Tales To Be Written
White Ferns wonkiness, Welly Nix Academy mins, Breakers patterns, Blackcaps averages, and more
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2023/25 World Test Championship: Blackcaps vs Bangladesh First Test Debrief (Cricket)
Football Ferns vs Colombia: A Bit of Grit in Game Tahi (Football)
2023/24 Ford Trophy: Round Two Notebook (Cricket)
The NZ Breakers Have Plummeted Again... What’s Going On? (Basketball)
Football Ferns vs Colombia: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
All Whites vs Greece & Ireland: The BazeBall Era Has Arrived (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Everything wonky about White Ferns cricket was on display in their T20I loss to Pakistan yesterday. The second game swings around on Tuesday so WF will have a chance to rectify their mahi and they will be boosted by the return of Amelia Kerr. For all the sloppiness and lack of oomph, WF were missing their best player as A-Kerr was busy in the WBBL final.
A-Kerr's Heat lost to Strikers on Saturday night with Amy Satterthwaite going back to back in WBBL championships as an assistant coach. The record of blokes coaching WF isn't flash with Bob Carter and Ben Sawyer leading disappointing phases, so maybe a female coach is better suited for the role? Satterthwaite's still learning her craft but WF dipped out of the top-tier and their plateau is led by blokes so perhaps any female coach could be useful.
Amelia Kerr in WBBL (bat | ball)
2019/20: 21.4avg | 25.5avg
2020/21: 10.7avg | 15.7avg
2021/22: 26.8avg | 19.4avg
2023/24: 29.5avg | 30.5avg
As for A-Kerr, she bowled 4 overs @ 5.2rpo without a wicket and scored 30* @ 93sr in the final. A-Kerr was not-out with Strikers finishing on 122/8 in pursuit of 126 and while she couldn't steer Heat to victory, A-Kerr was among the best Heat players this campaign.
Given how WF lost to Pakistan, the simple presence of A-Kerr may help WF bounce back. Not only is she a world-class batter and a key bowler but A-Kerr is also the best WF fielder and has a fierce competitive vibe. All of which was missing for WF on a chilly Dunedin afternoon.
Jess Kerr, Hannah Rowe, Fran Jonas and Lea Tahuhu didn't take a wicket against Pakistan. Tahuhu, A-Kerr and Eden Carson are the only WF who have over 5 wickets this year. WF aren't a potent wicket-taking outfit right now and this is an issue to track as they try to bounce back for game two.
Fran Jonas was tidy against Pakistan (4ov @ 5rpo) but she has 1w in her last nine T20I games. That's 1w in 23 overs. Tahuhu, Carson and A-Kerr the only WF bowlers with over T20I overs this year. Perhaps Jonas could be replaced by Molly Penfold for a more hostile bowling unit and while that's an intriguing move, Penfold also has a notable lack of wickets in domestic cricket let alone the WF realms.
Maddy Green (43* @ 153sr) was the only batter with a strike-rate over 100. Pakistan had Nida Dar (164sr) and Aliya Riaz (208sr) firing, as well as knowing they only had to score 128 in 20 overs. WF lack the scope to increase the scoring tempo. This is most evident in Kate Anderson entering the WF T20I 1st 11 with 97sr and Georgia Plimmer grinding away with 74sr this year as a flashy middle-order player.
Hitters down the order? Rowe is on 85sr, J-Kerr is on 88sr and the biggest slugger of them all in Tahuhu operates at 37sr in T20Is this year.
A-Kerr, Green, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine all have strike-rates over 100. A-Kerr is in a healthy zone and Green is playing her role nicely. Bates was bogged down in WBBL (93sr) and scored 28 runs @ 93sr vs Pakistan as this slow trend continues, while Devine and Bezuidenhout are averaging below 20 this year. WF don't need power, they need batters who find ways to score quickly; hitting gaps, rotating the strike etc.
