The Non-Striker's End
The Non-Striker's End
Tom Latham batting trends, Lydia Ko is rolling, domestic cricket contracts, 3x3 Basketball World Cup, some Kiwi-NRL & more
Kia ora and welcome to The Niche Cache. There are many ways to support our mahi. Patreon has an extra podcast each week. Word of mouth works great too. Engagement is fabulous and if you’re on our website, dwell on those ads. Love ya self.
Podcast
Reading Menu
First Aotearoa Kiwis Squad Of 2022 Breakdown (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Another Joseph Tapine Salute (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Tonga, Samoa & Cook Islands Breakdown (Rugby League)
First Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns Squad Of 2022 Breakdown (Rugby League)
Rolling Through This Football Ferns Squad for the Norway & Wales Friendlies (Football)
Flying Kiwis – June 21 (Football)
Kosta Barbarouses Has Returned To The Wellington Phoenix (Again) (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Lydia Ko is rolling through her fourth LPGA tournament of June, currently tied-16th at the Women's PGA Championship. I have highlighted Ko's form in recent emails (four top-fives in her last five events) and this can be sliced for even better reading for the month of June as Ko has three consecutive top-five finishes this month.
Stringing together such results has obviously boosted Ko's overall LPGA rankings. Here's how Ko sits in key stats prior to this weekend's event...
CME Globe Season: 2nd
Official Prize Money: 3rd
Average Driving Distance: 87th
Driving Accuracy: 154th
Greens in Regulation: 46th
Putts per GiR: 3rd
Putting Average: 1st
Sand Saves: 1st
Scoring Average: 6th
Rounds Under Par: 4th
Ko is also 3rd for Top 10 Finishes Percentage with 55 percent. That's just over half the events Ko has played this year for top 10 finishes and she isn't far off Lexi Thompson in 1st with 63 percent. Ko hasn't always been the busiest player on tour but her 11 events played puts Ko three events behind the leaders - only two wahine have played 14 tournaments.
It's easier to play more when one's playing well and Ko is making the most of her consistency. This is Ko's fourth weekend in a row, playing over every weekend in June and another finish near the top of the leaderboard will make her case as the best player in the world even stronger.
The first round of domestic cricket contracts were announced during the week and Wellington continues to be the most intriguing association in Aotearoa. Last year I wrote this about Wellington's recruitment and player development which has been amplified a year later as Wellington add Adam Milne and Nick Kelly to their roster.
Some teams across sport are good at recruitment or development. Canterbury rugby might be the only legit contender to Wellington Firebirds mahi as both recruit high quality players while also producing the best talent from within their system. Ponder the signing of Milne who now joins Ben Sears in Wellington's seam bowling ranks; recruited the second fastest bowler in Aotearoa (Lockie Ferguson feels the fastest) to play alongside the third fastest bowler who has come up through Wellington cricket.
Signing Milne and Kelly coincides with Tim Robinson being promoted from within. Kelly has been one of the best undercover batters in domestic cricket (44.53avg and 51.92avg in last two Plunket Shield seasons) and Kelly joins one of the best batting prospects emerging on the circuit in Robinson. Troy Johnson and Luke Georgeson are fantastic talents as well from the Wellington system.
For every new recruit there is a high quality local lad. Wellington developed Rachin Ravindra and signed Finn Allen from Auckland for example. Last winter Wellington lured Nathan Smith up from Otago, plus the likes of Michael Bracewell and Logan van Beek are now hearty Wellingtonians after moving north a few years ago.
There is a funky recruitment wrinkle in how Georgeson signed to shift to Ireland cricket earlier this year, only to then scratch that and stay with Aotearoa cricket. This specific scenario feels more like NZC telling Georgeson that he'd soon be in the mix so stick around as opposed to Wellington doing that mahi. Regardless, players would be wise to stay linked to Wellington cricket as long as possible.
The way Wellington cricket recruits high quality players into their system and sprinkles them amongst Aotearoa's best young cricketers is fantastic. There is plenty to learn from this and highlights the benefits of player development; local players keep improving and other players see that they can get better with Wellington.
In the NRL, Parramatta Eels have a similar vibe as far as their Kiwi-NRL mahi goes. This week Eels announced the signing of Jirah Momoisea from Newcastle Knights and this continues some strong trends in how Eels go about their recruitment and player development. Momoisea has been in the Knights system for a few years but has battled a bunch of injuries and a shift to Eels is a wise move considering that Eels have similar player development prowess to Wellington cricket.
