Spinniest Decks
Blackcaps vs England Test thoughts, White Ferns at WT20, Shane Young UFC, Wellington Phoenix, Warriors Trials/SG Ball & more
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Reading Menu
10 Funky Kiwi-NRL Youngsters For 2023 (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Trials Notebook #1 (Rugby League)
Football Ferns vs Portugal/Argentina: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
Looking Back on Chris Wood’s 53 Weeks As A Newcastle United Player (Football)
Flying Kiwis – February 8 (Football)
Milly Clegg Is An Absolute Unicorn Of A Kiwi Centre-Forward Prospect (Football)
Blackcaps vs England: First Test Preview (Cricket)
2022/23 Women's Super Smash: Taking Stock Of Another Dominant Wellington Blaze Campaign (Cricket)
2022/23 Women's Super Smash: Wellington vs Canterbury Final Preview (Cricket)
2022/23 Super Smash: Canterbury vs Northern Final Preview (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Welcome to the England Test cricket circus. England whacked 465 runs against an Aotearoa 11 in their day/night warm up game, scoring at 6.7rpo with six batters scoring at over 100sr. Some of Aotearoa's Super Smash teams would be chuffed with those figures and thus this fabulous Aotearoa vs England Test series is underway.
Hearty kiwi cricket fans know that the Aotearoa 11 bowling attack wasn't very strong. Kyle Jamieson played and his 15 overs were the most of a kiwi bowling unit consisting of Jamieson, Sean Solia, Jarrod McKay, Sean Davey, Theo van Woerkom and Adithya Ashok. Solia is a 1st 11 all-rounder for Auckland, while Ashok sits behind Louis Delpot and Will Somerville (if he's still playing Plunket Shield soon) as Auckland's best spinners. McKay isn't a 1st 11 seamer for Otago. Davey is a fringe seamer for Canterbury who is not part of their Super Smash mix and van Woerkom sits behind Todd Astle (SS only), Blake Coburn, Ish Sodhi in Canterbury's spin unit.
These lads, plus most of the batters, are players who either only play Plunket Shield or are fringe domestic players. Jamieson included, this NZ 11 bowling attack is a ho-hum domestic bowling attack and England are the hottest Test batting group in the world.
The key idea from this week's Blackcaps vs England deep dive Patreon/membership podcast was Bay Oval spin vs day/night swing and seam. Bay Oval is one of the spinniest decks in Aotearoa and spin is a consistent feature of Test cricket in Tauranga. The pink ball will help all seamers and how this impacts team selection, as well as performance, will be fascinating.
But first, White Ferns start their T20 World Cup against Australia. Check in with this preview yarn about the White Ferns squad and then ponder the stats below...
White Ferns T20I batting strike-rates/bowling RPO…
Sophie Devine: 122sr/6.34rpo
Suzie Bates: 109.32sr/6.6rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 109sr/5.96rpo
Amelia Kerr: 107.5sr/5.87rpo
Jess Kerr: 106.45sr/5.48rpo
Hannah Rowe: 102.29sr/7rpo
Maddy Green: 97.5sr/6.44rpo
Brooke Halliday: 92.62sr/5.66rpo
Bernadine Bezuidenhout: 87.5sr
Lauren Down: 86.11sr
Georgia Plimmer: 85sr
Hayley Jensen: 79.46sr6.5rpo
Fran Jonas: 25sr/4rpo
Eden Carson: 5.2rpo
Molly Penfold: 7.5rpo
Shane Young will represent City Kickboxing at UFC 284 in his featherweight bout against Blake Bilder. This is the second fight of the night and Young is coming off two losses during the pandemic, one of the least active CKB fighters during this phase. Young's last win was in Australia and as noted in this week's Niche Cast, I'm curious about how CKB's coaching could give Young a boost.
CKB's coaches are elite with skills, tactics and styles. They also serve as mentors for their fighters, literally managing their careers. Bareman and his comrades have helped Young roll through adversity. Bareman is also working with Alexander Volkanovski who moves up a weight class to fight Islam Makhachev and CKB coaching will also be evident in this epic battle of fighters/teams.
Volkanovski and Tyson Pedro (also fighting at UFC 284) love the CKB style so much, they spend time in Auckland as part of their fight prep. CKB's coaches are among the best in the world and in the Volkanoski/Young fights specifically, coaching excellence will be key factors if they win.
