Those Karachi Evenings
Blackcaps Home/Away, NZ Warriors forwards, Welly Nix defending, domestic cricket notes, and Oli Colloty x Sheffield Wednesday
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Reading Menu
Nothing Like An Absolutely Bonkers Away Win To Get A Wellington Phoenix Season Rolling (Football)
Getting Amongst The Tale Of Ben Waine’s Transfer To Plymouth Argyle (Football)
How The Aotearoa Warriors Spine May Operate In 2023 (Rugby League)
The Six Aotearoa Warriors Juniors To Learn About (Rugby League)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #3: Tackling The Big Assignments (Basketball)
Flying Kiwis – January 3 (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Taking questions and ponderings for Tuesday’s podcast…
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White Ferns in Super Smash...
Suzie Bates: 218 runs @ 72.66avg/126.74sr | 4w @ 19.75avg/6rpo
Amelia Kerr: 143 runs @ 28.4avg/108.39sr | 5w @ 22.4avg/5.89rpo
Rebecca Burns: 119 runs @ 29.75avg//120.2sr
Maddy Green: 92 runs@ 30.66avg/117.94sr
Hannah Rowe: 92 runs @ 30.66avg/117.94sr | 6w @ 17.66avg/7rpo
Lauren Down: 87 runs 2 21.75avg/102.35sr
Georgia Plimmer: 49 runs @ 16.33avg/113.95sr
Lea Tahuhu: 39 runs @ 13avg/144.44sr | 5w @ 20.6avg/5.15rpo
Izzy Gaze: 29 runs @ 9.66avg/96.66sr
Jess Kerr: 23 runs @ 7.66avg/143.75sr | 72 @ 15.42avg/7.28rpo
Jess McFadyen: 13 runs @ 6.5avg/130sr
Sophie Devine: 10 runs @ 5avg/66.66asr | 5w @ 8.4avg/6rpo
Fran Jonas: 5w @ 16.2avg/5rpo
Hayley Jensen: 3w @ 35avg/6.77rpo
Molly Penfold: 3w @ 38avg/6.7rpo
Brooke Halliday is yet to play for Northern. Rosemary Mair has been in the T20I mixer previously and after taking 12w @ 15avg/5.48rpo last season, Mair has 1w @ 103avg/7.92rpo this season. Seven bowlers have taken 7w or more and six of those bowlers are not current White Ferns; Gabby Sullivan, Missy Banks, Kate Ebrahim, Leigh Kasperek, Amy Satterthwaite and Claudia Green.
Hannah Rowe's all-round mahi for Central continues to be an enticing wrinkle. Rowe didn't play T20Is vs Bangladesh and an interesting comparison is Hayley Jensen who hasn't had to bat much for Otago and has less wickets Rowe is consistently serving up out-swing and is flexing as a strong hitter down the order, which could work well alongside Tahuhu and J-Kerr.
There seems to be a solid trend of batters outside of White Ferns increasing their strike-rates (2021/22 | 2022/23)...
Kate Anderson: 96.59sr | 109.65sr
Natalie Dodd: 87.24sr | 122.66sr
Kate Ebrahim: 91.07sr | 108.07sr
Leigh Kasperek: 108.9sr | 135.13sr
Bella Armstrong: 65.21sr | 151.72sr
Amy Satterthwaite: 106.46sr | 121.01sr
Canterbury has two of the best women's Super Smash seamers in Gabby Sullivan and Missy Banks. Put them with Lea Tahuhu for an excellent seam bowling unit. On the blokes side, Zak Foulkes played for Canterbury yesterday and took 1w @ 6.5rpo in Auckland. Fellow young seamers Will O'Rourke and Angus McKenzie were also solid with a wicket each as well.
Here are the Canterbury men's seamers deployed across each format this season...
