***Official New Zealand Domestic Season 2021/22***

[Immenso]

Macewell has bowled 13 out of 14 overs of Wgtn spin, and hasn't bowled well lately either. C'mon, bowl Rachin and Younghusband.

Huh. I hadnt seen this when I posted my moan. Great minds think alike ...

Didn't realise Younghusband was also playing.

 

[ataraxia]

Can't retain players consistently and can't sign up reasonable players from other regions. Now they have players that were contributing heavily retired. They wanted NZC to intervene and help them out but NZC shut their doors and said it's for them to manage it.

Otago's a bit weaker than the other sides, but that's nothing new (wasn't the last time they won the PS in the 80s?). Not sure that it rises to a level where NZC should intervene.

 

[ataraxia]

Rachin gets a double-wicket maiden. Good to see that FC average dropping.

And Guppy out for 195 (212) thanks to a one-handed catch by Ken McClure.

 

[nzfan]

Bugger... I thought Guppy was going to score a triple. You got to admire the man, he has no chance of playing test cricket but always makes sure to turn up and play for Aces when he's not with the black caps. He can comfortably enjoy his life and not worry about playing red ball but if he's around he'll play. That catch from McClure unbelievable, what a grab.

Rob O'Donnell is definitely making good strides over the last couple of years. He's had a very good super smash this year as well. Investing in him finally paying off for Aces.

 

[Ghost]

Have Wellington soured on Lauchie Johns as their keeper? McLachlan was contracted for them this year ahead of him. HIs batting record up to now has been poor at that level but he seems to be carving up attacks in club cricket for fun this season and very steady at "A" level. And he's only 25.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Bit off topic but George Worker must be...working...his way back into ODI contention. Genuinely has a case for being the best white ball opener in the country. Outbatted Guptill this season and overall has 18 one day tons @ 44, and hasn't disgraced himself in his limited NZ appearances. I have reservations about him on decks that do a bit but on your average ODI deck he'll be as well suited to it as any modern opener.

I know we don't play JAMODIs anymore, but it would be helpful to include him for JAMODIs given we're a bit uncertain at the top and I think Guppy turns 45 this year.

Has he been bowling at all? It is always handy to have part-time spinners in ODIs

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I'm not even sure what our best ODI side looks like right now.

Guptill (maybe - has looked very past his best in recent years)
-
Williamson (c)
Conway
-
-
-
Santner
Henry
Ferguson
Boult

Nicholls, Allen and Worker are opening options. Chapman, Nicholls potential middle order bats. Neesham, CdG, Mitchell allrounders and Latham and Cleaver as keepers.

We also need to build bowling depth. I'm assuming Southee has re-entered the fold and Sodhi is always picked. Who else though? Milne?

If 2 out of Ravindra, Phillips, and Chapman can kick on bats who can bowl a bit of spin it would add a lot to the side with the WC in India.

 

[Ghost]

I'm not even sure what our best ODI side looks like right now.

Guptill (maybe - has looked very past his best in recent years)
-
Williamson (c)
Conway
-
-
-
Santner
Henry
Ferguson
Boult

Nicholls, Allen and Worker are opening options. Chapman, Nicholls potential middle order bats. Neesham, CdG, Mitchell allrounders and Latham and Cleaver as keepers.

We also need to build bowling depth. I'm assuming Southee has re-entered the fold and Sodhi is always picked. Who else though? Milne?

Maybe as our top ODI team

Guptill
Conway
Williamson
Young/Nicholls/Phillips
Latham
Mitchell
Neesham
Santner
Henry
Ferguson
Boult

 

[nzfan]

Otago's a bit weaker than the other sides, but that's nothing new (wasn't the last time they won the PS in the 80s?). Not sure that it rises to a level where NZC should intervene.

NZC concerned about Otago's performances

New Zealand Cricket is concerned by Otago's poor run of form during the past two years. But equally the national body believes the major...

www.odt.co.nz

I'm sure there's more than just the one above. Will try to find the one Otago was seeking help from NZC.

Also see Vishvaka (CW favourite in U19s a couple of seasons ago) made a century opening for Wellington A today.

The lad has been doing really well over the last couple of years. I remember him scoring a hundred vs CD A or Canterbury A as well last season or two ago. Generally he's among runs for his club side as well.

Live scores, live streams, video highlights and schedules from NZC

176 vs CD A last season.

