Blatant Potential
Blackcaps vs England, Football Ferns on tour, Pacific Championships, NZ National League footy, A-League kiwis, and more
Scotty’s Word
Unlike England (and White Ferns), Blackcaps are really good at ODI cricket. They sealed a series win vs England and now have a 13-3 ODI record this year which isn’t just the flipside of White Ferns in 2025, it’s a similar story when compared to England...
2025 ODI mahi
New Zealand: 13-3
England: 4-10
Best Blackcaps in ODI series vs England
Daryl Mitchell: 134 runs @ 89sr
Rachin Ravindra: 71 runs @ 35.5avg/95sr
Mitchell Santner: 61 runs @ 61avg/145sr
Zak Foulkes: 5w @ 14.8avg/6.1rpo
Blair Tickner: 4w @ 8.5avg/4.2rpo
Jacob Duffy: 4w @ 17.7avg/5.9rpo
Kane Williamson and Matt Henry aren’t on that list.
The only bloke who scored fewer runs in two innings than Williamson (21 runs @ 10.5avg/52sr) was Will Young (5 runs @ 2.5avg/45sr). Williamson will obviously score runs soon enough but Blackcaps have other top notch batters like Mitchell and Ravindra who can lead the batting unit; I’ve got Ravindra and Mitchell as Aotearoa’s best all-format batters right now.
Henry took 2w @ 5.8rpo and like Williamson, he is an ODI wizard but Blackcaps still found wickets around/without Henry. Foulkes did more damage in the first ODI, while Jacob Duffy and Blair Tickner chimed in with wickets as well to help Blackcaps dismiss England for less than 250 runs twice.
Jacob Duffy in 2025
Test: 2w @ 26avg/3rpo
ODI: 16w @ 20avg/5.6rpo
T20I: 25w @ 16.2avg/7.7rpo
Henry joins a long list off injured Blackcaps seamers and I’m still not worried. Will O’Rourke, Ben Sears, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne and Kyle Jamieson are out of action at the moment with Matt Fisher not lining up for Northern Districts in Ford Trophy. Blackcaps can still roll out a seaming core of Duffy, Foulkes and Nathan Smith as well as mixing in seamers like Blair Tickner.
Blair Tickner before his Blackcaps ODI return
Global Super League: 8w @ 12.8avg/6.8rpo
County Championship: 24w @ 36.1avg/3.5rpo
Ford Trophy: 7ov, 1w @ 7.8rpo
Young and Latham need some runs.
Six Blackcaps batters have 300+ ODI runs this year and Young is the only one averaging below 45 (23.46/81sr). This may open up a spot for Devon Conway to get a crack in the third ODI or Young could be given another chance, especially as he has earned faith in the ODI set up with lots of runs prior to this series.
Latham hasn’t eased my pre-series niggle with 26 runs @ 84sr in his two appearances. He will definitely play the third ODI and Blackcaps won’t move past Latham easily, so I expect him to find enough runs over the next month to eventually ease the pressure. Latham (26.1avg/85sr) is in a similar zone to Young as the only top-five-ish batters who are averaging below 45 this year.
The Santner/Bracewell spin combo has been solid vs England but it’s their batting that has the funk. Both are averaging 25+ with strike-rates over 100 and this is lovely because Glenn Phillips’ absence (peep the theme) hasn’t been too impactful. Here are their 2025 ODI batting stats...
Michael Bracewell: 29.88avg/105sr
Mitchell Santner: 25.8avg/108sr
There are lots more Blackcaps stats listed beyond the paywall for paid subscribers and our full newsletters are copied into Patreon as well. I’ve got Ford Trophy notes as round two is being played today (Thursday) and one of the generous folks funding our mahi on Patreon asked about White Ferns spin depth so there is lots of information about that. Most of which is discussed in our Bonus Pod that drops every Thursday for the generous folk.
One last cricket thing...
Jock McKenzie is my most underrated emerging cricketer in Aotearoa at the moment. This is a bit weird because McKenzie played Super Rugby before zoning in on the professional cricket pathway and that is a recipe for Aotearoa sporting hype. McKenzie didn’t play for NZ-A this year and doesn’t seem to be on the Blackcaps radar for many folk, but the Auckland all-rounder has blatant Blackcaps potential.
