Wellington
v Canterbury, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 19—22
October 2020
Wellington
v Otago, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 5—8 November 2020
Wellington
v Auckland, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 14—17 November 2020
“I’m off to the cricket.”
There’s a phrase to quicken
the pulse of the cricket enthusiast, especially when uttered for the first time
in a new season. This time, it comes with a new sense of privilege and
responsibility, for New Zealand is presently the only place in the world where
fans can freely watch their first-class team on their home ground.
As I have walked through the
gates of the Basin Reserve these last few weeks I have had a sense of being at
the cricket on behalf of those who can’t be, particularly those who blog on
going to the cricket in the UK, on whom I have come to rely for a vicarious
experience of county cricket, but who are, for now, excluded from it themselves.
I’m lucky. Covid-19 hasn’t cost me a day’s spectating, save for what I might
have seen had a planned visit to the UK gone ahead.
Traditionally, the season
opens at the Basin Reserve to the sound of jack hammers and buzzsaws, but the
renovation of the Museum Stand, or Old Pavilion as it is now called, is
complete, and a great adornment it is. We look forward to an updated New
Zealand Cricket Museum being opened in the New Year, and, I hope, the return of
the second-hand bookstall.
My first cricket of the new
season was a brief after-work visit to the third day of the opening Plunket
Shield fixture, with Canterbury the visitors. Photos of the first-day
pitch attracted a good deal of attention on social media due
to its being greener than David Attenborough. Wellington were duly skittled for
65.
The rest of the game
consisted of expanding totals as the pitch made its journey from spring to
early summer. My visit coincided with the end of Wellington’s second innings. Devon
Conway was batting. Wellington are making the most of Conway while they can.
Top scorer nationally in all three forms of domestic cricket last season, he
qualified for New Zealand in August, and was in the national squad for the T20s
against the West Indies. Here, he was top scorer in both innings, not enough to
prevent a seven-wicket win for Canterbury.
Conway, and the other
international players apart from those in the IPL, were available for their
provinces for the first half of the Plunket Shield, in theory at least. But
while we are free of Covid-19 in New Zealand another plague is rampant, that of
the “slight strain”, to which these internationals appear especially
vulnerable, and which keeps them in social isolation away from dressing rooms.
The uneven structure of the
New Zealand domestic programme sent the two teams to Christchurch the following
week for the return fixture. Canterbury won even more easily, the prospect of
Wellington retaining the Plunket Shield heading for the hills with summer not
yet begun.
Otago were the visitors for
the next match, at the Basin. This was a rare opportunity to see a first-class
game in its entirety (or so I thought). The pitch wasn’t quite as green as that
against Canterbury, but neither is the Amazon Rain Forest, so Michael Bracewell
still put Otago in upon winning the toss.
Wellington’s customary breeze
was unusually warm, and offered the prospect of swing, which may have had a
hand in the first wicket of the match, Kitchen playing on to a Newton delivery
that came back at him.
With four right-arm seamers,
Bracewell, as Trevor Bailey used to say about England in the 80s, could change
the bowler, but not the bowling. Hamish Bennett has led the Wellington attack
with distinction for the past few years, and in any other era but the pace-rich
current one, would have been in the test team. He has yet to hit the rhythm of
the recent past, and struggled for luck as well as form, having Hawkins dropped
at second slip. The good fortune was monopolised by Sears, who got Hawkins in
his first over, caught behind heaving at a wide ball.
The best batting of the
innings came from Dale Phillips, who scored a maiden first-class fifty at a run
a ball. I enjoyed his fluent driving through the offside, and so did the
Wellington bowlers, judging from the opportunities they kept giving him to repeat
the shot.
Phillips was joined by
Hamish Rutherford, well-known in county circles. I saw him make a debut test
century against England in Dunedin seven years ago, but he has become stuck in
the cricket netherland populated by batsmen who look better than almost anybody
in the domestic game, but who are not able to turn that into consistent runs at
the higher level (for an English equivalent see Vince J).
Phillips slowed after
passing fifty and was dismissed by the ball of the day from Ollie Newton, one
that veered in from well outside off to knock out the off stump. A lunch score
of 118 for three was indicative of an enterprising and entertaining morning.
The pace slowed in the
afternoon as Wellington’s bowlers became more thoughtful and accurate.