Plunket Shield: Matt Henry, Sean Davey, Henry Shipley, Fraser Sheat, Will O'Rourke, Angus McKenzie, Ed Nuttall, Zak Foulkes
Top-10 for wickets: Henry (1st), O’Rourke (9th), Davey (10th)
Ford Trophy: Matt Henry, Sean Davey, Henry Shipley, Will O'Rourke, Ed Nuttall
Top-10 for wickets: Shipley (2nd)
Super Smash: Ed Nuttall, Henry Shipley, Will O'Rourke, Angus McKenzie, Zak Foulkes
Top-10 for wickets: Shipley (4th), O’Rourke (10th)
Doug Bracewell has been called into the Blackcaps ODI squad. Here is his mahi this summer...
Plunket Shield: 175 runs @ 29.16avg, 1 x 50 | 20w @ 17.55avg/2.88rpo
Ford Trophy: 77 runs @ 25.66avg/87.5sr, 1 x 50
Super Smash: 82 runs @ 41avg/205sr | 3w @ 51avg/9.56rpo
The NZ Warriors forward pack is still on the pondering hoist. I have laid the forwards out into some basic categories and the most important nugget is that the 'Hole Pluggers' bracket features solid NRL pros who can cover multiple positions. These lads will absorb any mid-game/season absences without a big drop off in performance.
Leaders: Tohu Harris, Addin Fonua-Blake
Hole Pluggers: Josh Curran, Mitch Barnett, Marata Niukore, Jazz Tevaga, Dylan Walker, Jackson Ford, Bayley Sironen
Runners: Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Lingi & Kina Kepu
There also seems like a simple solution to the starting middle forward unit as I reckon Bunty Afoa could be a starting prop. Afoa is 26-years-old and he has played six seasons, playing 20+ games in his last four seasons with his 24 games last season the most of his career. Afoa also hit 89m/game which is tied with 2019 - same average having played more games.
Afoa fits nicely alongside Fonua-Blake and Harris. With these two, Afoa won't need to worry about passing while he continues to develop that skill. Afoa provides oomph that Harris may not and this leaves Curran/Barnett/Niukore competing for two edge forward slots, with one lad coming off the bench. Afoa can hover around 30-35mins as a starter and there is scope for coach Andrew Webster to provide Moses Leota development.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Just the one thing to offer on the Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker and that’s this beaut...
NZ U19s striker Oliver Colloty is heading over to Sheffield Wednesday on trial. Funny thing about that is Weds are the second placed team in League One as things stand. The top team, Plymouth Argyle, just signed Ben Waine. Now apparently their closest rivals are returning serve by taking a peek at a kiwi striker of their own.
Oli Colloty is from down south, playing his youth footy for Roslyn-Wakari before joining Christchurch United in 2021. Also spent some time with the Southern United youth team back when that was still a thing. However in 2022 he moved to the Waikato to play for Melville United in search of more regular first team footy and that turned out to be a pretty shrewd move as he top scored for the club in Northern League footy with 14 bangers, then added six more in the National League. In between he was tied top scorer (with Kian Donkers) for the NZ U19s as they won the Oceania champs. Fella even made my National League Second XI...
That yarn about him being the ‘Next Chris Wood’... I don’t buy that at all other than the fact that he made his name playing in the Waikato region. Colloty is strong and tall but he’s not in the same weight class as the Woodsman – not even at comparable ages.
What he has instead is a naturally good first touch and a bit of slipperiness both in his movement and his dribbling. Yes, he’ll play well with his back to goal... but rather than laying the ball off he’s more likely to turn his man and get a shot away. He’s also, of course, an excellent finisher with great striker’s instincts. At least that was the impression I got of him over the National League.
Colloty was one of two high level U20s within that Melville team, the other being midfield playmaker/set piece extraordinaire Josh Galletly... who at the end of the National League season (one week before the end, actually) hopped on a plane for a trial with the Melbourne City academy. Haven’t heard any more about that since but that’s the two best young players at Melville both getting pro trials overseas, one in England and one in Australia. Someone at that club’s got the hook-ups, clearly.
