Didn't catch much cricket of late but looks like it's all done and dusted for the season. Aces came in late and blew everyone away. Won 5 out of 7 games, one abandoned and one drawn. Truly deserving winners. CD, Firebirds and Volts never really got going. Canterbury and ND were steady.
Covid opened up lots of spots this year. ND fielded 7 debutants in their last game. Bit bizzare firebirds fielded several players ignoring the contracted players. Robinson and Vishvaka had to play given they had gone fairly well but Lauchie Johns made a come back in place of Callum McLachlan who had a pretty good game the last game he played vs ND batting low down the order. Callum is contracted but Lauchie was cut this season but found a place. Newton had reasonable couple of games with the bat and ball but made way for Hartshorn. Didn't watch much of it so hard to make a call on the debutants from ND.
Will Sommerville didn't bowl a ball in the game vs CD but batted at no.6
CD: Tom Bruce scored nearly 900 runs this season and averaged 143 including two double hundreds. Schmulian, Hay and Cleaver contributed quite heavily as well. Toole, Tickener and Bracewell were the pick of the bowlers for CD. Ajaz bowled good number of overs without lots of wickets.
Auckland: Rob O'Donnell was a standout bat for Auckland, 2 hundreds and 2 fifties in like 7 innings. Solia, Glen Phillips and Guptill also contributed heavily. Simon Keene was unbelievable, took 23 wickets at a strike rate of 23. Great start to his career. Has very repeatable action and seems takes wickets bowling good balls. Definitely one for the future. Hopefully with age he gets stronger and starts to bowl quicker. Solia, Lister, Sommerville all chipped in consistently with the ball.
Otago: Nick Kelly for Otago was excellent with Hamish Rutherford not too far behind and Dale Phillips was very good with the bat. Generally came short with the ball, Rippon took good number of wickets at a high average but at least he struck frequently and bowled lots of balls (227 overs in all), over 30 overs per game.
ND: Jeet Raval found his mojo and scored reasonable runs for ND. CDG, Santner, Popli, Cooper all contributed with the bat when available. Randell was outstanding through out the season, highest joint wicket taker for the season along with Nathan Smith. Joe Walker was steady through out.
Firebirds: Troy Johnson had reasonable run for Firebirds and Rachin contributed here and there later in the season but no big scores to show. Hands down Nathan Smith was the best bowler followed by Sears. Bit of a shame Sears made sparse appearances, bowled about 104 overs in all in a season in PS. While Nathan Smith doubled that. Both Smith and Sears were expected to perform and should come as no surprise. The only good thing to come out of this season for Firebirds is the performances of Vishvaka and Robinson. That is truly good for the future. Vishvaka needs some work but he's done his best with whatever at his disposal. Robinson definitely looks like a player ready to slot into every format and should do well. The selections were very inconsistent and the side was chopped and changed every game. Not sure what the management was trying to do but I think we have finished the season with lot of unanswered questions. Firebirds scored under 200 8 times, over 200 and under 250 twice, over 250 and under 300 twice. Only once over 300 runs. In contrast Firebirds bowled opponent out under 200 twice, one vs Otago the first game of the season and the last one vs what was ND A.
Canterbury: Bowes, Fletcher and McConchie were steady for Canterbury with the bat. Latham and Nicholls when available chipped in with good runs. Shipley definitely the pick of the bowlers although he didn't bowl lots of overs. Will Williams was steady as usual but the rest of the bowlers didn't chip as much as they would have hoped. Matt Henry took most wickets for Canterbury.
I'd say Tom Bruce, Rob O'Donnell, Simon Keene and Nathan Smith were stand outs for the season.
Most disappointing like it is every season is no stand out with the ball as for spin is concerned. Sommerville by far the best spin bowler followed by Rippon. We know Sommerville is probably done as for Black Caps is concerned. Just banking on Ajaz Patel is probably not going to help. Shows we have made no headway in this department. Either it's lack of quality spin bowling or we're still not giving enough for spinners to work with.
Far out... I lost some of my post while trying to make a change. It was about the change of action of Rachin in the last game. Never mind though