Only Bangers
Blackcaps ODI prowess, All Whites in 2025, Domestic Cricket, NZ Breakers, National League football, Kiwi-NRL, and more
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps are the best ODI team in the world this year…
NZ: 16-3 | 5.33 W/L ratio
India: 9-2 | 4.5
Sri Lanka: 7-6 | 1.16
South Africa: 7-7 | 1
Pakistan: 7-10 | 0.7
Australia: 4-6 | 0.66
Bangladesh: 3-7 | 0.42
England: 4-11 | 0.36
West Indies: 3-9 | 0.33
Blackcaps leaders for runs and wickets in ODIs this year…
Daryl Mitchell: 761 runs @ 54.3avg/86sr
Rachin Ravindra: 590 runs @ 45.3avg/109sr
Matt Henry: 27w @ 19.7avg/5.2rpo
Mitchell Santner: 23w @ 28avg/4.5rpo
Devon Conway and Will Young are on different form paths right now. Conway’s form dip includes T20I batting and Young doesn’t play that format, while Young’s best scores recently have come below that Blackcaps level.
Devon Conway
Recent scores: 0, 34, 13, 16, 56, 47*, 49, 90
ODI scores this year: 97, 48, 10, 30, 34, 49, 90
2025 ODI: 358 runs @ 51.1avg/83sr
Will Young
Recent scores: 48, 9, 5, 0, 1, 2, 50, 25, 0, 11
ODI scores this year: 90*, 16, 0, 4, 19, 5, 107, 0, 22, 21, 15, 1, 5, 0, 1, 0, 11
2025 ODI: 317 runs @ 19.8avg/80sr
My favourite Blackcaps thing is Mitchell Santner’s slugging. He whacked 34* @ 227 in Napier vs West Indies and that was the highest strike-rate for all batters. Here’s how Santner’s strike-rates stack up amongst Blackcaps batters in ODIs and T20Is this year...
ODI
Kyle Jamieson: 10 runs @ 200sr
Mitch Hay: 107 runs @ 121.5sr
Mitchell Santner: 201 runs @ 116.18sr
T20I
Finn Allen: 144 runs @ 211.7sr
Mitchell Santner: 137 runs @ 187.67sr
2025/26 HBJ Shield: Emerging Player Preview
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Round Five Basics
2025 West Indies Tour Of New Zealand: T20 Series Debrief
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Five Best Players From The First Stanza
If you’re reading this then you already know that the young blokes in Aotearoa cricket are awesome. I’ve mapped this out in a variety of ways through these newsletters and the flurry of runs early in the first round of Plunket Shield offers another angle. Seven of the nine batters who put up scores on the first two days are 23-years-old or younger...
Jack Boyle (29yrs): 156 runs
Jacob Cumming (21yrs): 113 runs
Tom Jones (19yrs): 119 runs
Tim Robinson (23yrs): 87*
Bevon Jacobs (23yrs): 94 runs
Lachlan Stackpole (20yrs): 148 runs
Bharat Popli (35yrs): 69 runs
Aryan Mann (19yrs): 66 runs
Matthew Boyle (22yrs): 70 runs
Best players after the opening weekend of HBJ Shield…
Batting
Kate Anderson: 172 runs @ 172avg/111sr
Prue Catton: 112 runs @ 112avg/82sr
Hannah Rowe: 96 runs @ 48avg/74sr
Saffron Wilson: 92 runs @ 46avg/76sr
Bowling
Lucy Boucher: 5w @ 6.2avg/2.5rpo
Fran Jonas: 5w @ 9.6avg/3.4rpo
Amie Hucker: 5w @ 12.2avg/3.5po
Elizabeth Cohr: 4w @ 8.7avg/3.5rpo
Beyond the wall there is a ODI bowling spotlight on Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith, some White Ferns related HBJ Shield stuff and emerging women who started the season well. I also roll through some of the NZ Warriors youngsters who are part of the community visits and summer training period.
All five of these young NZ Warriors forwards are 21-years-old or younger and averaged 30+ minutes in the 2025 NRL season...