McKenzie opened the bowling for Auckland in Ford Trophy round one and took 3w @ 4.5rpo. He wasn’t required to bat but the 23-year-old is averaging 20+ in all three formats, with three 50+ scores in one-dayers already. McKenzie’s best batting format is longform though where he averages 33.3 and he’s got at least a wicket in five of his last six innings.
2025 England Tour Of New Zealand: Five Blackcaps Things Between T20I & ODI Series
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Round One Basics
A Summer Of Transition For New Zealand Warriors In NSW Cup Ahead Of The 2026 Season
Pacific Championship match ups...
Kiwis vs Tonga
2019: 34-14 win
2022: 26-6 win
2024: 24-25 loss
Kiwi Ferns vs Australia
2019: 8-28 loss
2022: 8-10 loss
2022: 4-54 loss
2023: 10-16 loss
2023: 12-6 win
2024: 0-14 loss
2024: 4-24 loss
Last few years of NZ Schools rugby union players moving to rugby league...
2023: Tevita Naufahu (Dolphins), Caelys Putoko (Warriors via Titans)
2024: Harry Inch (Warriors), Saumaki Saumaki (Rabbitohs)
2025: Tom Perkins (Knights)
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
The Football Ferns just wrapped up their North American tour with a 6-0 loss against USA. Heavy defeat in which we spent the whole thing on defence and then ended up with our largest losing margin for 16 years. Granted, we’ve had quite a few 5-0 losses in between and really what’s the tangible difference between 5-0 and 6-0? Doesn’t matter. This game was always likely to feel like a waste of time – we simply don’t match up well against the USA and we never have, I wrote all about this in my tour preview a few weeks back. Any chance to represent the nation is worthwhile – especially for Lara Wall who made her debut in that game – but how much did we really learn, that’s the question. At least we had the two Mexico games which were far more educational.
Michael Mayne is changing the way that the team plays, implementing a 3-5-2 formation with more of an emphasis on ball movement and chance creation. Not really seeing a whole lot of the ball movement but they did create some decent chances against Mexico and probably should have gotten a goal or two out of it. But slow starts dug them into holes in all three games – they were 1-0 down after 10 minutes in each of them. The new formation has only been around since the start of this year so we’ve seen it against Costa Rica and Venezuela... now against Mexico and USA. Those games were against fairly evenly matched opposition. These ones against better teams. That’s a test for the system and it’s a test for a lot of young players. It’s also a test for Mayne himself.
I’ll try write about this in more detail tomorrow. In the meantime, remember that this was also a Ferns squad without CJ Bott, Malia Steinmetz, Macey Fraser, Rebekah Stott, Grace Wisnewski, or Anna Leat.
Football Ferns Appearances in 2025 (Starts in Brackets)
7 games: Vic Esson (7), Kate Taylor (7), Katie Kitching (6), Kelli Brown (4)
6 games: Michaela Foster (6), Annalie Longo (6), Milly Clegg (5), Jacqui Hand (3), Maya Hahn (3), Meikayla Moore (2), Emma Pijnenburg (0)
5 games: Liz Anton (5), Indi Riley (5), Claudia Bunge (4), Manaia Elliott (2)
4 games: Grace Neville (3), Deven Jackson (1)
3 games: Katie Bowen (2), Gabi Rennie (1)
2 games: Mack Barry (1), Rebekah Stott (1), Macey Fraser (1), Hannah Blake (1), Betsy Hassett (0)
1 game: Grace Jale (1), Lara Wall (0), Ally Green (0)
Check beyond the (pay)wall for some yarns on the new National League structure for 2027 onwards that’s just been announced, as well as some predicted A-League debutants for each of the kiwi clubs and some thoughts on NZ’s slipping performances at FIFA age tourneys
2025 Women’s National League – Week 5
2025 Men’s National League – Week 5
On a similar note, the A-League Women’s season begins this weekend... for everyone except the Wellington Phoenix who have a bye. But the reserves will be in action in the National League so maybe they’ll spare a player or two for some extra match fitness, who knows. Macey Fraser played last week. Okay but what about everyone else? Here are the kiwis at Australian clubs...