Best White Ferns in T20Is this year
Batting
Suzie Bates: 366 runs @ 36avg/104sr
Amelia Kerr: 328 runs @ 41avg/118sr
Maddy Green: 164 runs @ 32avg/129sr
Sophie Devine: 152 runs @ 19avg/118sr
Bernadine Bezuidenhout: 131 runs @ 18avg/127sr
Bowling
Lea Tahuhu: 14w @ 12avg/6.4rpo
Eden Carson: 10w @ 18avg/6.2rpo
Amelia Kerr: 9w @ 22avg/5.8rpo
Jess Kerr: 4w @ 34avg/7rpo
Hannah Rowe: 4w @ 23avg/7rpo
Just one Ford Trophy game was played yesterday with Auckland defeating Canterbury. Cole McConchie (51 runs) and Michael Rippon (67*) led Canterbury to 250/7, which Auckland chased down with an over remaining. Rob O'Donnell led the way with 70 runs before Cam Fletcher hit 68* including the final six to seal the win - the bloke who left Canterbury for Auckland scored the winning runs.
Next round of games are on Thursday and Auckland are now second with the same 2-1 record as leaders Northern Districts. Auckland's 0-3-1 form from Plunket Shield has flipped for Ford Trophy, but the trend of their batting leading the way with ho-hum bowling continues. Auckland have three lads with 3+ wickets and Ashok is their only bowler below 5ro…
Plunket Shield
Adithya Ashok: 14w @ 35avg/3.7rpo
Danru Ferns: 9w @ 40avg/3.7rpo
Louis Delport: 8w @ 21avg/2.8rpo
Ford Trophy
Danru Ferns: 6w @ 26avg/5.7rpo
Adithya Ashok: 3w @ 43avg/4.3rpo
Ryan Harrison: 2w @ 50avg/7.2rp
Michael Rippon is scoring runs for Canterbury…
Plunket Shield: 202 runs @ 33avg/51sr
Ford Trophy: 117 runs @ 58avg/82sr
Rippon’s averaging 19 in Plunket Shield. Their home grounds are factors here, but Canterbury have eight blokes averaging below 30 in Plunket Shield and one over 30. Auckland have two below 30avg and seven over 30.
Canterbury’s bowlers are less effective in Ford Trophy. McConchie (useful lad for tours to Asia) is their best bowler and the Cameron Paul wasn’t playing against Auckland, but this 18-year-old has already flashed his talent…
Cole McConchie: 5w @ 15avg/4.3rpo
Cameron Paul: 4w @ 12avg/4rpo
Michael Rippon: 4w @ 34avg/5.2rpo
Will O’Rourke: 3w @ 47avg/5.9rpo
Zak Foulkes: 3w @ 47avg/6rpo
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
After writing that big ol’ Breakers yarn during the FIBA window, I was pretty curious to see how they’d fare coming out of that break. And you know what? Their Thursday-nighter against Adelaide was absolutely brilliant. Almost everything that could’ve been asked for was taken care of. Not only did they blow their opponents out of the water with a 37-point first quarter but they managed things comfortably enough from there, able to scrap back whenever ADL went on a cheeky scoring run.
Breakers being Breakers, they still managed to find a negative angle with coach Mody Maor ejected from the game during half-time... admittedly I tend to agree with him that two techs at once was mighty harsh. In the end they claimed a 96-83 victory down in Christchurch. No surprises that Anthony Lamb and Parker Jackson-Cartwright were heavily involved... but there was also a 21-point display from Izayah Le’Afa for his highest scoring game of the season. He shot a spectacular 7/11 from three-pointers as part of a 46% team shooting effort from deep.
On top of that we got some glorious Dan Fotu minutes (nine minutes with 4 points & 3 rebounds)... a huge boost from the 27 total seconds that he’d played up until that game. Plus Alex McNaught added to his 18 seconds with 56 more, while Dom Kelman-Poto and Max Darling made season debuts as the benches were cleared at the end. Still no Carlin Davison, hopefully he’s next in line.
So the Breakers won a game with some wicked three point shooting, some much improved defence, and a boosted role for their kiwi depth dudes. Tick, tick, tick. Problem is that this team’s issue has not been that they’re incapable of that kind of performance... it’s that they’re incapable of doing it consistently.
Hence a couple of days later they were over in South East Melbourne where they were beaten 90-76, shot 26% from deep as a team (though Le’Afa was 3/8 so he held up his end of the bargain) and other than another five mins for Fotu the depth lads were nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile that Adelaide team they’d defeated the other day went and lost by 35 points against Tasmania so perhaps that win wasn’t quite the turning point it might have initially appeared.
Win one, lose one. That’s the pattern for the Breakers at the moment and that pattern is not going to get them into the playoffs. It’s going to take a winning streak for that to happen. Winning streaks require consistency. And thus we’re back where we were when the article was written. Ah well.