Demitric Vaimauga: 31.9
Leka Halasima: 55.8
Jacob Laban: 33.8
Tanner Stowers-Smith: 30.4
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava: 34.2
Rabbitohs/Panthers Kiwi-NRL brainstorms…
Rabbitohs - NSW Cup/U21 Jersey Flegg Cup
Bayleigh Bentley-Hape: Moerewa
Edward Kosi: Mangere East
Moala Graham-Taufa: Marist
Devante Mihinui: Glenora
Nazareth Taua: Marist
Caelis Samuel: Mangere East
Kaearangi Mathews: Arataki
Saumaki Saumaki: Nelson Boys College
U19 SG Ball Cup
George Kite: Papatoetoe
Phillip Lavakeiaho: Papatoetoe
Panthers - NSW Cup/U21 Jersey Flegg Cup
Kalani Going: Mid-Northern
Tom Ale: Mt Albert
Toby Crosby: Greytown
Haami Loza: Otara/Mangere East
Patrick Moimoi: Mangere East
Compton Purcell: Marist
U19 SG Ball Cup
Kaea Cribb: Te Iti Rearea
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
No Flying Kiwis roundup this week because I’m prioritising Football Ferns and All Whites yarns and, well, not a whole lot happened over the past week. Blokes were in a FIFA window and the ladies only had a couple major notables and they’ll all be incorporated into next week’s edition. But here are the five most consequential updates just so that you don’t feel like you’ve fallen behind (I’ve got a pretty massive Football Ferns preview coming up imminently so there’ll be some crossover in there)...
Rebecca Lake won the Canadian NSL. Inaugural champs with Vancouver Rise, whom she joined midseason after being released by the Wellington Phoenix. Turned out pretty well for her because she ended up starting the final seven games in a row including all three playoff games, getting ninety minutes in the final as they beat AFC Toronto 2-1. Lake’s not in the current Ferns squad (having been called up as an injury replacement last time but not earning her first cap) but Meikayla Moore, Ally Green, and Milly Clegg all are, despite their teams not making the playoffs at all.
Alas, it was relegation for Kolbotn in Norway, taking down Jacqui Hand, Liv Chance, and Liz Anton with them. The three kiwis were among their best players with Hand scoring 5 goals with 2 assists in only 12 appearances while Chance and Anton started almost every single game and Anton finished the season as captain. But they lost 4-2 against Rosenborg in their last game, needing to win to have any chance. They would have progressed to a playoff had they won. But they didn’t. Now one of the funkiest pockets of Flying Kiwis stuff will have to be broken up.
Katie Bowen has returned to regular starting status with Inter Milan, playing all but three minutes across their last four games. Unfortunately the team’s form has not gotten any better. Thy drew 2-2 against Sassuolo and lost 1-0 to Napoli in Serie A. Then also lost 1-0 to BK Hacken in Sweden before drawing 0-0 in the home leg this morning to be eliminated from the Europa Cup in the first round. Inter are on a six-game winless streak across all comps which is a massive drop-off after the team’s best ever campaign last season.
Happier news for Grace Wisnewski who returned to action with FC Nordsjælland after a few weeks out injured. She got sixty mins in a 3-0 win against Odense followed by 33 off the bench as they won 1-0 against NS Mura in the Europa Cup four days later. Then another half hour in a convincing 4-0 win in the second leg. So no more Katie Bowen in the Europa Cup but The Wiz is through to the quarters where she’ll have a pretty tough task against either Eintracht Frankfurt or PSV Eindhoven. One of the Eins.
Kyle Adams captained Racing Louisville to the best record in the USL Championship this year (USA second tier) but they choked with a first round exit in the playoffs. Nevertheless, the 28yo single-cap All Whites international has still been rewarded for his remarkable mahi with not only a spot in the USL Championship Team of the Season but also being unveiled as the Defender of the Year. Hugely significant stuff there.
I said on our Podcast on Tuesday that I’d dig into some NZ Breakers quarter by quarter numbers and I’m a man of my word so have a taste of these...
NZ Breakers Points Differential By Quarter
The fact that this team is 4-10 and only has a -4 overall points differential is some wild behaviour. But of course if you’ve been watching them as I have, you know that their four wins have all been blowouts and somehow they’ve conspired to lose every single close game they’ve played in. Dunno how they’ve got that freaky +28 in losing second quarters but the -53 in losing fourths will come as no surprise.
