El Niche Cache
April 9th, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 12
The Niche Cast: God In Drag (Blackcaps Test Squad)
Reading Menu
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Kiwi-NRL Eels (And Storm Involvements) (NRL)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Warriors Everywhere + Manly Sea Eagles (NRL)
The Premmy Files – Team Wellington 2020-21 Season Review (Football)
Coming To Grips With An Absolutely Baffling Welly Nix Campaign So Far (Football)
Flying Kiwis – April 6 (Football)
The Premmy Files – Auckland City & Hamilton Wanderers 2020-21 Season Reviews (Football)
The Blackcaps Adventures Have Just Begun (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox – March 2021 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
IPL kick off…
In the midst of India’s covid situation getting crazier, the IPL starts this weekend. Meanwhile, in England the County Championship has started and the only kiwi involved Will Young isn’t in Durham’s team for their first game. We’re super light on Kiwi County Tour numbers this winter, so I’ll update KCT business in these emails and IPL matters will fit the same mould.
Here are the kiwis in IPL squads. The lads in bold both played 10+ games last year. The last in italics played 2-5 games and the others didn’t play a game.
Chennai: Mitchell Santner.
Mumbai: Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham.
Kolkata: Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson.
Bangalore: Kyle Jamieson, Finn Allen.
Delhi: -
Hyderabad: Kane Williamson.
Rajasthan: -
Punjab: -
Kyle Jamieson is the obvious lad I’m intrigued about. First he’s got to play and as I laid out here, Bangalore’s squad isn’t really aligned for lots of Jamieson cricket. Hence it will be a fascinating wrinkle to follow. Trent Boult and Kane Williamson were genuinely fantastic last year in the IPL, before being typically fantastic in Aotearoa; they fit into the ‘kiwi excellence’ bucket. Mitchell Santner’s work will be interesting given that the T20 World Cup is to be played in India, same goes with Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson. Whether it’s Santner’s spin or Milne/Ferguson’s speed, how effective they are in the IPL could set up some ideas ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Aotearoa’s two leading wicket-takers in T20I cricket, are not playing IPL.
Tim Southee is 2nd all time for T20I wickets. Southee has a T20I average of 25.17 and this year is the first year since 2013 in which Southee’s T20I annual average has dropped below 20. In 2021 Southee has taken 12w @ 19.50avg/14.5sr (career SR of 18).
Ish Sodhi is 9th all time for T20I wickets. Sodhi averaged below 15 in T20I cricket for three consecutive years (2015-17), followed by three years averaging 25+ and this year Sodhi has 17w @ 12.88avg/9.1sr (career SR of 16.1). Sodhi has played eight years of T20I cricket and averaged below 15 in four of them.
Aotearoa has four current batsmen in the top-20 for T20I runs all time; Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Colin Munro. Williamson is the only one in IPL 2021.
Devon Conway vs Virat Kohli (T20)
Conway: 44.35avg/129.74sr.
Kohli: 41.94avg/134.23sr.
Benji Marshall Appreciation
Two of my favourite NRL things right now are Parramatta Eels and their Kiwi-NRL contingent, plus Benji Marshall’s work with South Sydney Rabbitohs. My vision is Benji leading Aotearoa Kiwis to a World Cup win this year - player or kaumatua - and on top of what Benji is doing on the field, he is extremely busy in the Australian media. Kinda like Adam Blair getting his Sky Sports gig, only that Benji is with Fox Sprots and Triple M in Sydney … while he’s playing.
Benji makes appearances on NRL 360 during the week, then on Sunday afternoons he does some work with Triply M’s NRL show.
Last night’s game saw Benji start and play 80mins, against a fairly ho-hum Broncos team. First start and first 80min game with a try, a try assist, 2 linebreaks, 1 tackle break and 1 offload. Absolutely beautiful … I can’t go too deep into celebrating that as it was against the Broncos.
Benji did have a few more touches than Adam Reynolds though: 51 vs 47. Factor in Benji’s varied role with the Bunnies where he covers all backline positions and if he hasn’t played as a straight up half, Benji replaces a forward. Benji subs on for a middle forward, adds his play-making/distribution to Reynolds and Cody Walker while defending out on an edge … beside Reynolds.
Similar to Tohu Harris playing right edge, middle and left edge in 80 minutes for NZ Warriors, Benji and the Rabbitohs are doing some pretty funky stuff. Benji never knows how much game time he’ll get unless he is starting…
Round tahi: 49mins.
Round rua: 40mins.