Rutherford and Kelly put on 56 for the fourth wicket after which the Otago
innings subsided. They were all out for 265 in the 81st over. Sears
and Newton both took four wickets.
With 13 overs to face at the
day’s end, the priority for Blundell and Ravindra was survival, something they
looked like achieving comfortably until the penultimate scheduled delivery,
bowled by left-arm wrist spinner Rippon. It was as bad a ball as had been seen
all day, a long hop well wide of leg stump. Ravindra could not resist, and set
about despatching it down the Mt Victoria Tunnel. Travis Muller, at deep square
leg, had assumed that his participation would not be further required and was
slow to react to the unexpected approach of the ball at this late stage, but remained
sufficiently composed to take the catch. Ravindra’s return to the rooms was
funereal; he may have hoped that it would be empty and locked by the time he
got there.
The weather on the second
day came at us straight from Antarctica vis the southerly, so this account of
it is as seen from the Long Room. Conway was not exposed to the cold for long:
he played on to a short ball from Jacob Duffy, the pace of which was more than
the batsman expected. Like Bennett, Duffy would have got international
recognition in any other time.
These days, the dismissal of
Conway has the effect on the Wellington batting similar to that of kicking away
an old man’s stick. Collapse follows inevitably. Duffy had Blundell caught at
second slip a run later, and Bracewell’s 37 was the only significant
resistance; soon enough, Wellington were 144 for nine.
Sears and Bennett put on 61
for the tenth wicket, the biggest partnership of the innings. In the
circumstances it would be intemperate to express disappointment with this
admirable effort, but for me last-wicket stands should be the occasion of yahoo
and mayhem, of clown shoes and custard pies. This was nothing but dogged common
sense: Sears 41 from 154 balls, Bennett 20 from 106. No slapstick there.
The same could not be said
of Otago keeper Mitch Renwick, who contributed 23 byes to Wellington’s 204.
Though they weren’t all down to him, Renwick’s performance with the gloves was
as lamentable as I have seen for a long time.
Otago lost Kitchen, who was
bowled by Newton off the inside edge, and finished the day 91 ahead with nine
wickets standing.
The wind had returned to the
north-west for day three, a direction from which the RA Vance Stand affords
ample protection, but it was the day four weather that was causing more
concern: the forecast was apocalyptic and suggested that cricket would take
second place to civil defence.
The morning confirmed that
Dale Phillips is a batsman with prospects. He made a second fifty, but off 124
balls this time, so he has patience as well as shots. Rutherford also made a
second, assured half century.
It became clear immediately
after the luncheon interval that there had been meteorologically inspired
negotiations over the ham salad. First Ravindra and Bracewell, then the rarely
seen spin of Tom Blundell, tossed up some hittable stuff with the field up.
Batsman Finn Allan joined in to claim Rutherford as a maiden first-class
wicket, all the more notable for being the only lbw given in the whole game.
The agreed target turned out
to be 279, eminently reachable in a day and a half, not so much if there was no
play on the fourth day. If made, it would be the highest score in any of the
eight innings played at the Basin so far this season.
At first, it seemed that
Rutherford had been generous. Blundell looked terrific, driving and pulling
fours with equal alacrity. He was a last-man-standing pick as test opener at
Melbourne at the end of last year, but made a century in the second innings.
Here, he looked every bit a test opener.
Ravindra also looked at
ease, in a more defensive manner until he was bowled by a very good ball from
Muller from round the wicket that left him just enough to hit off stump.
Conway batted as if the
target was a pittance. His first four scoring shots were all fours, three
driven and one off the edge. Such is Conway’s talent that he has the game for
all circumstances. Here, it was front foot and drives. The following week, back
foot, cuts and pulls. But those four shots were all there was; Duffy threw
himself to his right following through to take a spectacular caught-and-bowled
to dismiss him.
That was pretty much it for
Wellington’s winning aspirations. Bracewell went two runs later, and though
Blundell and Allen put on 58, the pace slowed and it was clear that Wellington
would not beat the weather. Four wickets fell for 15 and Wellington finished
the day on 185 for seven, though there was just time for Blundell to reach his
hundred.