The best examples are Isaiah Papali'i and Marata Niukore. While they fit into the post-Warriors glow up category, their flourish with Eels is aligned with many more Kiwi-NRL recruits from around the NRL. Papali'i and Niukore went to Eels, became quality NRL players and boosted their value to sign better deals; Papali'i joins Tigers, Niukore re-joins Warriors.
Most of the Kiwi-NRL Eels have been recruited directly from other clubs. This is similar to Wests Tigers under Michael Maguire as both clubs seem to be specifically scouting Kiwi-NRL players at other clubs - Eels have a far better player development record than Tigers though.
New Plymouth's Makahesi Makatoa will line up for Cook Islands against Samoa (low key chance of a Cook Is. win!?) and Makatoa joined Eels from Featherstone Rovers in England. Makatoa was a solid NSW Cup player with Bulldogs (post-Bulldogs glow up is real too) and has now settled as a legit NRL forward with Eels.
Wiremu Greig left Cowboys for Eels last season. Hayze Perham left NZ Warriors for Eels last season. Bailey Simonsson left Raiders for Eels last summer. Ofahiki Ogden left Bulldogs for Eels last summer. Moala Graham-Taufa left Roosters for Eels this season.
Dylan Brown stands out in this Kiwi-NRL Eels group as he appears to have been scouted and recruited directly from Whangarei - Brown and Paul Turner impressed as Northern Swords U15 halves. Two years later Brown led the Eels U18 team to an SG Ball championship in 2017 alongside Christchurch's Joseph Taipari (now with Tigers) and Haze Dunster.
Brown won an SG Ball title in 2017, then made his NRL debut in 2019. Now at 22-years-old, Brown will start in the halves for Aotearoa Kiwis.
Dunster suffered a season-ending injury earlier this year and he is from Rotorua but seems to have moved to Sydney as a youngster, thus entering the Eels system.
Momoisea joins a blossoming group of Kiwi-NRL Eels, even though Papali'i and Niukore are leaving. The fact that Papali'i and Niukore are leaving shows the value of joining Eels as player development leads to increased value. Eels are clearly hunting Kiwi-NRL talent and I'll be tracking their movements closely.
Speaking of player development…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Tom Latham Ponderings
It seems to be the done thing to moan about Tom Latham at the moment (unless you’re Simon Doull who thinks Latham should be full time captain ahead of Williamson for some reason). Dude’s having a pretty rancid tour of England – Trent Boult and Tim Southee have both scored more runs than him in this series. Yet Latham’s also one of the highest scoring Test openers that Aotearoa has ever produced and it often feels like he doesn’t get the credit he should.
Every player has their ups and downs. That’s natural. Test openers are even more susceptible due to the position in which they bat. Facing the new ball at the start of every innings is tough mahi, in fact there’s been research done that suggests that you need to add five runs to the average of an opener in order to get a proper reflection of their ability compared to other top order batsmen.
In that case, Tom Latham’s average would scoop up from 40.23 to 45.23. However you cut it, that’s world class. But you also can’t ignore the fact that across the South Africa (h) and England (a) series he’s put up scores of 15, 0, 1, 1, 14, 26, 4, 0. Even if prior to that he scored 252 against Bangladesh, facing 552 deliveries and batting for more than six hours.
The big complaint against Latham is that perhaps he’s a flat-track bully. His averages against various nations does seem to add some fuel to that fire when you see him putting up 75+ per innings against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe... and sub-30s against Australia, England, and South Africa (against whom he’s scored just 98 runs in 10 innings... yikes) there’s at least a case to be made.
Stats can be finessed to prove most points. The thing is, almost every player averages less against better teams. Almost every player averages more at home than away. That’s how Test cricket works.
The key is for the disparity not to be so massive, which is a bit of a worry for Latham however it’s not like he’s alone in that. He had a poor tour of Australia a couple years ago... in which the Blackcaps got munted. His numbers in India (ave 35.7 with no 100s but five 50s) aren’t fantastic but they’re better than most NZers. His numbers in England are ugly yet we’ve been watching the entire top order fail throughout this series so again he’s not alone. There are stories behind all of these things.
One country that Tom Latham is absolutely immense within: Aotearoa. In 55 innings in New Zealand he has scored 2399 runs at an average of 47.03 with 7 of his 12 tons coming in the motherland. Including two scores of 250+. On one hand, that does contrast poorly with his away record. On the other hand, if he’s gonna dominate in one nation it might as well be the one he plays half his games in. Better than the opposite case.
