As I
write in mid-November (roughly the equivalent of mid-May in England),
three-quarters of Wellington’s home programme in the Plunket Shield has been
completed. The New Zealand domestic schedule is a warning to England as to what
may be to come if resistance from county cricket’s defenders is less than
staunch.
I
could not get to the Basin for any of the opener against Otago, an eight-wicket
win for Wellington, but was there on the first and fourth days of a memorable
contest between Wellington and Canterbury: Conway’s match.
Wellington
v Canterbury, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 29 October – 1 November 2019
Devon
Conway scored more runs here than anyone has done before in one match in New
Zealand. He followed an unbeaten 327 in the first innings with 66 in the second
to top Bert Sutcliffe’s single-innings 385 for Otago against Canterbury in
1952–3. His 53 boundaries were the most hit by a New Zealander (including
aspiring New Zealanders). It was the highest individual score that I have ever watched,
though I saw only (only!) the 261 he made on the first day. Conway—an immigrant
from South Africa—qualifies for New Zealand in October 2020, so it would be
well worth a county making him an offer for next season.
At 20
for three in the twelfth over, such profligate scoring appeared impossible
after Wellington had been put in by Canterbury, but this was not an archetypal
first-day Basin pitch. All three wickets were down to good bowling. Left-armer
Nuttall swung one into Fletcher to have him leg-before, then Matt Henry, in
Kent form, combined accuracy, movement with a little lift to account for Colson
and Bracewell. However, even at this early stage very few deliveries beat the
bat, particularly when Conway was holding it.
Tom
Blundell joined Conway to put on 34 for the fourth wicket before being given
leg-before to Williams. Blundell could not have advertised more widely his view
that the ball had hit the inside edge had he taken a full page in the Dominion
Post. He stared at the raised finger with the expression of a Pope whose
infallibility is questioned. All the way back to the rooms his head shook from
side to side as he examined the offending strip of wood. Had he widened the
scope of this inquiry it would have revealed that the bat also had a middle,
which, appropriately deployed, would have saved him a lot of trouble.
The
umpire involved, Garth Stirrat, has been outed in as a retired porn star, so
I’ll leave a space here for the reader to insert their own witticism.
One
of the characteristics of a class batsman that Conway has is that watching him
gives no inkling that the team may be in trouble, or that batting is anything
other than the breeziest of activities. As we were to see, he has shots around
the ground, but his go-to area is behind square on the offside. So productive
was he in this area that Cole McConchie committed a heresy against the creed of
modern captaincy by stationing a third man before lunch on the first day, and
followed it with a second a few balls later. Conway reached his 50—out of a
total of 72— with the first false shot he played, an edge over the slips.
The
Canterbury bowling in the early part of the innings was exemplary, with Henry
conceding only 11 off nine overs and Will Williams—a tall right-arm seamer with
a bouncy approach—12 off eight. The rest of the Canterbury attack could not
maintain the pressure. Left-armer Andrew Hazeldine was sufficiently pacey to
have Malcolm Nofal caught at mid on when attempting a pull, but was profligate
to the extent of reaching his bowler’s century in his eleventh over, as quickly
as I have seen it done. Conway is so adept at telling the good ball from the
almost-but-not-quite good ball and steered what he got from Hazeldine through
the gaps like a pilot in a busy waterway. He reached his hundred with another
rare mishit, a top-edged pull that fell just out of reach of the diving keeper,
Fletcher.
Peter
Younghusband joined Conway for the sixth-wicket partnership and took the role
of defensive support seriously as may be judged by the fact that he did not
contribute to the first 33 runs they put on, and was on only 14 when the
century partnership was achieved.
There
were no nervous 190s for Conway; a four followed at once by a six over deep
mid-wicket saw to that. He reached 200 before the team had passed 300, which
can’t have happened often.
Those
two boundaries came off Todd Astle, who had been held back until Conway was
well-established, which suggested a lack of confidence in a bowler who is a
semi-regular member of the test squad, but asking a leg spinner to bowl in New
Zealand in October is like bringing a bear out of hibernation a couple of
months early, to forage with the snow still on the ground.
Younghusband’s
blockade was breached by a fine catch by Tom Latham at second slip. He was
replaced by Jamie Gibson, who took the opposite approach, striking out from the
start. They were both right, in their contrasting ways. By the time Gibson came
in, Conway had been batting for most of the day and was happy to let his
partner man the guns.
The
Canterbury attack operated like two economies, one managed by Margaret
Thatcher, the other by Robert Mugabe. Henry and, especially, Williams (one for 52
from 28 overs) held fast against the inflation of batsmen’s scores, while the
other bowlers printed runs.
