Big Banger Hits
Blackcaps, Plunket Shield & HBJ Shield stats plus the Breakers are at it again
Podcast
The Niche Cast: Handful of Syllables (Blackcaps T20WC Semi-Final Reaction)
Reading Menu
Aotearoa Warriors Re-Jig Their Redcliffe Dolphins Collab With Fresh Aotearoa Juniors (NRL)
The Sky Blue Connection: Cronulla Sharks Love Otahuhu Leopards (Semisi Sikei/Salesi Ataata) (NRL)
The 2020 Aotearoa Warriors SG Ball Team Was Really Good (NRL)
The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals (NRL)
National League South Central Series – Women’s Week 1 (Football)
National League South Central Series – Men’s Week 1 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – November 9 (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #2: On The Big Screen (Basketball)
2021/2 Plunket Shield: Sneaky Otago Defeat Central Districts (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Canterbury Defeat Wellington Again (Cricket)
2021 T20 World Cup: Defeating England Again In 2021 (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Bumper Blackcaps stats… No Devon Conway though :(
Martin Guptill (Batters)
T20WC: 30avg/131.38sr | T20 Career: 31.89avg/131.13sr.
Daryl Mitchell
T20WC: 39.40avg/140.71sr | T20 Career: 31.58avg/132.58sr.
Kane Williamson
T20WC: 32.75avg/94.24sr | T20 Career: 31.77avg/123.91sr.
Glenn Phillips
T20WC: 29avg/112.98sr | T20 Career: 32.62avg/140.73sr.
Jimmy Neesham
T20WC: 36.50avg/173.80sr | T20 Career: 23.57avg/139.24sr.
Mitchell Santner (Bowlers)
T20WC: 63avg/6.63rpo/57sr | T20 Career: 25.17avg/7.12rpo/21.1sr.
Tim Southee
T20WC: 17.25avg/5.75rpo/18sr | T20 Career: 26.40avg/8.22rpo/19.2sr.
Adam Milne
T20WC: 46.33avg/6.95rpo/40sr | T20 Career: 23.46avg/7.62rpo/18.4sr.
Ish Sodhi
T20WC: 17.11avg/7.33rpo/14sr | T20 Career: 24.33avg/7.84rpo/18.6sr.
Trent Boult
T20WC: 14.09avg/6.54rpo/12.9sr. | T20 Career: 25.63avg/8.19rpo/18.7sr.
Plunket Shield stats… ahead of fourth round this weekend.
Batters
Nick Kelly (Otago): 5inns, 333 runs @ 83.25avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Hamish Rutherford (Otago): 5inns, 330 runs @ 66avg, 2 x 100.
Greg Hay (CD): 6inns, 297 runs @ 59.40avg, 2 x 100.
Cameron Fletcher (Cant): 5inns, 288 runs @ 96avg, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Tom Bruce (CD): 6inns, 287 runs @ 95.66avg, 3 x 50.
Mitch Renwick (Otago): 5inns, 282 runs @ 56.40avg, 2 x 100.
Dane Cleaver (CD): 6inns, 282 runs @ 56.40avg, 1 x 100.
Bowlers
Nathan Smith (Otago): 109.4ov, 18w @ 14.22avg/2.33rpo.
Matt Henry (Cant): 113.2ov, 16w @ 17.37avg/2.45rpo.
Will Williams (Cant): 97.5ov, 11w @ 17.72avg/1.99rpo.
Travis Muller (Otago): 101.2ov, 11w @ 26.81avg/2.91rpo.
Henry Shipley (Cant): 48.2ov, 9w @ 10.88avg/2.02rpo.
Blair Tickner (CD): 109.2ov, 9w @ 36.11avg/2.97rpo.
Hallyburton Johnston Shield stats… ahead of Otago vs CD/Wellington vs Canterbury
Batters
Amy Sattertwhaite (Cant): 2inns, 183 runs @ 91.50avg, 2 x 50.
