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NZ domestic season 2023/24

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Epic innings from Abbas. It's actually a stupid idea but for some reason during his innings it just popped into my head that he should have a run as T20I opener
Given how much he struggled against Ferguson last game up, I think he needs a fair bit more time and not to move from the middle order
 

BackFootPunch

International 12th Man
Greg Hay -> daylight -> the rest.

Logan van Beek is incredibly hittable at times, seems to bowl high 130km skidders right into the middle of bats.
Good call. Greg Hay the great ‘could have been’. Shame he slipped off the radar at an inopportune time.

Fair enough re LvB too. I guess it’s a sign of our recent relative depth that he never got a game. I feel like in the 90s/00s he would’ve ended up with 15-20 limited overs caps, plus 2 or 3 random tests somewhere.
 

Immenso

International Vice-Captain
It's almost impossible to be 'unlucky not to be a blackcap' anymore.

Only Greg Hay, because of that mid-career hiatus.
 

BackFootPunch

International 12th Man
I'm no great Logan van Beek proponent, but was just interested so had a look at the highest wicket takers in the Super Smash.

LvB is 5th (maybe 4th after today) on the all time list and is the only one in the top 10 not to have played for NZ.

Have to go down to Ed Nuttall at 15th to find the next non-NZ international player on the list. Bradley Scott is at 21st (made a squad at one point, iirc) and Anurag Verma at 25th. One DJ Grobbelaar just cracks the top 30.
 

Attachments

jcas0167

International Debutant
Great to see Abbas translate his form in other formats to T20 after struggling against Auckland. Said in the interview that Conway and Bracewell told him to just keep still and back himself. He has seriously fast hands. Can see why he's been promoted so quickly to NZA.

Also, has the ship sailed on Bevan Small for the Black Caps? Not sure if he even plays other formats, but he bowled superbly.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Great to see Abbas translate his form in other formats to T20 after struggling against Auckland. Said in the interview that Conway and Bracewell told him to just keep still and back himself. He has seriously fast hands. Can see why he's been promoted so quickly to NZA.

Also, has the ship sailed on Bevan Small for the Black Caps? Not sure if he even plays other formats, but he bowled superbly.
He kind of gave up being a serious bowler for a while and became a top order bat who rolled the arm over a bit in club cricket, due to his injuries. Not sure what changed (maybe even just 'YOLO') but it's great to see him back. I think he was even in the CD squad primarily as a batsman at one point a couple of years back.
 

jcas0167

International Debutant
@Flem274* might be best placed to comment. He was really highly rated coming along with Wheeler & Bracewell.

Ian Butler was really express then reinvented himself as an all-rounder. He did really well to get back to the Black Caps briefly. Would be amazing if Small could do the same. Good to see him do so well today anyway.
 
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BackFootPunch

International 12th Man
Yeah he was one the brightest FM prospects. Was never express like Milne or Ferguson but bowled 140s before he crocked himself.
I'm possibly misremembering this, but wasn't Ferguson quick-ish then did some work on his action on the Sky cricket show with Simon Doull and gained a yard and sort of took off? Kind of wild looking back on it, assuming that is actually what helped him take the next step.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
I'm possibly misremembering this, but wasn't Ferguson quick-ish then did some work on his action on the Sky cricket show with Simon Doull and gained a yard and sort of took off? Kind of wild looking back on it, assuming that is actually what helped him take the next step.
Yeah I remember something like that too. Not sure if it was Doull specifically but he did something with some non-coach former player on air to fill 10 minutes that somehow clicked something for him.
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah he was one the brightest FM prospects. Was never express like Milne or Ferguson but bowled 140s before he crocked himself.
I vaguely recall him nudging 145 at the 2010 U19 world cup, which would suggest if his body had held up he would've definitely have been capable of becoming genuinely rapid. Not that you need to be if you can swing it both ways like he could. Wasim was immensely impressed with him.
 

Flem274*

123/5
I vaguely recall him nudging 145 at the 2010 U19 world cup, which would suggest if his body had held up he would've definitely have been capable of becoming genuinely rapid. Not that you need to be if you can swing it both ways like he could. Wasim was immensely impressed with him.
Was coming to say similar.

He was like a Bracewell/Mason hybrid at 140kph as a 17 year old in that World Cup (his opening partner was the 125kph but also impressive Wheeler). It's probably a weird description of a bowler but he was a broad shouldered kid swinging it away from the right hander and hitting the deck hard.

Both Small and Wheeler were ruined by injuries (and being picked in the wrong format in Wheeler's case).

That was a pretty fun era in general with Southee and Boult at ND, Small and Wheeler coming through the CD system with Milne a few years ahead and then Henry and Nuttall down at Canterbury and Wagner at Otago.

Wellington gave rando Aussie clubbie Jayden Herrick a game lol. He got annihilated iirc.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Was coming to say similar.

He was like a Bracewell/Mason hybrid at 140kph as a 17 year old in that World Cup (his opening partner was the 125kph but also impressive Wheeler). It's probably a weird description of a bowler but he was a broad shouldered kid swinging it away from the right hander and hitting the deck hard.
Yeah I always thought of him as a faster Dougeh.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
It's almost impossible to be 'unlucky not to be a blackcap' anymore.

Only Greg Hay, because of that mid-career hiatus.
How many over the last 20-30 years could claim to be unlucky? Not many, either. Hay, definitely, but obviously he left the game at a crucial time. I always thought Josh Brodie was going to be a Test opener but didn't quite score enough runs then got injured and retired early. Can't think of anyone else who couldve/should've made it.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
I'm possibly misremembering this, but wasn't Ferguson quick-ish then did some work on his action on the Sky cricket show with Simon Doull and gained a yard and sort of took off? Kind of wild looking back on it, assuming that is actually what helped him take the next step.
Doull didn't do the bulk of the coaching but yeah it was on the Cricket Show. The majority of it still came under Mark O Donnell at the Aces, and something tells me Andre was involved as well, although he mightve been in Sydney by then
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
@Flem274*
Ian Butler was really express then reinvented himself as an all-rounder. He did really well to get back to the Black Caps briefly. Would be amazing if Small could do the same./URL]
This would make a cool thread - players who successfully reinvented themselves. Mark Richardson the obvious one but guys like Butler, even like a Heath Davis who was a scary quick with a loose radar but finished his career quite nicely as a gentle 120s line and length guy
 

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