Last night's NRL trial between Warriors and Tigers laid out the Andrew Webster vibe, plus the health of Warriors junior mahi. Niche Cache content has consistently highlighted positive wrinkles; most of the local juniors who played last night enjoyed Warriors-Redcliffe U21s success last year.
Demitric Sifakula, Zyon Maiu'u, Ali Leiataua and Jacob Laban helped Warriors-Redcliffe U21s make their final in Queensland last year. All four were impressive vs Tigers and I'm especially intrigued about Sifakula as an edge forward. Sifakula whacked in defence and is a powerful runner with a quick play-the-ball. Webster also had plays where Sifakula threw short passes to a support runner, highlighting Sifakula's midfield 1st 15 skills.
These four will probably start in NSW Cup, all four could crack NRL footy later in the season. Tom Ale was also emphatic through the middle and he has scope to play a Griffin Neame role off the bench. 20-30 minutes and efficient runs (10m/run). Neame earned an Aotearoa Kiwis wider squad call up in that role and in any sport, folks just need to shine in their role.
Taine Tuaupiki > Reece Walsh.
Tuaupiki won't start the season at fullback but he is fantastic depth. Walsh didn't help Warriors win games and we know the Walsh/Cobbo error stats from last season. Tuaupiki consistently ran into forwards, he's quick and any small bloke who can't be dragged around catches my attention.
Te Maire Martin made me ponder the most though. Luke Metcalf was nice and Warriors were generally slick in their attacking mahi. Martin's touches vs Tigers were the same touches that helped Broncos win while he was playing fullback. His ability to count numbers, engage defenders and execute a variety of passes is elite. If Martin's throwing the last pass on either edge, it's usually resulting in an overlap or at least a bit of space.
NZ Warriors SG Ball host Sea Eagles at Pukekohe on Sunday. Warriors have added Ben Peni to their bench, otherwise this is the same team that defeated Rabbitohs. Peni has come up through the Warriors system and is a middle forward, adding oomph to a Warriors pack that impressed in the first game. Tanner Stowers-Smith, Harry Durbin and Selu Halasima were fabulous last weekend, along with hooker Etuate Fukofuka. Peni has strong pedigree in local footy and NZRL rep teams, giving Warriors a strong crop of middle forwards.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Breakers now know who they’ll be facing in the NBL semi-finals: the defending champion Tasmania JackJumpers. Tassie got past the Cairns Taipans in a minor upset last night, the fourth seed beating the third seed. 87-79 was the final score. NZ’s Sam Waardenburg scored 12 points for the Taipans on 6/9 shooting with 5 rebounds but he also had a -13 plus/minus impact across his 27 minutes. Milton Doyle scored 25 for the JackJumpers to lead them to victory.
No New Zealanders on the TJJ roster so no split loyalties at play. They do have former Breakers guard Jarrad Weeks but that’s no biggie. The Breakers beat the JackJumpers 71-65 at home in round two of the season, then smoked them 94-62 three weeks later before winning 84-76 away a couple games later. However they did lost 93-82 against Taz on Boxing Day (also away).
That was coming after their covid outbreak and winning the previous three games against this team still means plenty of confidence. But they did lose the last one. Had to mention it. The Breakers are on a five-game winning streak heading into these finals. Game one is on Sunday at 6pm at Spark Arena.
Big weekend upcoming for the Wellington Phoenix. The women are coming off a bye week which will have come at a lovely time after a whirlwind few weeks, especially for those players who’ve been around the national team too. They’ve had two really positive results in a row and are coming up against a Western Sydney Wanderers team that they’ve never lost to (Sunday 5pm NZT).
That’s a weird thing to be able to say when the Welly Nix haven’t exactly been rolling in wins but it’s true. A 0-0 draw with WSW in their first ever game. A 3-2 win late last season. Then a 1-1 draw earlier in this term. Wanderers have admittedly been better since that draw – immediately afterwards they gave Western United their first defeat – but if the Nix play like they did the last two games they’re certainly in with a shout.
Kate Taylor is suspended. Probably means Marisa van der Meer will slide back into the centre of defence alongside Mackenzie Barry, with Saskia Vosper or Claudia Cicco (recently called up to an Aussie U20 training squad ahead of the U20 Asian Cup qualifiers that are happening in March) starting at right back instead.