Katey Martin (Otago): 2inns, 160 runs (2 x N/O), 1 x 100.
Kate Ebrahim (Otago): 2inns, 118 runs @ 118avg, 1 x 50.
Maddy Green (Well): 2inns, 108 runs @ 108avg, 1 x 50.
Kirsty Nation (Cant): 2inns, 71 runs @ 35.50avg.
Bowlers
Amelia Kerr (Well): 20ov, 10w @ 7.60avg/3.80rpo.
Emma Black (Otago); 17ov, 8w @ 6.37avg/3rpo.
Amy Satterthwaite (Cant): 20ov, 5w @ 15.80avg/3.95rpo.
Eden Carson (Otago): 15ov, 4w @ 11.50avg/3.06rpo.
Melissa Hansen (CD): 14.2ov, 4w @ 14.50avg/4.04rpo.
Jess Watkin (CD): 20ov, 4w @ 22.75avg/4.55rpo.
Wildcard’s Notebook
T20 Cricket In The Death Throes...
Funny how similar New Zealand and Australia’s successful run chases were in the T20 World Cup semi-finals, right? Both second-placed qualifiers knocking out a tournament favourite thanks to a late surge of boundaries. Doing so with exactly an over to spare too. These were the match equations for each team after 14 overs...
Aotearoa – 70 runs to win from 36 deliveries with seven wickets in hand
Australia – 68 runs to win from 36 deliveries with five wickets in hand
Aussie began the blast a little earlier so their run rate never got above 15rpo like ours did but the key for both teams was the same: punishing some average death bowling with big banger hits. Death bowling is about the hardest skill in the T20 game so gotta be sympathetic to the bowlers... but it was a good laugh listening to the Test Match Special folks shrugging off England’s defeat as if New Zealand just had a little more luck on the day in an otherwise close game. Bros, your team chocked that. Sorry to break it to you. When Chris Jordan is spraying wides down both sides of the wicket (around getting smoked for six) then that’s what’s happening.
It was 57 runs required off 24 balls when Chris Jordan began that fateful over. It was not a close game at that point. 23 runs off that over later it was close. And a close finish usually favours the batting team as long as they have wickets in hand – you don’t necessarily back the likes of Santner/Sodhi/Southee (or any other team’s equivalent Batters Who Can Hit) to get you through eight overs needing 8rpo but give them two overs at 12rpo and they’re a decent shout. It’s swing-for-the-fences at that point. Hence what you want in your lower order it dudes like Santner/Sodhi/Southee who can do exactly that.
I still don’t really think the Blackcaps are too flash at death bowling themselves, something that’s been a long term issue, however on the batting side it looks like that Pakistan game was an outlier. Remember Jimmy Neesham was moved up the order to pinch hit in that game so he wasn’t in late on to deliver the fireworks he has in the last couple. The Blackcaps have a strategy to their batting and it’s all about pace. Keep wickets in hand and ensure that one of Jimmy Neesham/Glenn Phillips gets to have a tonk in the last four, ideally with an established top four hitter at the other end (like Daryl Mitchell in the ENG game).
Blackcaps Death Over Batting Tallies
vs PAK: 27/4 off 24 balls (Conway/Phillips/Seifert/Santner/Sodhi)
vs IND: N/A (won with 5.3 overs remaining)
vs SCO: 35/2 off 24 balls (Guptill/Phillips/Neesham/Santner)
vs NAM: 67/0 off 24 balls (Phillips/Neesham)
vs AFG: 17/0 off 13 balls (Williamson/Conway)
vs ENG: 57/1 off 18 balls (Mitchell/Neesham/Santner)
The Afghanistan one doesn’t really count either because they were cruising to victory in the chase there. Meanwhile the Namibia total may have come against a weaker opposition but everybody had weaker oppositions in their groups and this was the single biggest total any team managed over the last four overs at this tournament... unless it gets broken in the final, that is.