In my
absence on the second and third days, Conway reached his triple century and
Wellington declared on 525 for seven an hour or so before lunch. Tom Latham then
scored his traditional Wellington double hundred (one in the test
match against Sri Lanka late last year and one
in the Plunket at Karori in 2013). Nobody else reached 50 for
Canterbury, who declared nine down 110 behind.
To
what Bismarck said of sausages and laws, add the accumulation of runs needed
for an agreed target: it is better not to see them being made. I was glad to
have missed the first hour or so of the final morning when the formalities
necessary for Wellington to set Canterbury 358 were completed.
That
many runs in a day less half an hour is tough even on a pitch that appeared truer
than George Washington. But by the time I arrived late in the morning session, pessimism
had already set in among the Wellington faithful, in whose company Eeyore would
appear a cock-eyed optimist. Canterbury were 80 for one, with one of the
world’s top-ten ranked test batsmen (Latham) in and another (Nicholls) to
follow.
However,
Bowes, who had opened with 40 from 27 deliveries, had already departed and
three more followed in the short time before lunch. Stephen Murdoch was out lbw
making room to cut a ball from slow left-armer Nofal that was quicker than he
thought. The decision looked dubious, though Murdoch was well back in the
crease. The scorecard has links to video of all dismissals, so readers can make
up their own minds.
The
day took a significant turn in Wellington’s direction in the following over
when Latham was caught at second slip, driving loosely at van Beek.
The
third to fall was McConchie who, mind straying to the impending ham salad,
swept the last ball before lunch to be caught at short fine leg. The bowler was
again Nofal, who once more put a little extra speed on the ball. Canterbury’s
target at the start of the afternoon was 239 with six wickets and a minimum of
62 overs left.
Nofal
has taken 15 wickets in the Plunket Shield so far this year, more than anyone
except Neil Wagner, so has moved onwards and upwards from the “golden arm”
category. Wellington captain Michael Bracewell, however, with three wickets in
78 first-class games, only aspires to that description. But he did get one to
turn to Henry Nicholls, who knocked it cross-batted it to mid off. Only the
bowler was more surprised than the batsman.
Now
Wellington were ahead and expected to win, particularly as Canterbury had a
longish tail. There was a time when a team in Canterbury’s situation would have
abandoned hopes of victory and set about digging trenches, but the modern
cricketer just runs quicker towards the machine guns. This is no criticism.
Here, with two or three more lucky breaks, it would have won Canterbury the
match, and it was good to watch.
Todd
Astle hit 33 from 15 deliveries, including two splendid straight-driven sixes. On
only four, Cam Fletcher hit a Rohan Kanhai-style fall-over hooked six off
McPeake. Matt Henry struck three sixes as he made 43 from 40, before falling to
an excellent catch by Bracewell, low to his left, which is not where a first
slip expects to take a catch from a right-handed batsman. Fletcher followed
soon after leaving Canterbury with 126 to get with only two wickets left.
Canterbury
continued to press on, if a trifle more cautiously than before. Williams and
Hazeldine restored Wellington’s anxietyometer to the high levels to which we
are accustomed with a ninth-wicket stand of 64 before Hazeldine off drove
straight to van Beek at mid off. Still they hit out; the game ended when
Nuttall was caught at long on to give Nofal his fourth wicket. Wellington won a
splendid game of cricket by 44 runs.
Wellington
v Auckland, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 8 – 9 November 2019
The following
week we were back at the Basin for the visit of Auckland. I arrived soon after
lunch on the first day to discover that I had missed Wellington’s first
innings, bowled out for 91 having been put in. Lockie Ferguson took four for
23. After his performances in the World Cup, readers will know that Ferguson is
capable of bowling as fast as anybody, but now with added accuracy. He had been
withdrawn from the T20 series against England to play here in preparation for a
summer of test cricket.
Soon
after I took my seat Auckland’s reply was interrupted by the rain, and there
you have the story of the rest of match. There were only 26 more overs that day,
and 57 in total in the next. As had been forecast, the third and fourth days
were washed away completely, so from the outset this was a game played for the
small stakes of bonus points. No point then in recounting events in any detail,
save to introduce readers who do not follow domestic cricket in New Zealand
with the name of Ben Sears.
Sears
is a local 21-year-old all-rounder less than a year into his first-class
career. He took six for 43, three of them in the two overs he was able to bowl on
the second morning before the rain fell. He bowls right arm on the brisk side
of medium with a high action. Test opener Jeet Ravel was bowled by a ball that
swung in, and was quick enough to hurry Horne into a head-protecting edge.
Wellington
finish the first half of the Plunket Shield season with a comfortable lead of
15 points. Whether anybody remembers that when the competition resumes in late
February remains to be seen.
I
will next report from Hamilton, where I’m heading at the end of the week for
the first three days of the test match.
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