***Official*** New Zealand Domestic Season 2019/20

[NZTailender]

I'd forgotten about Weeradunara. What's he up to now?

 

[Kippax]

I'd forgotten about Weeradunara. What's he up to now?

He's an aspiring agribusinessman.

 

[Kippax]

Lots to like there.

Do quite like O'Rourke's bowling too, even if there currently aren't a lot of straight lines in his bowling action. Has potential - a do-er upper.

Yeah even sort of looks a bit like a South African seamer to me, O'Rourke, which of course is where NZ U19 are headed. The selectors have got themselves into a bit of a bind now by trying to cultivate ND kids, when the answers were actually O'Rourke and Millard. The old ND cry-wolfing tricks seem to have struck again in a bad way.

 

[nzfan]

Finished work early and watched couple of hours of cricket. Got to watch some really good cricket. For a starter Hamish Bennett was bowling absolute gas. Ravindra smashes the ball so hard, didn't realize he can do that as well. He took Jimmy Neesham and Ollie Newton to cleaners. From memory he smashed all by himself 17 off Jimmy's one over including a massive six and 12 off Newton in like 5 or 6 balls. Shame he got out to an off spinner I have never heard of. The lad will be a scary prospect for bowlers around the world in T20. The pitch was very bouncy and had good pace.

Bracewell is in amazing touch, it echoed all over the ground when ball met his bat. He absolutely smashed everyone around the ground. Watch out for him in Super Smash he's looking unbelievable.

Also learnt Chander Ravi is a quality player. Doesn't hit big but very good at placing the ball and hitting in gaps consistently.

Didn't get to watch much of Jimmy Neesham as he was out early and bowled fairly well but Bracewell and Ravindra were middling everything. Neesham had many change ups and bowled briskly particularly the short balls.

Watched a bit of first inning of when Mt Vic Vikings were batting, Lauchie Johns was looking very good. I think Firebirds from what I saw seem to be in good touch overall. Was hoping I get to watch Conway but he didn't play for some reason in the afternoon.

 

[nzfan]

Yeah even sort of looks a bit like a South African seamer to me, O'Rourke, which of course is where NZ U19 are headed. The selectors have got themselves into a bit a bind now by trying to cultivate ND kids, when the answers were actually O'Rourke and Millard. The old ND cry-wolfing tricks seem to have struck again in a bad way.

Long levers... another Ben Sears coming up or what?

 

[nzfan]

Forgot to mention Ravindra bowls gas, I didn't realize how quick his bowling is for a spinner and I don't know how he was still spinning it at that pace. Perhaps that tells how much T20 I've watched at the ground.

 

[Kippax]

Long levers... another Ben Sears coming up or what?

Well you can sort of see why they never really had any serious plans for O'Rourke when you watch the action from behind him.

What they may need to appreciate is that they could actually thrive with a bit more unorthodoxy and weird one-of-a-kind actions etc. in their pace bowlers, especially for one-off tournaments. I mean O'Rourke's ERs in these age group tourneys has never been bad, in fact quite the opposite.

 

[nzfan]

Well you can sort of see why they never really had any serious plans for O'Rourke when you watch the action from behind him.

What they may need to appreciate is that they could actually thrive with a bit more unorthodoxy and weird one-of-a-kind actions etc. in their pace bowlers, especially for one-off tournaments. I mean O'Rourke's ERs in these age group tourneys has never been bad, in fact quite the opposite.

We're now slowly warming up to the fact that not everyone has to have bowling action like Boult or Bond. Now that T20s are here to stay it's only a matter of time we are going to start seeing lads that have weird action but effective. Likes of Malinga, Bumrah have changed the views of unorthodox action in the recent years. I think NZ, Aus, England over coach the players. It's good if the coached players are capable of performing but the success rate of orthodoxy is in fact quite minimal in comparison to unorthodoxy. We tend to coach the boys out of it for some reason.

 

[nzfan]

Live stream of Wellington premier league ********* again today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C75...rft4Bgf7vugycGLEXvVAmNfrF6Zv2ahkTzqC2uW7eusUg

Conway's team is batting first.