Tom Latham has a few of those disparities. One that’s become quite clear in recent times is that he is not the same batsman when weighed down by the burden of captaincy. Another, curiously, comes when he faces the first ball of an innings versus not. There’s the home and away one. First innings against second innings. Wins and draws versus losses. It’s a bit weird. Take a look at some of these...
Latham as captain: 15 INNS | 435 RUNS | 31.07 AVE | 1 100 | 0 50s
Latham under Williamson: 66 INNS | 2745 RUNS | 43.57 AVE | 8 100s | 14 50s
And that’s including the 252 against Bangladesh, which stands out like gold compared to everything else he’s done as captain. Like, that’s about 60% of his runs as captain in one knock. His complete list of captaincy innings in chronological order goes: 49, 1, 27, 6, 23no, 10, 6, 1, 14, 252, 15, 0, 1, 26, 4.
Probably not a coincidence that big one came in the first innings of that match before he’d had to spend a full innings in the field pondering over every field position and bowling change. His second innings stuff as captain sees him average a mere 9.8 from six bats. Then again, that’s a trend across all his career.
Latham in team’s first innings: 68 INNS | 3107 RUNS | 46.37 AVE | 10 100s | 13 50s
Latham in team’s second inns: 50 INNS | 1440 RUNS | 31.30 AVE | 2 100s | 9 50s
The two second innings hundies that he bagged were both in the match’s third innings, both in home games against Sri Lanka. Both helped set up Test victories Nothing wrong with that, that’s what we wanna see. However he only averages 23.47 in the fourth innings of matches.
Latham at position 1: 70 INNS | 2230 RUNS | 33.28 AVE | 4 100s | 13 50s
Latham at position 2: 46 INNS | 2288 RUNS | 52.00 AVE | 8 100s | 9 50s
Now, this is the funkiest one of all. Position one means he’s facing the first ball of the match. Position two means non-striker’s end for ball one and that’s a huge difference between the two factors. We saw him dismissed in the first over of the match just last night, facing up against Stuart Broad from the outset. In general it feels like the more senior opening partner will take that one upon themselves but I figured I’d better do a bit more research on the matter...
So, yeah, it’s really only Guptill and Raval who were willing to step in and face that first ball. Guptill tends to do the same in limited overs cricket too. This thing still stacks up against some of his other weaknesses too, by the way. Latham averages 42.24 in away/neutral venues when he’s at the non-striker’s end for ball one. Never batted at two whilst captain though. Might be a handy compromise to balance things out. Then again that’s harsh on Will Young who is a converted opener and has only batted at 2 or 3 in Tests so far. Something to think about either way.
The 3x3 World Cup Is Happening
There’s a basketball World Cup going on as we speak. The 3x3 World Cup, three a-side basketball as seen at the last Olympics. Both the men’s and women’s competitions are happening concurrently with the whole tournament lasting a week (we’re midway through as it stands). Two strong groups sent over by Aotearoa. Exciting, fast-paced basketball. Good fun.
NZ Men’s Squad: Jayden Bezzant, Dom Kelman-Poto, Nikau McCullough & Tai Wynyard
NZ Women’s Squad: Tiarna Clarke, Ella Fotu, Jillian Harmon & Kalani Purcel
The men drew Serbia, France, Brazil, and Puerto Rico in their group which was absolutely brutal. Serbia were the number one ranked team coming into the comp, while the kiwis were the lowest ranked of that quintet. They ran Serbia close in game one, only losing 21-19, but were dropped 21-13 by France later in the day to leave them in a fair bit of trouble needing to finish top three to advance to the knockouts.
No dramas there. Overnight they popped Puerto Rico 20-18 and then beat Brazil 19-18. Good enough for third in the group and they’ll face USA in the round of sixteen.
Thrilling finish to that Brazil game. Must win for both teams, Brazil were up by three with a minute and a half left. McCullough hit a two-ball to go ahead with about thirty seconds left. Brazil missed a couple shots. They also missed a pair of free free throws inside the last ten secs and a lay-up on the buzzer that would have tied it up. Crazy stuff. Also shout out to Tai Wynyard. How amazing is it to see him looking this fit and mobile again? Those spin moves are insane.
As for the wahine... it’s the same story of being the lowest ranked team in a tough group. France, USA, Brazil, and Austria on the cards there. Comfortable defeats against USA and France marked their first day of action but that only puts them in the same position that the fellas were in at that stage. At 9pm tonight they face Austria and then it’s Brazil soon afterwards at 12.25am. All of these games are streamed on FIBA’s YouTube page so pretty easy to do the ol’ double screener if you’re already staying up late for the cricket.
Some Tunes