There was a conflagration in the semi-final though: it seems England kinda suck at death bowling. Asterisk being that Tymal Mills was out injured and he’s their best in that regard but Mills played throughout the tournament to that stage and it wasn’t much better on the rare occasions when they were actually tested. I’ll include in the totals at 16 overs here so there’s context to what subsequently happened – naturally top order lads will hit out better than lower order lads and England play a high pressure style which is full of boundaries when they bat and, because of scoreboard pressure/faith in their batsmen to chase, they risk runs to go after wickets when they bowl. When they skittled the West Indies for 55 all-out that worked perfectly. Less so against South Africa and Aotearoa.
England’s Death Over Bowling at the 2021 T20WC
vs WIN: N/A
vs BAN: 90/6 -> 124/9 | 34/3 off 24 balls
vs AUS: 75/5 -> 125/10 (20ov) | 50/5 off 24 balls
vs SL: 123/5 -> 137/10 (19ov) | 14/5 off 18 balls
vs SAF: 139/2 -> 189/2 | 50/0 off 24 balls
vs NZL: 110/4 -> 167/5 (19ov) | 57/1 off 18 balls
Three separate times England let teams get away for 50+ from the death overs. One of them they still won because they’d been so good in the early stages against Aussie chipping away with wickets and restricting the run rate as a result. But that’s not a good overall trend. Because when they didn’t take those earlier wickets to back them up their latter stage plans fell to pieces. Let’s got over by over with the bowlers for those three notable games (including extras in the totals but I’ll specify them)...
vs AUS: Woakes 0/20 (1wd, 4lb) | Mills 1/15 | Jordan 2/2 | Mills 2/13 (1lb)
vs SAF: Wood 0/11 | Jordan 0/10 (1b) | Wood 0/13 | Jordan 0/16
vs NZL: Jordan 0/23 (2w, 2lb) | Rashid 1/14 | Woakes 0/20
Woakes bowled two separate overs that went for 20 in death situations. Jordan took a couple wickets against Oz and seemingly earned the gig more regularly after that only to go 0/46 from three overs in the two defeats (plus three more runs via various versions of byes which don’t count towards his stats). Mark Wood is known to be a guy who doesn’t love bowling late on, the faster you bowl the further the edges fly and all that. They even had to sneak Adil Rashid back on late against the kiwis and he copped two sixes in that over. Maybe Tymal Mills woulda got pumped too if he’d played against us too, dunno. Even if he didn’t it’s obvious this was already a problem for England.
Not gonna say anything about a T20 World Cup final against Australia though. Not gonna talk about how we always seem to struggle against them, not gonna talk about how Devon Conway will miss that game because he broke his hand punching his bat after getting out against England, not gonna talk about how that means Tim Seifert will come back in to keep and he scored 27 runs in four innings against Aussie in a home T20 series last summer, not gonna talk about how Australia have that annoying trend of never choking and always playing up to their capacity in big games. Not gonna talk about any of that.
Instead hey look here’s the home schedule for the summer of cricket (not including the White Ferns World Cup hosting duties)...
Breakers Gonna Breakers...
The NBL Blitz starts this weekend, a first chance to have a glimpse at what the 2021-22 Breakers are gonna look like. The whole crew is over in Oz now all united and raring to go. Should be pretty interesting. The whole crew, that is, except for the newest and presumably final addition: Princepal Singh
20 year old Indian prospect, signed on a three-year deal with the first two being as a development player and the third a team option for full roster status. Singh was formerly a part of the NBL’s NextGen camp and has played some NBL1 in the past. He stands at 2.06m (6’9), a power forward who Matt Walsh claims is India’s best ever basketballing prospect. Now as a Dallas Mavericks fan I may counter that suggestion with the name Satnam Singh (who is now a pro wrestler, apparently) but be that as it may.
Does this all sound familiar to you? Because it should... this signing is basically exactly the same thing that they did with Terry Li, the Chinese prospect who was picked up on the exact same length of contract two years ago. Terry Li who, in his first season, chucked up these impressive numbers...