 

[Kippax]

Certainly not as hard to defeat a 'laden with internationals' ND U19 as say the ND senior side! A sixth loss in a row, and it was a thrashing to boot.

 

[nzfan]

D Vishvaka from Wellington hopefully makes the team, he's been scoring heaps. 2 hundreds followed by another 70 today.

 

[straw man]

Yeah even sort of looks a bit like a South African seamer to me, O'Rourke, which of course is where NZ U19 are headed. The selectors have got themselves into a bit of a bind now by trying to cultivate ND kids, when the answers were actually O'Rourke and Millard. The old ND cry-wolfing tricks seem to have struck again in a bad way.

So time for some other domestic sides to produce some real wolves? Did notice ND were doing badly in this tournament - I guess as Lellman has been mentioned in this thread he was expected to score, but has only made a few smaller contributions while the rest of the batting has been bad.

Agree O'Rourke's looks much better from the front than the back. He has the zip though and there is a slightly Sears-like element to his action.

Haven't watched many highlights overall, but did notice Vishvaka hit some great shots in his hundred the other day.

 

[Kippax]

Yes Vishvaka could argue he had rotten luck in two of his three NZ U19 dismissals. He didn't really have the U19 nationals last season to demand it, but he could've done with a few more chances to secure his ticket. He's clicked past 400 runs in this tourney now, leads the runscorers by about 100.

 

[Kippax]

So that's a ton on Friday, Monday and Wednesday from Vishvaka.

Pretty admirable attempt to snap the ND losing streak by Bradburn, he was batting as low as No. 9 in the 50-over portion. Latched on to Ashok once and milked it around against him like he was following his dad's advice to take the game deep, but he holed out to Abbas needing 6 off 2. Auckland claims the silverware with a round in hand.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

A bloke who looks like he would struggle to hit 120 leading the wickets table is ITSTL

 

[Prince EWS]

A bloke who looks like he would struggle to hit 120 leading the wickets table is ITSTL

It's Under 19s, that happens in Australia sometimes too.

 

[Kippax]

Australia used to actually elevate and have a bit of a look at their really prolific but very low ceiling U19 seamers. I can recall chuckling at what Cameron Valente had to offer to Weerasundara.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Australia used to actually elevate and have a bit of of look at their really prolific but very low ceiling U19 seamers. I can recall chuckling at what Cameron Valente had to offer to Weerasundara.

Valente is a strange one, his bowling can look pretty shite but he had a real knack of taking wickets all throughout the age group stuff. I saw both him and Alex Gregory coming through the system here in Adelaide, at that stage Gregory looked a far better cricketer. But Valente really kicked on in grade cricket, his bowling stayed the same but his batting especially really went through the roof, almost to the stage where he is arguably a batting allrounder now. Has a pretty dire Shield record, but his 50 over numbers are strong and his grade numbers are absolutely phenomenal. I don't typically rate blokes with that sort of skillset but I am very much a Valente fan. Him being a bit of a mad bastard admittedly helps, pretty hilarious some of the things he has said.

On Gregory, he just seemed to plateau somewhat after U19s. Played some 50 over cricket but drifted out of the SACA setup and ended up in Victoria, where he has been fairly impressive in grade, heard chat he is a decent chance of playing some T20 2nd XI stuff for the Vics soonish

 

[Prince EWS]

Gregory was always an over-hyped spud IMO. He was one of the most hyped players in the Under 19s team he played for despite clearly not being good enough to bat above eight and not being a particularly interesting bowler.

Valente may or may not be good enough but he's certainly making the most of what he's got in the Marsh Cup and in grade cricket, and his interviews make him 20% more valuable to cricket than he otherwise would be. A much more lovable character.

But yeah both are examples of medium pacers who kind of master their art early being able to clean up expansive Under 19s batsmen. It's not something specific to NZ by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[nzfan]

Vishvaka from Wellington has been scoring runs for fun. Another hundred and near hundred again in 2 T20s.

I don't reckon even Glenn Phillips scored as many in under 19s. I'm not saying he's future star but chances are he can build on this. New opportunities will open up at Firebirds level in future.