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Here are some Blackcaps Test Match averages for the last two years compared to their career marks, starting with the batters...
[PLAYER | TWO YEARS | CAREER | DIFFERENTIAL]
Kane Williamson | 69.07 | 54.95 | +14.12
Tom Blundell | 51.19 | 41.75 | +9.49
Daryl Mitchell | 58.68 | 56.60 | +2.08
Tom Latham | 39.66 | 41.03 | -1.37
Devon Conway | 44.08 | 47.90 | -3.82
Henry Nicholls | 31.00 | 38.06 | -7.06
And now for some bowlers, keep in mind that the last two years means since 4 Dec 2021...
Ish Sodhi | 29.50 | 43.22 | -13.72
Matt Henry | 27.91 | 37.34 | -9.43
Trent Boult | 25.48 | 27.49 | -2.01
Tim Southee | 34.44 | 29.03 | +5.41
Neil Wagner | 36.17 | 27.50 | +8.67
Kyle Jamieson | 29.27 | 19.97 | +9.30
Ajaz Patel | 51.54 | 32.11 | +19.43
Plus means good for batters and bad for bowlers, and vice versa. So these short lists are ranked from exceeding their career numbers to getting swamped by them. Note that Ajaz Patel misses out on his Mumbai Magic ten-for by a couple of days with this catchment so cut him some slack there – extend it out by a week and his two-year average drops to 31.68... although extend it out by a week and we’ll also have to include what he does in the second Test against Bangladesh and that tale is yet to be written.
The Academy Resurgence at the Wellington Phoenix was clear even before they decided to make it official. What’s incredible about that is they’ve entered the season expecting homegrown players to fill the gaps of established starters (with at least three departing in the offseason, arguably up to five if you want to include all of Sail, Lewis, Ugarkovic, Elliot, and Sasse... damn you could even make a case for Mauragis too who started 18/27 games at left-back)... and have produced their best ever start to a season.
Following on from a year with zero Academy debuts, we’ve already seen five this season and a few others aren’t so far away with three more having made matchday squads – including Luke Supyk on the weekend. I’d predicted an impending debut from him on the podcast last Thursday but I didn’t quite get the home run as he only served unused sub duty. I’ll settle for a ground-rule double.
WPX ACADEMY DEBUTANTS BY SEASON (A-LEAGUE MEN)
2018-19 (Rudan) – Callan Elliot, Ben Waine, Gianni Stensness
2019-20 (Talay) – Sam Sutton
2020-21 (Talay) – Ben Old
2021-22 (Talay) – Finn Surman, Alex Paulsen, Oskar van Hattum, George Ott, Jackson Manuel, Riley Bidois
2022-23 (Talay) - N/A
2023-24 (Italiano) – Lukas Kelly-Heald, Fin Conchie, Fergus Gillion, Isaac Hughes, Matt Sheridan
So we’re already one short of the record (I don’t have notes going back further but would be shocked if there have been other years with this many academy debutants) and that’s after only six weeks. Already Luke Supyk, Alby Kelly-Heald, Josh Rudland, and Charlie Beale have made ALM matchday squads without playing. Would not be surprised if fellas like Ben Wallace, Dan McKay, Josh Tollervey, and possibly even Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues or Anaru Cassidy get a chance at some stage also.
Let us not overlook that the ladies have begun to do similar things too. Michaela Robertson ought to count as an academy player while Emma Main definitely does. Pretty sure you can claim Georgia Candy in that same category from last year’s squad also. This year we’ve added Macey Fraser and Manaia Elliott, while Aimee Danieli, Daisy Brazendale, and Olivia Ingham will hope to be in the mix at some stage and I also would not be averse, as I wrote on Friday, to reserves captain Ella McMillan getting a shout as one of the midfield replacements (with Knott and Wisnewski both out of the picture).
Of course, debuts are one thing but it’s finding players who’ll stick around and contribute to the first team that is the real purpose here. After six games, the Welly Nix Lads have given 1836 minutes out of a total of 5940 to Academy Grads. That’s 30.91% overall, spread out amongst 10 different fellas (so five debutants and five already established). That includes 18 starts and 18 substitute appearances with one goal (Ben Old) and one assist (LKH) so far. The goal contributions need some work but just know that all those starts belong to the defensive group (Paulsen, Surman, Kelly-Heald) and this team’s kept three clean sheets in six games for one of the best defensive records in the competition.
Oh yeah and guess who’s top of the table?