 

[nzfan]

Have Wellington soured on Lauchie Johns as their keeper? McLachlan was contracted for them this year ahead of him. HIs batting record up to now has been poor at that level but he seems to be carving up attacks in club cricket for fun this season and very steady at "A" level. And he's only 25.

I think Lauchie Johns is our local best keeper/batsman. They had him playing for few years but then he didn't perform well enough meanwhile McLachlan was banging runs for fun at club cricket and was a under 19 rep so they brought him in but he's barely played this season. There is a strong chance they'll go back to Johns next season.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Kuggeleijn must be close to being dropped for an extended period by ND.

Good

I was looking at the number of overs Sears was used and totally forgot about Ravindra given how many less overs he bowls in a season. He's almost like not a bowler in this side. We have a test incumbent spinner and he's barely used while Bracewell hoses overs after overs from one end.

I'm whinged about Wellington's bowler management enough already this season. What is Younghusband even for? Why do they bother playing spinners for Wellington A? Brett Johnson not getting a bowl in their first dig and Kieran McComb only getting 7. Then, in the 2nd innings, 5 wickets taken between Johnson, McComb and Greenwood.

To some extent, reflects the lip service paid to spin in New Zealand.

Also see Henry Shipley pulled a hammy today. Hopefully not too bad an injury.

 

[nzfan]

Good



I'm whinged about Wellington's bowler management enough already this season. What is Younghusband even for? Why do they bother playing spinners for Wellington A? Brett Johnson not getting a bowl in their first dig and Kieran McComb only getting 7. Then, in the 2nd innings, 5 wickets taken between Johnson, McComb and Greenwood.

To some extent, reflects the lip service paid to spin in New Zealand.

Also see Henry Shipley pulled a hammy today. Hopefully not too bad an injury.

I'm not even sure why Younghusband is there when Bracewell bowls lots of overs and besides you have Ravindra. Waste of space and if Nathan Smith was dropped rather than injured I'd be fuming. Or if you pick them give them a fair go.

Yup utter mismanagement of the spin bowlers across board.

Couple of days ago I mentioned when Maharaj was hit for two sixes in his second over he continued to bowl good number of overs after that, very unlike NZ. I watched a bit of live ND game later in the day, Ravindra went for like 13 with couple of slogs from the tail ender and he was done with the spell. This after taking couple of wickets only couple of overs earlier. This sort of treatment to spinners is rampant across NZ, school, club, first class and international. I'd want every player in NZ to do well, they are all doing their best they can but if they have no acumen they shouldn't be appointed captain. If you have strong physical presence it looks like you're picked as a captain, it doesn't seem to require cricketing nous. To make matters worse, our coaches have zero clue about spin bowling. I don't think any of our coaches at first class level can contribute 1% to spin bowlers.

Check the coaches out across first class cricket, Wellington - Glenn Pocknell (no idea what his specialty is) and assistant coach was Iain O'Brien a fast bowler, Auckland - Heinrich Malan (don't think he had much idea about spin bowling)/Assistant coach - Ian West a medium pacer, ND - Graeme Alridge, a fast bowler but they are smart enough to pick Sriram Krishnamurthy who's a spin specialist coach, CD - Rob Walter and assistant coach Aldin Smith a batter, Canterbury - Peter Fulton a batting coach not sure who the assistant coach is. Used to be Dion Ebrahim but he's now the head coach of Otago Volts. Otago Volts - Dion Ebrahim a batting coach, not sure who the assistant coach is.

ND, CD are well served with senior spin bowlers that can help out the up and coming spinners. Other regions don't have that luxury.

Even for Black Caps, we have Shane Jurgensen a fast bowling coach but Black Caps do get Paul Wiseman who's pretty good spin bowling coach during the trainings.

The spinners are the most abused in NZ, even on good spinning decks. Come to think of it, Ajaz for all his heroics may not play till we tour Pakistan.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Totally agree. There really needs to be at least one First Class team in NZ that runs their pitch as spin-friendly. I reckon the team that does so, and has some decent spinners, could win every home game given how little exposure NZ batters have to (i) quality spin bowling and (ii) wickets that aid the spinner. I can't evidence this, but I'd be surprised if some spin bowlers weren't getting better support from the clubs than from the First Class teams.