Nor will the fact they’ve been ahead by at least 15 points at the three quarter mark of all four victories. In other words, they’ve not won a single game in which they were leading by less than 15 points after 3Qs. Admittedly, the four games which they’ve lost after leading at that point were all leads of less than five points as the fourth frame began (some of those leads were much higher earlier not by the time the 4Q stumbles set in). The difference between being up by three and down by three is only two buckets though. That’s why the most damning thing to say about Petteri Koponen’s NBL26 Breakers is this...
Breakers W/L Record By Margin At 3Q
Winning by 5+ points: 4-0
Losing by 5+ points: 0-4
Margin within +/- 4 points: 0-6
Yes, they have been involved in six games in which the margin was four points or less in either direction as the fourth quarter began and they are 0-6 in those games.
All Whites in 2025
As a loose guideline, I’d say that everybody in the first column is definitely going to the World Cup along with Alex Paulsen, Libby Cacace, and Ryan Thomas. Everybody else is still competing for their place.
That covers ten total games:
W 7-0 vs Fiji (H)
W 3-0 vs New Caledonia (H)
W 1-0 vs Ivory Coast (N)
L 1-2 vs Ukraine (N)
L 0-1 vs Australia (A)
L 1-3 vs Australia (H)
L 0-1 vs Poland (A)
D 1-1 vs Norway (A)
L 1-2 vs Colombia (N)
L 0-2 vs Ecuador (N)
2025 Men’s National League – Week 8
2025 Women’s National League – Week 8
WNL Team of the Week #8
GK – Sophie Campbell (West Coast Rangers) – They needed a win that they couldn’t manage... but Campbell did her job in keeping Eastern Suburbs to a 0-0 draw, getting off her line confidently and making some lovely stops. Fine mahi from the NZ U19s keeper.
RB – Talisha Green (Auckland United) – What a goal. Up against a hugely solid Southern Utd defence, Auckland United had some troubles breaking through... until Greenie scored a belter from miles out (Talisha Green Only Scores Bangers) and that goal clinched AU’s place in the grand final. Again.
CB – Yukino Nishizono (Eastern Suburbs) – Such a dependable player. Heck of a long ball too when she’s got the runners to aim for. Even with ten women, WCR threw plenty at the Lilywhites but Yuki and pals held it down.
CB – Mackenzie Rastatter (Southern United) – Mentioned how good that Southern Wall was away against the two-time defending champs, yeah well here’s a big reason why. Another import addition that Southern have smashed out of the park with their recruitment.
LB – Poppy O’Brien (Wellington Phoenix) – Two weeks in a row that POB has scored a superb individual goal. She’s speedy up that left edge, whips in good deliveries, scraps well defensively, and is emerging as one of the WeeNix’s most exciting players.
CM – Rose Morton (Southern United) – No courageous Southern United effort (even in a loss) is complete without Rose Morton being amazing.
CM – Kate Loye (Canterbury United) – It was not a particularly high quality game as the Pride beat Petone, two out of form teams, but there was one player who stood head and shoulders above the crowd. Deployed as an attacking mid, KL’s touch and decision-making were clear of all others (even often her own teammates who weren’t anticipating the passes) and she scored a spectacular free kick to break the deadlock.
CM – Grace Bartlett (Wellington Phoenix) – Narrowly sliding in ahead of teammate Amber De Wit for this spot, Bartlett set up a goal from wing-back then moved to attacking midfield and continued to be great. That little burst of pace when she’s dribbling. The close control on the move. Such a weapon.
FW – Rene Wasi (Auckland United) – If her teammates could finish better, then Wasi might have had a few hatty of assists. The lone weakness in that Southern backline (aside from Talisha Green shots from the carpark) was Wasi’s pace up the right wing. She looked a threat every time she got the ball.
FW – Summer Laskey (Wellington United) – For any other team, Summer Laskey scoring 12 goals in eight games including hat-tricks against Wellington Phoenix and Central (this week) would be prime time stuff. But she’s playing in a team with Maggie Jenkins so that means second fiddle. Speaking of which...
FW – Maggie Jenkins (Wellington United) – It was only against poor old Central... but nobody has done to Central what Maggie Jenkins did to Central. Utterly unstoppable. She missed a penalty and still scored six... with two assists! It’s going to take something special to keep her from claiming an MVP trophy. This is the fourth week in a row she’s made the TOW.
Musical Jam...
