.
Nicholls, Bowes and Latham played fewer games this season than last season.
Bowes and Nicholls scored 300+ runs last season.
Boyle only played four games last season and Mariu played once.
Sodhi only played two games last season and Shipley played one game in both seasons.
Foulkes was the leading wicket-taker (back to back with two championships) and O'Rourke was second best.
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