The fourth morning dawned as
predicted, lacking only King Lear to egg it on. For most of my cricket watching
years, that would have been it, play called off first thing, all done. But
cricket grounds now dry out like a polyester shirt, and with Otago potentially
needing only a few overs to win the game a start later was not out of the
question. Scorecards Towers is about 20 minutes from the Basin on a Sunday, so
I had decided to get there if it did start. For one thing, it is some time
since I have seen the whole of a domestic first-class game, for another you
never know what you might miss if you don’t go. A hattrick maybe, or a
surprising finish. I kept checking Twitter for an update from Wellington
Cricket. None came. Instead the live scoring suddenly fired back into life with
the news that play had restarted and that Blundell was out. How was he out?
Obstructing the field.
Just the 32nd instance of
this dismissal in the history of first-class cricket (using the figures in Wisden;
CricInfo says 26th but misses several recent instances that Wisden
lists), and only the second in New Zealand (the first being JA Hayes of
Canterbury against Central Districts in 1954-5). There is a coda to this. At
any time in the game’s history before 2017, it would have been handled the
ball, but, for reasons that are unclear, this form of dismissal was then subsumed
into obstructing the field, a description that suggests a physical altercation,
rather than the batsman merely tapping the ball away from the stumps with the
glove, as happened in this case. There were 63 incidences of handled the ball,
rare enough to satisfy my curiosity for the extraordinary. According to
reports, Blundell was the first to be recorded as out obstructing the field
rather than handled the ball.
Anyway, (and this is the
salient point) I was not there and will have added to my headstone, after “He
never saw an opener carry their bat”, “or any of the game’s more esoteric
dismissals, come to that”. Of course, I need to get a grip and realise that
cricket watchers the world over will envy anybody who sees the most mundane lbw
or caught-and-bowled in 2020.
Two more wickets quickly
followed Blundell’s to complete an 84-run win for Otago, Wellington’s third
defeat in a row.
Changes were therefore
inevitable for the following weekend when Auckland were the visitors. Fraser
Colson came in for Finn Allen in the
middle order, a seaming all-rounder (Sears) was replaced by a spinning
all-rounder (Younghusband) and Michael Snedden (son of Martin) replaced Hamish
Bennett, about whom there was talk of “workload issues”, which may have been a
way of avoiding the d-word. Snedden provided continuity in the habit of falling
over in the delivery stride, just as Bennett does.
The pitch was a lighter,
more benevolent, Varadkar green than the militant De Valera shade of the
earlier games, but with Kyle Jamieson in the opposition, Michael Bracewell did
not hesitate to put Auckland in on winning the toss. Both openers went in the
first three overs, Beghin lbw to McPeake playing across the line, and Solia edging
a full delivery to the keeper.
Phillips then made a half
century, the third time that has been so at the Basin this season. However,
this was not Dale, who had so impressed for Otago, but his older brother Glenn,
who we came across when he was rushed to Sydney for the test match in January.
This innings was in the manner of Dale’s aggressive first-innings knock rather
than the more circumspect second. It included five sixes, four pulled and one
edged.
The first two wickets fell
to accurate, good or full-length deliveries, an approach that Wellington would
have done well to continue, rather than feeding Phillips short stuff. McPeake’s
self-image was bowling 15 kph faster than he was. It was to a good length ball
on off stump that Phillips fell, caught behind off Snedden.
At the other end, the
bowling to left-hander Mark Chapman was fuller, but no straighter. He reached
fifty from 72 balls, with 80% of his runs coming from boundaries, mostly
through the offside. With a first-class average above 40 and a list A average
above 50, Chapman should add to his shorter-form caps soon, though he will have
to deal with bowling less imbued with the early generosity of Christmas if he
does.
Martin Guptill replaced
Phillips. The prospect of watching Guptill bat is always a treat, though like
Mark Ramprakash there is a massive discordance between how good he looks and
his test stats. Soon there was a straight-driven four that made a sound off the
bat as sweet as a hummingbird uncorking champagne. But Newton, showing the
value of line and length, got him with a fine ball that bounced a fraction more
than expected. O’Donnell chased a wider ball from Snedden to leave Auckland at
134 for five.
Wicketkeeper Ben Horne was
next in. He has the most distinctive ritual while waiting for the bowler to
bowl that I have seen for some time. He begins by banging the bat really hard
on the ground. I thought that a 21-gun salute was under way at the National War
Memorial just down the road. Once the bowler approaches, the bat is raised to
shoulder height and waved manically, as if conducting an invisible orchestra in
the covers. It worked well enough here; Horne made 57, the recovery built
around him.