Melbourne City – Deven Jackson & Rebekah Stott
Melbourne Victory – Claudia Bunge & Zoe McMeeken
Newcastle Jets - Anna Leat, Kelli Brown, Olivia Page & Charlotte Lancaster
Adelaide United – Claudia Jenkins
Western Sydney Wanderers – Brianna Edwards
Ten players, six of whom are occupying visa spots for those teams. Edwards and Jenkins are dual-nationals who were born and raised in Australia so they’ve got Aussie passports. As does Rebekah Stott who was born in NZ but largely raised in Oz. Deven Jackson seems to have acquired local status as well, though Zoe McMeeken hasn’t despite being born in Melbourne. Stott captains Melbourne City. Bunge is vice captain at Victory.
Every kiwi’s second team should be Newcastle Jets where Stephen Hoyle, legend of the NZ domestic scene, has gloriously used four import spots on New Zealanders... despite Leat being the only one who’s truly proven at this level or above (although Brown is quickly getting there).
Jackson, Bunge, and Brown were the only three of those ten who were in the latest Footy Ferns squad.. and the Wellington Phoenix only had four reps (although CJ Bott was initially selected before injury ruled her out and Macey Fraser would’ve been there if she were match fit).
Blackcaps Recent Home ODI Series
Won 2-0 vs England October 2025 (one game to go)
Won 3-0 vs Pakistan April 2025
Won 2-1 vs Sri Lanka January 2025
Won 2-1 vs Bangladesh December 2023
Won 2-0 vs Sri Lanka March 2023
Won 1-0 vs India November 2022
Won 3-0 vs Netherlands April 2022
Won 3-0 vs Bangladesh March 2021
Won 3-0 vs India February 2020
Won 3-0 vs Bangladesh February 2019
And before that was a 4-1 loss to India in Jan-Feb 2019 which thus marks the last time that the Blackcaps were beaten in a home ODI series. It’s been six years and ten series since then. 24-2 record (with two no results and one abandonment). Admittedly most of that is against subcontinent sides but that’s only because we’ve scared everyone else away.
During those 10 series, spanning nearly seven years, the Blackcaps have used 43 different players. Tom Latham has been the most common with 24 games played. Then it’s Henry Nicholls (19), followed by Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, and Will Young (all 16), as well as Mitchell Santner (15).
Harry Brook in Aotearoa
Tests: 9 INNS | 679 RUNS | 75.44 AVG | 100.14 SR | 3 100s | 3 50s | 2 0s
ODI: 2 INNS | 169 RUNS | 84.50 AVG | 125.8 SR | 1 100
T20I: 2 INNS | 98 RUNS | 49.00 AVG | 200 SR | 1 50
MNL Team of the Week #5
GK – Oli Sail (Auckland FC) – He made about a million saves against Auckland City, some tricky and some simple, but he’s also here for the immense leadership mana that he offered to the youngsters around him (a few of whom he probably only learned their names when the team was announced).
RB – Ry McLeod (Western Springs) – Another game from the little speedster where it felt like his directness was what allowed the Swans to move through the gears, while his low drilled crosses were what most of their best stuff stemmed from.
CB – Matt Bergin (Coastal Spirit) – As much as nil-all draws in the National League can never be condoned... the South Island derby only hit a stalemate because the centre-backs for both teams were so immense.
CB – Ben Stroud (Christchurch United) – See above.
LB – Justin Gulley (Wellington Olympic) – For the first twenty minutes it was like Gulls was the only one in that Greeks defence really pulling his weight... then the rest of them caught up and Olympic came from 2-0 down to win 4-2.
CM – Finn McKenlay (Auckland FC) – Didn’t actually think he played that well in the first half but he was massive in the second, busting things up and consolidating possession. Great range of passing. He’s gonna be a star.
CM – Wan Gatkek (Western Springs) – Must have had 120 touches or more against Auckland United. So good at just dropping in and keeping things moving... then flicking the switch and sparking an attack.
CM – Tor Davenport-Petersen (Wellington Olympic) – Loves a combative game so away to Birko was perfect for him. Loves it so much that he scored thumping long distance goal (and supplied an assist).
FW – Jordan Lamb (Miramar Rangers) – Gave the WeeNix fits with his direct play on the left wing, setting up two goals and then scoring a beauty of his own to cap a comfortable win.
FW – Louis Fenton (Miramar Rangers) – Pretty weird seeing Louis Fenton scoring against a Wellington Phoenix team, ya know? He also won a penalty and looked really lively on the right wing.
FW – Isa Prins (Wellington Olympic) – If you missed him in the Chatham Cup final, if you missed him last National League season too, then this performance alone should have vindicated the hype. He looks dangerous from anywhere on the pitch.
Musical Jam...