***Official*** New Zealand Domestic Season 2018/19

[nzfan]

Yay.. my favorite rant thread. Glad to see Rachin play. Boy this kid has to prove a lot as a barometer to get a game for firebirds. Anyways they're dealing with something they haven't before so will need to learn fast. Heard he had a lot of options with the ball, darts, arm ball, change of pace everything. Two weeks ago watched him bat at basin practice game and for those that haven't an idea how hard/far he can hit the ball now you'll be surprised. Looks like he's been working on this quietly with nzc cricket.

Holding back young players is very old school, a lot of Indian cricketers are coming through the ranks of ipl with domestic cricket complementing. I'd bat ravindra at 4 or 5 and give him full control to go smash it. When guys with technique smash it generally they stay hit longer.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Bracewell in ahead of Clarksob for CD at the Basin today ... he’ll be opening next.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Firebirds going down in a smoldering wreck. Awful batting line-up costs them again after they did well to hold CD back with the ball. Great bowling attack from CD though. Ravindra with a duck in his first super smash innings.

 

[straw man]

Three golden ducks is pretty impressive from Wellington. Rachin probably should've given himself a sighter against Tickner.

Bracewell in ahead of Clarksob for CD at the Basin today ... he’ll be opening next.

Living up to his billing as fourth best CD seamer (fifth best CD bowler) with no wickets and the highest ER too!

Still time for the greybeards to get Wellington close here?

 

[straw man]

Wheeler got taken to and now Wellington need 14 off the last, to be bowled by DOUG BRACEWELL

Who takes a wicket.
Edit: No, it was a runout.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Depressing finish ... Firebirds did well to get so close from where they were, and credit to Woodcock, he did it all. But if only they’d batted with that composure in the first ten overs!!!

 

[nzfan]

Watched the game at basin today. Poor batting by firebirds. Outstanding bowling effort by Rachin and Logan. Both were on the money throughout. In fact the only four of Ravindra was a midfield by Bennett.

Least said about the batting the better. Conway despite playing some amazing shots the way he got out was disappointing, a mere dab to third man. Bracewell's was just a slog. Tom hit straight to point first ball. I don't know what Johnson was up to. He tried to bomb the ball out of the park when there was no need. The ball wasn't short enough for Rachin to pull. Logan got out trying to cut a ball that was too straight. Ollie Newton, Jeetan Patel and Ben Sears gave a good hand to evergreen Woodcock but still they ran themselves out couple of times. Woodcock was quite awesome, placed the ball beautifully and smashed couple of sixes when needed.

To be fair with the kind of batting form, firebirds have shown a lot of inconsistency this season and they were bound to lose the next game if not this one. There was no way they would have gone all the way.

BTW it was established Ben Sears can bat. He's not a bunny with the bat.

CD inning was a little bit up and down too. Foxcroft played some great shots square off the wicket. George Worker played a good hand for a bit. Bracewell was just slow. Not sure if was taking the pace off but he appeared slow. I thought Woodcock was going to smash him for 15 the last over but not to be.

It's going to be ND all the way as I see it.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Would definitely be a huge shock if ND don't win it. CD probably their biggest compeition, imo.

 

[Blain]

Feels like NZC are trying to make this competition stupidly drawn out that people lose interest. WTF is taking so long? Becoming a joke. Every team should play each other twice over 6 weeks, including a 2nd vs 3rd play off and final. T20 shouldn't take 2 months + during the height of the season. Bring back the one dayers..

 

[The Hutt Rec]

It's like they set up the comp with a Friday, Saturday and Sunday game each week, expecting Sky would televise them all ... then Sky said yeahhh nah.

I don't know if it's just me either, but ND seem to be on tv every week. A bit frustrating as they're dominating the comp and every game they feature in is quite one-sided.

 

[Kippax]

I know NZC continues to (rather fancifully) believe the domestic T20 gate sales should be a lot higher and comparable to what other boards are fortunate enough to take in overseas, and I think that's probably the basis of this very drawn-out schedule.

They've set their stall up as trying to gently ease $30/week the full five times out of families, throughout the good weather weekends of Jan-Feb. Suffice to say the modern New Zealander remains a staunchly 'give me celebrities or don't waste my time!' person when it comes to cricket, a type of fish that's just never going to bite for them eagerly.

Yeah, the bulk of New Zealand "cricket supporters"....sort of like a bimbo who was just never really patient or far-sighted enough to deeply nourish and take care of the roots of her hair. She was always running little colour treatments though the increasingly unhealthy hair she had in the moment. Now it's time for her to really pay the price for those years of neglect, I suppose. All her natural McCullum va-va-voom is long gone and her meretricious extensions (Munro and co.) just aren't really cutting it for anyone.

 

[Flem274*]

i don't go because t20 is almost always deeply unsatisfying

 

[nzfan]

If the super smash has to thrive nzc needs to look into franchise model. With the current budget (in and around 15-20k) the sides can't get good overseas players. Besides they'll need to make room for 3-4 overseas players a side. This will eat into local Cricket talent but that said the squad side will increase which will give a chance for more local players to make the squad. Whether they'll get to play or not is a different question.

Franchise can't afford 2 and half months tourney so it'll likely end up 20-25 days tourney which is great. Ideally should be played at the end of the season say mid March.

From what I know NZ cricket is again revisiting this model as we speak. They had given it a thought in the past but there weren't buyers then. Now it's relevant again and can attract overseas interest.

 

[Flem274*]

i don't think there is room for another profitable t20 league in the world and i don't think nz needs one

all we need to do is make our current competition 1 month long, do the same for the 1 dayers, and have a proper fc season with a tours. that will ensure the long term health of the international side and international cricket will always be where nz makes their money.

thinking nz can compete with the big bash is absurd, and it hasn't exactly done wonders for australian white ball cricket either.

 

[NZTailender]

i don't think there is room for another profitable t20 league in the world and i don't think nz needs one

all we need to do is make our current competition 1 month long, do the same for the 1 dayers, and have a proper fc season with a tours. that will ensure the long term health of the international side and international cricket will always be where nz makes their money.

thinking nz can compete with the big bash is absurd, and it hasn't exactly done wonders for australian white ball cricket either.

Oh come on, don't you want to see Tauranga Takahēs take on the New Plymouth Kōtares?

 

[Athlai]

Go the Porirua Pukekos!

 

[Dan]

Integrated, 12 team ANZBBL imo.

Max 4 OS players in the XI, 2 of which are genuine OSers and 2 of which are for trans-Tasman club swaps. Luke Ronchi must be on every team.

 

[Athlai]

Side note, yeah another T20 franchise league would work if it fits in a window where there is no televised cricket in the subcontinent. 8pm March NZ games would be around midday India.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Lower Hutt Leg Byes pls

 

[Immenso]

2 days down, 5 more to go until the next (and final!) round. Yawn.

13 days until the Neverending Stretched Smash finally finishes.

58 days to complete the comp.
51 days to complete 10 rounds of round robin, that's an average of 7.8 overs per day of cricket for each team.

But a domestic update - it looks like there are some 3 day Provincial A games this week.