I’ll admit asking for much from DPs in year one is a bit harsh but that’s all we’ve got to go on because he left after one year in a departure that was never even properly announced by the club. He just... wasn’t there any more. It’s very in keeping with the Breakers media strategy to bury anything even remotely negative so that probably explains that: they didn’t wanna admit the experiment failed. However here we are one year later, coming into what woulda been the last year of Li’s contract, and they’re signing a fella from the next most populous nation on the planet for the same reasons with a similar pedigree.
Speaking of Terry Li...
Yes, by all means, let’s brag about the exploits of a player who barely played for the team and left one year into a three year deal. Sure. Go right ahead and do that.
The Breakers are all in on this being a club where prospects can launch themselves into the NBA and I think that’s how you have to view Princepal Singh’s addition. It doesn’t make sense to use DP spots on international players otherwise because once they’re no longer DPs they become imports, using up those precious few placements – imports are expected to be your best players so unless you can develop them to that extent then it’s a waste of time (unless they’re already at that level in which case they’re surely not accepting DP contracts in Australia). Granted, the Breakers are already currently using an international spot on a prospect player in Hugo Besson so you can’t completely put it past them.
The thing is, there’s kinda not a whole lot of evidence that it works. Terry Li’s not playing NBA obviously. At 21 years old he’s still early in his career but do you really reckon he’s getting picked up next year when he’s draft eligible? Doubtful. The NBA has a long history of underestimating foreign prospects when it comes to the draft, as good as Trae Young is (DeAndre Ayton’s a quality player too... though let’s not discuss Marvin Bagley III at second overall right now), it’s pretty hard to fathom how else Luka Doncic slipped to third overall in 2018. He was already dominating the EuroLeague as a teenager. As pro ready as any top draft prospect has ever been. Or how about this angle: the last two MVPs were Giannis Antetokounmpo (drafted 15th overall in 2015) and Nikola Jokic (drafted 41st overall in 2015). It’s a trend.
Now, we do have the cases of LaMelo Ball and to a lesser extend RJ Hampton... but both were gonna be drafted highly no matter where they played the year before. In fact there’s a very reasonable case to be made that cruising into the NBL actually hurt their draft stock. Ball should really have gone first (no shade on Anthony Edwards though, he’s playing great right now) while there’s no way Hampton’s happy with sliding all the way to 24 overall. Especially when, based on reports, he didn’t exactly enjoy his time in Aotearoa. Never did get that insider doco he was supposedly producing, did we?
Curious then to see that the Breakers have pivoted away from American prospects and towards international dudes. The American kids are better served going to American colleges... but the international dudes are gonna be underrated either way. Maybe, just maybe, this is not the golden road it’s made out to be? Unless you’re Josh Giddey... but he’s an Aussie so that’s a different scenario.
Princepal Singh had been drafted into the G-League for the upcoming season but has opted out of that to play for the Breakers. ‘Play’ being a theoretical word because these are the minutes totals offered to Development Players under Dan Shamir in his two seasons...
Terry Li – 3.1 mins (3 games)
Taine Murray – 2.8 mins (1 game)
Isaac Davidson – 17.2 mins (11 games)
(To be fair, Davidson has since been upgraded to a full contract so make of that what you will).
Singh will be able to relate to that given he’s already been deep in the grind. It’s mentioned in most of the write-ups about how he became the first Indian player to win an NBA title of any description with the Sacramento Kings Summer League team recently. Less acknowledged are the 5.5 total minutes he played in that tournament (2 points, 1 rebound, 2 personal fouls). And though he played G-League last season he only appeared in four games for a combined 24.9 mins (shot 1/1 from three point range though, that’s interesting).
I’ve got more to say but this is getting a tad long so I’ll probably rework it into a full article today or tomorrow, keep an eye out for that. This is your advance taste-test. Hopefully Princepal Singh is really good and he develops to be even better with the Breakers but to be honest this signing looks to be a little more about the marketing yarns right now. Happy to be proven wrong though.