On 90, Chapman hit the shot
of the day, a square cut that left McPeake on the boundary with no chance
despite having only five metres to cover. Chapman was out in the following
over, five short of a deserved century when he was caught at slip off Gibson
while deciding whether to play or leave. Gibson did a decent job into the brisk
north-westerly, which he needs to be careful about; you don’t want to get a
reputation as an into-the-wind bowler at the Basin if you have aspirations
towards old age.
Kyle Jamieson has a
wonderfully straightforward approach to batting: play well back to anything
short of a length, well forward to the rest, and be aggressive except when you really
can’t be. He beat Horne to fifty despite coming in 13 overs later. They put on
85 for the seventh wicket. McPeake took three quick wickets to finish the
innings at 279.
Wellington had seven overs
to bat at the end of the day, always a nervous time, especially for Rachin
Ravindra, who had given it away so memorably in these circumstances the week
before. Today it was Blundell who did not make it to the close. He misjudged a
short one from Jamieson and shovelled a catch to mid on.
The second day began in
perfect conditions, with a clear blue sky. A photo of the ground at the start
of play was liked and retweeted more than anything else that I have posted. It
was one of those timeless days where you could close your eyes to the sound of
bat on ball and be at Folkestone in the 70s, Mote Park in the 80s, Bath Rec in
the 90s or your favourite ground whenever.
Only one wicket fell all day,
that of Ravindra, driving a little loosely at Jamieson to be caught in the
gully for 23. Ravindra has to avoid the reputation as a maker of elegant
trifles (see Vince J).
For the rest of the day,
Conway and Bracewell worked their way towards a third-wicket partnership of
287. Conway is patient, waiting for the ball does not have to be bad, just not
quite angelic. Here, scoring square of both sides of the wicket dominated,
though there were shots down the ground too, notably the six over long on with
which Conway reached his century.
Worst moment of Auckland’s
day was just before lunch when Conway fell for the trap that had been set all
morning and hit a catch off Jamieson to deep square leg where a routine catch
was put down.
Bracewell, who is quite
capable of playing aggressively, sensibly played the supporting role here. His
century was his first for Wellington in first-class cricket (he made seven for
Otago), and helped suppress a growing reputation as a non-converter of fifties.
That Wellington did not run
away with the day as it went on was thanks to a sluggish pitch and disciplined
bowling. We have not seen one of these, hard-to-get-out-but-hard-to-score-on
pitches at the Basin for a while, and let’s hope that we have a long wait for
the next one.
Off spinner Will Somerville
came on for the 26th over and bowled through until the new ball was taken. He
gave Auckland control without looking like taking a wicket (he took two the
following day). His admirable performance made me miss Jeetan Patel, who did
the same job for the home team for the best part of two decades. Did anybody
else feel the same? Probably not. Patel never got the recognition in his home
town that that he has in Birmingham, where they hold him in reverence.
Wellington have not replaced him. Here, Bracewell—12 wickets in a decade—was
Wellington’s lead spinner (though for several overs the scoreboard told us he
was Blundell). Younghusband bowled just one over.
The day was enlivened at
lunchtime by an outbreak of the Scarborough Festival. A brass band appeared and
treated us to a lunchtime concert, though, like the Wellington attack, it knew
only one tune (Can’t Take My Eyes Off You). It was to do with the
filming of a segment of the New Zealand version of Taskmaster.
Towards the end of the day
there was use of experimental law 2.8.4, which states:
If the umpires cannot find
any reason to suspend play under this law, they may still do so from time-to-time
purely for their own gratification.
The players left the field
for 20 minutes because of a problem with the run-up area just behind the crease
at the northern end. Compacted sand was said to be the issue. As is usual, the
first attempted remedy was that everybody with an official title of some kind
went out to the middle and stared very hard at the offending area. When that
didn’t work, the groundsman banged a heavy tool on the turf, which might have
been thought likely to intensify any compaction problem. But it did the trick
and the game continued. At the close, Conway was 149 and Bracewell 123.
I wasn’t there for the final
two days. Auckland were set 167 to avoid an innings defeat, which they managed
comfortably, Wellington having taken too much time in building the lead, but a
side that has lost three in a row may be forgiven for consolidating.
The Plunket Shield disappears
for three months now, like the British Raj heading for the hills to avoid the heat
of summer. Test cricket returns to the Basin next week, however, and I give
thanks that I will be there.