A random thought about the Wellington Phoenix fellas: as I was researching for the article I wrote about their win over Sydney I noticed the pass map from that game…
That pic kinda sums up why Josh Laws had been starting ahead of Tim Payne as the left-sided CB. Payne (#6) had no dramas shifting the ball back infield to Scott Wootton (#4) and was decent enough at finding his two midfielders... but that very skinny line towards Lucas Mauragis at left-back (#12) isn’t ideal.
The idea is that a left-footer can receive the ball with their body open and the whole field open to their vision, whereas a right-footer at LCB will often turn back inwards to receive the ball thus cutting down their options and halting the team’s build-up play. There was one moment in that game where Payne gave Mauragis a serve for not getting back to show for him in time so it’s not all on Payne, who has usually performed his CB duties on the other side so he’s adjusting his habits as he goes along. But this was the thing that had Josh Laws starting the season in that position.
At least until they kept conceding dumb goals and Talay had to change something. Laws may be better in possession (although Tim Payne has a killer long ball which we’ve not seen heaps of lately) but Payne is the superior defender. He’s better in the air and in the challenge and it got to the point where that was far more important to the team, hence the switch.
The toughest thing to do in Test cricket is win away from home. The Blackcaps had chances to win both matches in Pakistan, had they been able to break a couple fifth day partnerships earlier then they probably would have. Or if the light lasted a bit longer in those Karachi evenings - although I will say that Southee’s all-in attacking fields were a major risk and had already leaked half the remaining runs required in that final partnership. Then again, if it hadn’t been so dark that he was forced to bowl spin from both ends then Southee would have wrapped that thing up himself with a second over with the new ball. Ah well, so it goes.
Anyway, a few performances during that series had me thinking about home/away disparities, so here are some quickly patched together home/away disparities for the current squad, starting with the batters…
Pretty much everybody is going to have a better home average than away average because of course you’re gonna take more wickets/score more runs in your most familiar conditions. That’s normal. The key is in not having too big of a difference between the two.
Kane Williamson’s batting numbers there are a perfect example of a world class player being able to deliver in all conditions. Henry Nicholls on the other hand... yeah nah. Brilliant in Aotearoa, yet to really do much away. The one hundred there came in the UAE the last time the ‘Caps toured to face Pakistan in what was technically a neutral venue. Now for the bowlers…
Small sample sizes are also a factor for some of these guys. Michael Bracewell is yet to play a home Test... and not sure how often he will given that it was his spinning ability that got him all his selections and we don’t tend to pick any spinners at home. For good reason when you look at what Sodhi and Patel have gotten up to in NZ, albeit also in very sparse opportunities. Meanwhile their away numbers are genuinely excellent, particularly Patel (although Sodhi’s stats are skewed by playing Test cricket very early – he proved in Pakistan that he’s a far better bowler now than he was seven or eight years ago).
Not loving the look of Matt Henry’s figures there either. All the pace bowlers drop off when they’re not bowling on the lovely lush green seamers of Aotearoa, to be expected, but they all still keep it in the bounds of quality. Less so Henry, who is likely to play a lot more away Tests in the coming years due to Boult’s status. Henry did get a crucial wicket in that last innings of the second Test when he bowled Agha Salman... though that was his only wicket in 21 overs that innings.
These are Henry’s numbers by nation...
in Australia: 4 wickets at 76.40 average (86 overs)
in England: 16 wickets at 40.56 average (166.1 overs)
in India: 6 wickets at 42.33 average (82 overs)
in New Zealand: 27 wickets at 34.22 average (232 overs)
in Pakistan: 2 wickets at 63.50 average (49 overs)
Weird thing there is he’s taken 27 wickets at home and 28 wickets away playing nine Tests of each (also buzzy to think he’s only played 18 Test matches). But his average rises significantly largely because his RPO rises significantly from 2.86 to 3.48. His strike-rate says he only needs an extra 10 deliveries per wicket but those 10 deliveries are a lot more expensive. It does all look a lot better if you take two separate matches (one in 2015, one in 2020) in Australia out of the equation, to be fair.