 

[Prince EWS]

Totally agree. There really needs to be at least one First Class team in NZ that runs their pitch as spin-friendly. I reckon the team that does so, and has some decent spinners, could win every home game given how little exposure NZ batters have to (i) quality spin bowling and (ii) wickets that aid the spinner. I can't evidence this, but I'd be surprised if some spin bowlers weren't getting better support from the clubs than from the First Class teams.

A struggling team like Otago could probably even persuade some of the better spinners to jump ship if they promised this as a tactic.

 

[Bahnz]

Couple of days ago I mentioned when Maharaj was hit for two sixes in his second over he continued to bowl good number of overs after that, very unlike NZ. I watched a bit of live ND game later in the day, Ravindra went for like 13 with couple of slogs from the tail ender and he was done with the spell. This after taking couple of wickets only couple of overs earlier. This sort of treatment to spinners is rampant across NZ, school, club, first class and international. I'd want every player in NZ to do well, they are all doing their best they can but if they have no acumen they shouldn't be appointed captain. If you have strong physical presence it looks like you're picked as a captain, it doesn't seem to require cricketing nous. To make matters worse, our coaches have zero clue about spin bowling. I don't think any of our coaches at first class level can contribute 1% to spin bowlers.

You might be right about the broader point, but the two examples you're point two here are very different match situations. In the test match, it didn't matter how many runs Maharaj coughed up, because everyone knew NZ were never chasing down 400+ to win. It's easy to keep spinners on with attacking fields when there's basically zero negative consequences for doing so. NZ did this a few times with Mark Craig even while he was bowling horrible filth when he was part of the test team.

By comparison, the second situation involves a part timer picking up a couple of polls in a low scoring first innings, exposing the tail-enders. Said tailenders then start to look fairly comfortable, so the captain decides to whip him off and bowl some pace to see if it unsettles them before stumps. Now you can make an argument that Rachin should've been left on, but it's not imo an obviously bad decision to bring one of the specialist quicks back on to try and run through the tail.

 

[nzfan]

Totally agree. There really needs to be at least one First Class team in NZ that runs their pitch as spin-friendly. I reckon the team that does so, and has some decent spinners, could win every home game given how little exposure NZ batters have to (i) quality spin bowling and (ii) wickets that aid the spinner. I can't evidence this, but I'd be surprised if some spin bowlers weren't getting better support from the clubs than from the First Class teams.

There are few centers like Cobham, Auckland outer oval (gets negated by stamp sized ground), Napier, Seddon Park, Mount, Colin Maiden but then they end up leaving a lot of grass even in these grounds.

 

[nzfan]

You might be right about the broader point, but the two examples you're point two here are very different match situations. In the test match, it didn't matter how many runs Maharaj coughed up, because everyone knew NZ were never chasing down 400+ to win. It's easy to keep spinners on with attacking fields when there's basically zero negative consequences for doing so. NZ did this a few times with Mark Craig even while he was bowling horrible filth when he was part of the test team.

By comparison, the second situation involves a part timer picking up a couple of polls in a low scoring first innings, exposing the tail-enders. Said tailenders then start to look fairly comfortable, so the captain decides to whip him off and bowl some pace to see if it unsettles them before stumps. Now you can make an argument that Rachin should've been left on, but it's not imo an obviously bad decision to bring one of the specialist quicks back on to try and run through the tail.

Fair enough but I guess today was just an example. I've seen this happen through out my life. Back in the days it didn't worry us much but these days you play fair bit overseas and you end up in spinning conditions. Neither we will develop players that are good at playing spin or the spinners that can bowl with confidence.

Outside of NZ and maybe South Africa every other country offers fair bit for spinners.

At outer oval today which traditionally turns but then there's lot of green left on the deck 12 overs were bowled out of 95. Hope the deck does turn in the next few days and get to see some spin used. The spinners went for 8s today vs Auckland. Obviously no turn and small boundaries.

 

[ataraxia]

Kristian Clarke gets 50 on debut from #10. Another young bowling all-rounder batting with the tail. Though tbf with 18-averaging Joe Walker at 11 it's a pretty deep batting lineup.

 

[nzfan]

Just looked up, ND lost another wicket to a spinner and the spinner is replaced by Van Beek from his end. Another instance of how we rate or persist spin bowling. Moreover this is a dry surface with assistance to spin. Who'd like to be a spinner?

 

[ataraxia]

the new ball was taken lol