El Niche Cache
November 13, 2020
Podcast
Plunket Shield Round 3 Wrap:
Reading Menu
The Premmy Files – Men’s Premiership Preview, Baby! (Football)
Whipping Up A Welly Nix 2020-21 Depth Chart (Football)
The Premmy Files – Women’s Prem, Week 2 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – November 10 (Football)
2020/21 Plunket Shield: Canterbury Seamers Are Lit (Cricket)
2020/21 Plunket Shield: Into The Tom Blundell Mangroves (Cricket)
2020/21 Kiwi-WBBL #3 (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Niche Cache Playlist: November 9 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
The T20 World Cup plan for the next few years is a shambles with a tournament in 2021 and 2022, plus there is my own fascination with the decision some individuals may battle with in opting to play Blackcaps T20I games vs Big Bash League cricket. All of that clutters my view on T20I cricket for Aotearoa and while it’s all a bit of a mess in my head, there has been lovely clarity offered by Trent Boult and Kane Williamson in the Indian Premier League this year.
Elsewhere, Mitchell Santner played two games while Jimmy Neesham and Lockie Ferguson played five games each. That’s not enough to suss anything out as I ponder how a Blackcaps T20I unit will be built to compete in this weird period, compared to the work of Boult and Williamson which was rather outlandish.
Here’s a breakdown of Boult and Williamson’s IPL work across their respective careers…
Trent Boult
2015: 7 games, 9w @ 26.22avg/8.42rpo.
2016: 1 game, 1w @ 39avg/9.75rpo.
2017: 6 games, 5w @ 43.20avg/9.06rpo.
2018: 14 games, 18w @ 25.88avg/8.84rpo.
2019: 5 games, 5w @ 32.60avg/8.57rpo.
2020: 15 games, 25w @ 18.28avg/7.97rpo.
Kane Williamson
2015: 2 game, 31 runs @ 31avg/114.81sr.
2016: 6 games, 124 runs @ 20.66avg/101.63sr.
2017: 7 games, 256 runs @ 42.66avg/151.47sr.
2018: 17 games, 735 runs @ 52.50avg/142.44sr.
2019: 9 games, 156 runs @ 22.28avg/120sr.
2020: 12 games, 317 runs @ 45.28avg/133.75r.
First thing thing that stands out is when Boult and Williamson played 10+ games, they were amazing and this can serve our Blackcaps perspective in understanding the need for these two lads to play consistently. Knowing what I know from the above, I’m not going to draw any conclusions about Boult or Williamson from a couple of games in any format.
I’ve documented the trend of the IPL’s best bowlers being the best Test bowlers in the world over the past few weeks in these emails and despite Jofra Archer and Mohammed Shami dipping out of the top-five bowlers at the IPL’s end, that general premise still applies; Kagiso Rabada, Jaspirt Bumrah and Trent Boult were the top-three.
That smells like a double-down on Boult being amazing. As well as averaging 27.65 in Test cricket and 25.29 in ODI cricket, Boult averages 21.89 in T20I cricket for Aotearoa. That T20I average is the best average of Boult’s six different arenas - Test, ODI, T20I, First Class, List-A and T20 cricket. Boult’s amazing so he averages below 30 in all six categories, although Boult only averages less than 25 in T20I cricket.
As for Williamson, we tend not to view him through the T20 slugger lens and yet Williamson has strike-rates of 125.18 in T20I and 125.31 in T20. Not huge strike-rates and Williamson’s IPL strike-rate this year jumped up a bit to 133.75, which was higher that KL Rahul who finished 1st in IPL runs @ 129.34sr. Williamson’s strike-rate is also on par with David Warner this year as Warner finished 3rd in runs @ 134.64sr.
Of course, bigger hitters in the IPL have strike-rates over 140. Quinton de Kock finished 6th in runs @ 140.50sr and AB de Villiers finished 10th in runs @ 158.74 (dude is a freak). Williamson fits in among the best T20 batsmen in the world though and while any Blackcaps T20I team will need the standard dose of six-hitters, building around a batsman who has a general T20I/T20 record of averaging 30 @ 130sr is a cricketing luxury.
And that’s the point here as Aotearoa has two of the best T20 cricketers in the world. If I step outside the Blackcaps bubble and view this in isolation, it fits my idea of Aotearoa being the best sports nation in the world as we have a couple of the world’s best cricketers across all formats - just like most other kiwi sports. People overlook what Boult and Williamson do in T20 cricket, yet these two are crucial to any Blackcaps T20I success and while we might see them skip T20I fixtures this summer, don’t go forgetting about the two jokers from Bay of Plenty.