Round toru: 10mins.
Round wha: 28mins.
Round rima: 80mins.
From that, here’s five Kiwi-NRL ideas I’m tracking…
1) Benji Marshal’s twilight.
2) Marata Niukore at centre and Parramatta Eels growing Kiwi-NRL numbers.
3) Shaun Johnson returning from injury while Cronulla Sharks have a settled spine.
4) Crappy teams promoting Kiwi-NRL youngsters. Morgan Harper starts for Manly vs Warriors, Christian Tuipulotu will play very soon. Griffin Neame isn’t far away for Cowboys. Wests Tigers have Tukimihia Simpkins on extended bench this week.
5) Young monsters: James Fisher-Harris, Joseph Tapine (returns this weekend), Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
Wildcard’s Notebook
The 2020-21 Summer of Cricket is over, barring one last White Ferns effort. The Blackcaps will soon be off to England with a 20-man Test squad picked to hopefully bring back New Zealand’s biggest ever ICC trophy triumph and first major trophy at all for two decades. No pressure, fellas. But if this one goes the way of the 2019 World Cup final (or even the 2015 World Cup final) then it’s gonna be hard to take.
The 2000 Champions Trophy was a long time ago now – known then as the "ICC KnockOut Trophy”. Chris Cairns scored an undefeated hundred that day in Kenya as the Blackcaps chased down India’s total of 264/6 with two balls and four wickets remaining. Sourav Ganguly tonned up for India with Sachin Tendulkar also scored 69 before he was run out. NZ were then in trouble at 132/5 at the midway point after Craig McMillan was dismissed but then Cairns and Chris Harris put on 122 for the sixth wicket and Cairnsy saw us home with his 102no. Chris Cairns is on the blacklist now since he turned into a match-fixing psycho but damn he was one hell of a player back in the day.
The Blackcaps XI for that final:
Craig Spearman, Nathan Astle, Stephen Fleming (c), Roger Twose, Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Adam Parore (wk), Scott Styris, Shayne O’Connor, Geoff Allott
The Cappies used 23 different players across 14 T20 internationals this summer (FOUR different series!). From Devon Conway, Martin Guptill & Glenn Phillips who played every one of them to Todd Astle, Jacob Duffy & Blair Tickner who each played just once. Curiously Astle and Duffy took four-fors in their lone appearances.
T20 cricket was in sharp focus with a World T20 on the cards later in the year and then another one next year – that format has never been more important. Lots of games means lots of new information and it’s safe to say that the First XI is looking quite different to where it started. Here are the playing elevens for the last game of last summer, the first game of this summer, and then the last game of this summer. And since the last game was with an-IPL weakened squad, let’s chuck in the last game of the Australia series as well which was far more consequential, the peak of the T20 summer...
Devon Conway has emerged with a clear-eyed ruthlessness. Martin Guptill has reasserted himself. Glenn Phillips has forced his way into the top choice team. Ross Taylor has gone the other way, Tim Seifert might be gonna join him with Conway not only taking his opening spot but also his gloves for that Bangladesh series (with Seifert on IPL duty). Jimmy Neesham has finally locked his way back in although Daryl Mitchell had a strong summer too (in all formats). Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi and Mitch Santner all remain outstanding T20 bowlers. Lockie Ferguson was injured for a lot of the season but was superb when he was available. Trent Boult didn’t quite assert himself in the same way (although he was great at the last IPL and is hopefully about to serve up another course at IPL 2021). Here are the top performers with bat and ball over those 14 games...
Top T20 Blackcaps Batsmen This Summer
Devon Conway – 473 runs @ 59.12 average (151.11 strike-rate)
Martin Guptill – 403 runs @ 31.00 average (152.65 strike-rate)
Glenn Phillips – 366 runs @ 40.66 average (184.84 strike-rate)
Tim Seifert – 238 runs @ 29.75 average (122.05 strike-rate)
Kane Williamson – 140 runs @ 23.33 average (123.89 strike-rate)
Top T20 Blackcaps Bowlers This Summer
Tim Southee – 21 wickets @ 16.71 average (7.97 RPO)
Ish Sodhi – 20 wickets @ 15.45 average (8.13 RPO)
Lockie Ferguson – 10 wickets @ 9.40 average (6.26 RPO)
Mitch Santner – 8 wickets @ 23.87 average (7.49 RPO)
Trent Boult – 7 wickets @ 31.42 average (8.14 RPO)
At a punt, I reckon Gary Stead’s looking at something along the lines of this as a T20 First XI:
Guptill, Allen, Williamson, Conway, Phillips, Neesham, Santner, Southee, Sodhi, Ferguson, Boult
But maybe they’ll play it cautious and keep Seifert in there with Conway opening instead. That might be a better overall balance for the team... or given that the World T20 is in India there’s probably a better than decent chance that Mark Chapman bats at five with Conway opening. Love the mix of batting and bowling that particular team would have. Ain’t it grand to have genuine options?