There’s been a lot of buzz about Milly Clegg and Michaela Foster around the Football Ferns squad naming and that’s come about on merit after some superb performances from the both of them. Personally, I think folks are getting a wee bit ahead of themselves there – Clegg has only started four professional games and her outrageous potential doesn’t mean that she necessarily needs to be fast-tracked into the Ferns. A national team shouldn’t be that easy to break into, surely. Her time will come. As for Foz, we’ve already got an abundance of left backs and set piece takers so she’s probably left her run too late as far as the World Cup goes (also I can’t help but think we’re overrating the standard of the A-League here). But for sure it’s only a matter of time for each of them.
You know what though? People clamouring for the Fernies to pick Clegg and Foster... save some of that energy for Marisa van der Meer. MVDM has started every game this season, sometimes as a fullback and sometimes as a centre-back. Right back is her best position but I’ve been impressed by how well she’s gone in the middle when required. She’s a very good 1v1 defender with one of the best passing percentages in the team (especially over longer distances) and, super underrated factor, she’s really excellent in the air too. Check out how often Van der Meer wins the clearing header on defensive corners, as well as being the main target for the attacking ones. She should be just as much in the hunt for a Ferns spot as the rest of them. Michaela Robertson is the other one who’s gotta be getting closer, although she may need to break into that starting team to go further.
More good news for the Nix: Alyssa Whinham is back with the squad after spending some time away for personal reasons. They won’t rush her back into the playing team this week but it shouldn’t be too far away. Whinham went from only just sneaking into the Phoenix squad as a scholarship player last season to being their most important attacker, nominated for Young Player of the Year, and earning a maiden Ferns call-up. This season has had the opposite vibes for her. Struggled in the first four games as opponents made a point of reducing her space and was subbed off in one of those games with sunstroke. Then went on extended leave.
The whole ‘personal reasons’ thing has been deliberately vague with respect to AW’s privacy so we don’t need to know the specifics. What we do know is that the Nix have a supportive team culture, Whinham is someone who absolutely loves football, and the team has found a much sturdier attacking structure in her absence which will take the pressure off.
As for the blokes, their unbeaten streak came to an end with a disappointing performance last week so it’s a bounce back game for them away to Macarthur (Sunday 7pm NZT). They’ll have to do so without Kosta Barbarouses who is out with a hamstring injury, potentially gonna miss 3-4 weeks with that one. Clayton Lewis is out for at least that long and probably longer. Ben Waine’s obviously no longer with the club. Tim Payne is back from suspension yet Scott Wootton remains out for at least one more week.
That’s a lot of strain on the squad’s depth which is why they’ve gone and signed Nikko Boxall. I had wondered whether Boxall might only be a short-term addition for Auckland City (signed in the knowledge that Sam Brotherton was going back to the USA and therefore unavailable for the Club World Cup). Seems he was, because the Nix have come calling.
Boxall, younger bro of former Nixer Michael of course, is a wonderful dude to be able to chuck into the mix mid-season. He’s played at a decent level in Europe (particularly in Scandinavia) yet more recently had a dud time in America which led to an early release then the brief Auckland City stint. And now this. I always prefer it when the Phoenix aren’t dragging guys away from good situations overseas. Never any need to be shrinking the kiwi roll-call of professionals, not when the Nix are so good at developing/promoting locals. But there’s also a lot of value to be had in offering that lifeboat for pros in less glamourous spots (both for club and for player). All good Nix recruitment areas.
Nikko Boxall is an experienced defender joining a squad that doesn’t have very many of those. The backline against the Victory was a mess. Callan Elliot (23yo), Finn Surman (19yo), Josh Laws (24yo), and Lucas Mauragis (21yo) were the starters and there’s nothing wrong with them as players... it’s just that they were lacking in cohesion. What they needed was a leader in the midst to help organise things but with no Payne or Wootton that didn’t happen (Oli Sail also picked a bad time for his worst performance of the season). Too many sous chefs and no Gordon Ramsay to bark the orders.
Boxall helps massively with that. He should also help with something that Ufuk Talay mentioned in his press conference about his team “struggling with expectations”. I found that to be a really interesting idea in light of a lot of points dropped from winning positions this term. It’s a young squad so some of that is to be expected - Uffie acknowledged that and shouted out the work of the club’s sports psychologist. But it’s something to ponder all the same.
