Circumstances have proscribed my cricket watching quite severely so far
this season. I missed the first two Plunket Shield matches at the Basin for the
best of reasons: we were in Canada with our new grandson (it was also a much
better timezone for watching the World Cup). My sporting spectating was
restricted to an NHL game between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres, a
cacophonous experience that was the precise opposite of first-class cricket at
the Basin Reserve.
Between Christmas and
the New Year I had scheduled two days at the most beautiful ground I know,
Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, but Covid caught up with me and my wife at last,
so my cricket watching in the 2023/24 season thus far has consisted of three domestic
T20 double-headers at the Basin Reserve.
The first of these,
just before Christmas, saw comfortable wins by both the men and women over
Otago. The highlight of the day was 139 by 21-year-old Wellington opener Tim
Robinson, the second highest score in New Zealand T20. Robinson has shown
flashes of great promise, but this was the first time it all came together. For
strokemaking, it evoked Martin Guptill at his best. Like Guptill in his World
Cup quarter-final double hundred, Robinson was dropped before he had scored,
but did not let it worry him. With Rachin Ravindra and Mohammad Abbas, Robinson
comprises a batting trio that could produce sackloads of runs for Wellington
and New Zealand over the next 15 years (and for franchise teams too numerous to
mention, I suppose).
On Saturday 13
January, Wellington’s double-header opponents were Central Districts. It was a
day that produced more excitement, statistical landmarks and memories than you
might reasonably expect in a season, or two—
- The
second-best bowling performance in New Zealand women’s T20 cricket
- A
spectacular opposition collapse, which is always fun
- A
tie
- The
best catch I have ever seen
- The
most expensive over I have ever seen.
Wellington
Blaze v Central Hinds
Despite their
dominance of the competition, the Blaze have sometimes fallen short when
batting first, usually to be rescued by the bowlers in general and Melie Kerr
in particular. Against Central Districts, 82 for two from 15 overs turned into
109 for seven off 20.
Central were cruising
at 89 for three with five overs left. Perhaps it was disbelief at being on the
brink of overturning the mighty Blaze, or maybe it was simply the sheer quality
of Melie Kerr, but they collapsed as if Liz Truss was suddenly in charge: six
wickets for nine runs. It might be added that a couple of the decisions looked
dubious on the replay (there is no right of referral in domestic games, though
umpires can check some things, as they did later with the catch of the
century).
Kerr took five for
13. It would have been the best ever performance in women’s domestic T20
cricket, had it not been for her five for ten against Canterbury the previous
week. She is the leading wicket taker in the competition this season, and, with
four fifties, the second best runscorer after Suzie Bates. It could be that the
Blaze are over-reliant on her; here she was out for 26. They miss Maddy Green,
who has returned to Auckland, and Sophie Devine, who is not playing in this
tournament.
The ninth wicket fell
from the first ball of the 19th over, bowled by Xara Jetly, who celebrated with
a double cartwheel. Twelve were needed from 11 balls. In came No 11 Claudia
Green, none of whose previous 23 innings in this format had resulted in a double-figure
score.
From the first ball
she faced, Green was almost caught at backward point, and almost run out as she
hurtled half way down the pitch and back again.
At which point Green
discovered her inner Wallter Hammond. She danced down the pitch to Jetly’s next
delivery, turning it into a half volley and driving it to the cover boundary.
Down she came to the next ball, driving sweetly to long on for a single. From
the non-striker’s end Green—the same Green who had reacted to the first ball of
the over in the manner of Lance Corporal Jones—now called her partner for a
sharp single when the keeper fumbled a legside wide as if there was ice in her
veins. The transformation in the space of a minute from a player who couldn’t
get away from the strike fast enough to one who demanded it was astonishing.
Down the pitch she
danced again, hitting a full toss to the straight boundary to level the scores.
The normal rules that
control the cricketing universe, having popped out for a moment, now returned
and hurried to wipe up the mess. Green charged again, but this time was bowled
and the game was tied.
There was no super
over. We don’t like them because of…you know.
Wellington
Firebirds v Central Stags
What is the best
catch you have ever seen? If pressed, I have always gone for Alan Ealham to
dismiss Nirmal Nanan of Nottinghamshire in the Sunday League at Canterbury in
1973. The Times thought it worth the headline on its summary of the
day’s games: Ealham’s catch keeps Kent at the top:
Nanan fell to a wonderful catch by
Ealham, who ran nearly 20 yards round the long-on boundary to dive and take the
ball low down, tumbling over and over.