Welly Nix goalkeeping stat-bomb...
Oli Sail has gone from missing squads altogether after the restart last season, youngster Zac Jones getting the nod ahead of him before Jonesy was released at the end of the campaign – basically because Jones was off contract and Sail was under contract. Didn’t need another keeper and the decision had already been made. But now here’s Sail as the starting goalie for the Nix, keeping Marinovic from being able to do any keeping. He came in at a low point for the club and has played really bloody well. Can’t drop him in that form. Onwards we go.
Funny story is that Zac Jones kinda did the same thing for Team Wellington. He was snapped up in a hurry for a game against Eastern Suburbs when both Scott Basalaj and his understudy (another recent-ish Phoenix starter) Keegan Smith were both injured. Jones keeps a couple clean sheets in a row and went on to play the rest of the season including the grand final.
Some context on that stat though, Sail is making more saves but he’s also facing plenty more shots per game. So whether his percentage is down to quantity rather than quality is tricky to say. Without doubt both he and Marinovic have proved themselves excellent shot stoppers... but Sail has had to play with a weaker defence in front of him. It’s a funky situation. Not sure you can definitively claim one is better than the other, it just happens that Sail is the one starting games right now. But a few months back it wouldn’t have even been a question which goes to show how much Oli Sail has boosted his stocks. No need to drag the All Whites situation into this however, the only stuff that matters for that team this year is the Olympics and you’re not wasting a precious overage spot on a goalie when Michael Woud is in the squad.
Also it feels like a shame not to reshare this Steven Taylor anecdote once more. I’m just stuck in awe picturing Steven Taylor hurling himself at shots after training. He’s a truly delightful nutcase. And an inspiring one too when you watch back some of the bodily harm that Tim Payne put himself in the way of against Melbourne City last game, talk about influence right there.
Okey doke, I threw up the idea last week of doing a recurring segment picking an album to recommend from every year as far back as I could go. Not really sure how to classify it – I’m not conceited enough to think that I have the authority to call them the ‘best’ album from each year. Even saying ‘my favourite’ feels weird because in some cases the picks were pretty arbitrary and I already know that I’ll change my mind on about a dozen of them within a few weeks. Very much a snapshot in time.
But you know what? I spent a decent while the other night churning through albums and working things out all the way back to 1955. Before that albums weren’t really the same conceptual things as they became later so short of compilations, jazz sessions, and Frank Sinatra stuff there wasn’t much point. 1955 is the beginning, all the way through to the present day. I reckon I’ll go decade by decade on these emails starting with the half-decade 50s stuff here. Not gonna try and justify the selections or anything – this isn’t meant to be definitive in any way. Just a great album from each year. And obviously it’s hugely subjective so yeah there’s a tendency towards a few certain genres or archetypes but that’s just how it worked out.
Wildcard’s Album Per Annum Project - 1950s
1955: Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours
1956: Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley
1957: B.B. King – Singin’ The Blues
1958: Billie Holiday – Lady In Satin
1959: Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue
The most stacked year of these for sure was 1957, having to give Little Richard’s first album the flick was a tough one but that first BB King album has all the classics, setting up the rest of his long career in many ways. Elvis’ debut speaks for itself and what that release did for popular music. Wee Small Hours is the best Sinatra album by a distance, it’s a masterpiece breakup record after he split with Ava Gardner and one of those night time albums which hit harder when the lights are out and the moonlight’s spilling in through the windows.
Every now and then I make efforts to be more of a jazz guy coz I love the vibes... still yet to hear anything that moves me more than Kind Of Blue which was probably the first major jazz record I listened to. And shout out to late-career Billie Holiday. Her voice was shot by the time of Lady In Satin but that only makes the songs more poignant. Good tunes all around... if a little on the sombre side. But on Monday I’ll crack into the swinging sixties so there you go (off the dome decade rankings: 1970s, 1990s, 1960s, 2010s, 1950s, 2000s, 1980s... although I did surprise myself with how immense the ten 80s albums I ended up with are).