It’s also another reason why Alex Rufer’s been able to have a positive impact. His return to the starting line-up was immediately met by three wins in a row – never overlook those leadership qualities.
We had a good old chat on the Patreon/Subscription bonus podcast this week about the Blackcaps Test XI for the England matches and it seems like there are two big calls to be made.
One is Henry Nicholls vs Will Young. Most likely Nicholls gets another chance to redeem himself there. He’s averaging a very unflattering 24.00 across his last 21 innings (dating back to the start of the tour of England for the World Test Championship Final), but it’s worth noting that most of that has been away from home where Nicholls has always struggled. His Test batting average in Aotearoa is 48. It may be that the struggles continue and the work of Will Young becomes too much to deny… but it’d be a bit of a surprise if that happened quite yet.
The other big call is about the spinners. Do they pick Michael Bracewell (as I mostly expect) or Ish Sodhi? Would they risk picking both? Will they end up picking neither? That in turn depends on how they see the seam bowling crew operating with Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, and Blair Tickner all in the squad. Jamieson is only playing the first Test, which is a day/nighter.
The general idea is that you want gun seamers for the D/Ners as the swinging ball is a nightmare to face under lights... but is that a legit proven idea or just one of those theories that people treat like a fact because it gets repeated so often?
Ask and ye shall receive... there have been twenty day/night Tests in history and eleven of those have been in Australia (usually Adelaide, sometimes Brisbane, and once in Perth). Needless to say that the top four pink-ball wicket takers are all Aussies and they’re all the obvious suspects...
Most Wickets In Day/Night Tests
Nathan Lyon is up there though. As is Ravi Ashwin. As is Axar Patel. As is Yasir Shah… but with a mud average. Pace bowlers do seem to dominate but whether that’s because of some inherent advantage with the swingier pink ball or simply because, based on that assumption, they’re used as D/N strike-bowlers more often isn’t really something we can deduce from them numbers. Particularly not when more than half of it took place in the travelling batter’s graveyard that is Australia.
Notice Trent Boult doing mad damage in there, as well as some Southee scalps at a higher average. Neil Wagner also has 10 wickets at 22.8 and there’s no other NZer past five wickets – not that anyone would be shocked to see those three doing all the main mahi.
The Blackcaps have only played three D/N matches. The only one of those to occure in Aotearoa was against England at Eden Park back in 2018 with the Blackcaps winning by an innings and 49 runs. That precious pink ball bowled England out for 58 in the first session of day one, Boult taking 6/32 and Southee 4/25 with no other bowlers used. Hundies for Williamson and Nicholls set up a big lead then they were eventually able to bowl England out for a dogged 320 in the final session of the match (from memory I’m pretty sure it was rain affected, but I could be wrong).
Key point: Todd Astle took 3/39 in that fourth innings, the best figures of his short Test career. Kane Williamson also rolled the arm over briefly.
The other two Blackcaps pinkos were away to Australia. The first in 2015 was the first ever Day/Nighter (same as how the Anzac nations played the first ever T20 international). No team passed 250 in any innings, Peter Nevill’s 66 in Aussie’s first innings was the highest individual score, and Australia ended up winning by three wickets chasing down 187 for victory despite five-for from Boulty. Mitchell Santner and Mark Craig took 4 wickets from 32 overs between them.
The other was on that rotten 2019 tour, where Aussie put up 416 in the first innings on the back of 143 from Marnus Labuschagne and the Blackcaps were twice bowled out for less than 200. That was Lockie Ferguson’s one and only Test (so far). Santner had match figures of 0/146 from 41 overs... although it’s notable that Jeet Raval took 1/33 in the first innings.
So in each of the three DNT’s that the Blackcaps have played, they’ve used multiple spinners. Bay Oval itself has hosted three Tests and spinners there have taken 17 wickets at 43.11 which looks awful but it’s actually better than most kiwi grounds, particularly in recent years (spinners average 56 at Hagley Oval)…
Spin Bowling Test Aggregates By NZ Ground (Last 10 Years)
Also with only three games so far that’s not necessarily a reflective stat. Bangladesh’s spinners did alright there a year ago (even if it was Ebadot’s six-for that set up the victory). Reckon that average economy rate’s about to rise though.
Hey check out kiwi basketball prodigy Dontae Russo-Nance getting amongst it...