Ealham was stationed
near the lime tree and ran towards the sightscreen at the Nackington Road End.
I’ll bet that he was also responsible for at least one of the run outs on the
Nottinghamshire card that day.
More recent
contenders took their catches at the Basin Reserve, which is not surprising,
given that is where I have watched the great majority of my cricket for the
past 20 years, an era in which fielding standards have reached new heights.
There was Kane Williamson’s three grasps to dismiss Angelo Mathews in 2015 that
became ESPN’s worldwide play of the day. Trent Boult’s gymnastic removals of
Ramdin and Rahane in 2014 and 2015. Also Logan van Beek’s successive pieces of
invisible tightrope walking to defy the boundary rope in the 2020 T20 final.
Against Central
Districts, Troy Johnson pulled off a catch that was better than any of them,
the best I have seen. I was in the RA Vance Stand, right above where the catch
was taken, a perfect view. In the video you see the
full-length dive to take the ball coming down over the shoulder and the
contortion necessary to avoid the rope, during which the ball was successfully
delivered to Nick Kelly (who is therefore credited with the catch). What you
don’t see is where Johnson started from—a few metres inside the circle—how much
ground he had to make to reach the ball, and the fast pace at which he was
moving towards the boundary rope. From the stand, there appeared to be no
chance that he would get there until he did. Neither does it show how strong
the wind was, more than enough to introduce an element of randomness into the
flight of the ball as it fell. It was magnificent.
When Logan van Beek
came on for the 17th over, Central Districts required 33 with six wickets left
to pass Wellington’s below par 147 for eight. They were ahead, but it was still
a contest.
No 18th over was
needed. All 33 came off van Beek. I am pretty sure that I have not seen as many
runs off one over before, the benchmark being 31 from Graham McKenzie’s
disastrous 14-ball
over in the Sunday League in 1971.
Van Beek’s was a mere
eight deliveries, starting with a legside wide that went through to the
boundary. The first legal delivery was a single to deep square leg, followed by
another to deep mid-wicket. Continuing the short-ball strategy, van Beek got a
next one wrong and it was called as a high wide. So far there had been eight
from the over, with four to bowl.
The next was a
slower, fuller ball that Doug Bracewell sent bouncing off the toilet block into
the traffic around the Basin. In the time it took to bring out a replacement
ball the umpires agreed that Wellington had had too many fielders outside the
circle, and called no ball. Bracewell duly dispatched the free hit over the
sightscreen. Another wait for a ball.
The remaining 12
required were an administrative detail that Bracewell addressed efficiently
with two legside sixes.
This was the same
Logan van Beek who had hit 30 off Jason Holder in a World Cup qualifier super
over a few months ago. As far as I can tell, van Beek is the first to score,
and be hit for, 30 or more in an over across first-class, List A and the T20
equivalent.
All this was
available free-to-air on TVNZ. New Zealand Cricket finds itself in the enviable
position of having pay TV revenue and free-to-air exposure. In 2020 Spark (New
Zealand’s leading telecommunications company) bought the rights to cricket in
New Zealand for six years. However, the company was unable to obtain sufficient
rights across sports, particularly for winter codes, to make its streaming
sports service profitable, and pulled the plug in mid June 2023. Its cricket
rights were divested to its free-to-air partner TVNZ, though Spark continues to
pick up most of the tab.
There is a black
lining to this silver cloud. TVNZ could never hope to make a serious bid when
the cricket next becomes available, which will leave New Zealand’s Sky TV as
the sole bidder, unless there is an unexpected development in our small market.
Sky has used this position ruthlessly of late; its recent bid for renewal of
the rights to netball (a significant sport in the pay TV market here) was for
about half the amount it paid for the current contract.
My third day at the
cricket had more disappointment for the men, who collapsed to 27 for six before
partially recovering to 102 all out, a total that gave no trouble to
bottom-of-the-table Northern Districts. The successive defeats cost Wellington
automatic qualification to the final and the hosting rights that go with
it.
A seamless unbeaten
73 from Melie Kerr took the women to an easy win. They win the group and go
through to the final, which will be played at Eden Park, Auckland, home of the
men’s group winners.
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