The Plunket Shield Returns: Declarations and Dropped Catches

Wellington v Northern Districts, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 21 ­– 24 March 2019

Scorecard

New Zealand’s domestic first-class season resumes at last. The first half was so long ago that I have a half-formed memory of Bert Sutcliffe and Dick Motz having played in it. With four of the eight games to go, Wellington are in fourth place, six points and two places behind visitors Northern Districts.

I wasn’t there for the first day, at the end of which Wellington were 367 for five. The pitch was, apparently, rain-forest green at the start but did little more than carry through at a perfect pace for the batsmen. Rachin Ravindra, on his first appearance in first-class cricket at the Basin, made 96 and Devon Conway was 146 not out overnight. Conway has now made 200 more runs than anybody else in the Plunket Shield this season, having been the leading run scorer in the domestic T20. From South Africa, Conway will qualify for New Zealand in 2020, and looks a shoe-in in all forms as things stand.

Earlier in the week, a three-day deluge had been forecast, so it was good to see the players taking the field as I arrived at the Basin at the scheduled start time. But it was only as I took my seat that I registered the presence of umpire Brent “Billy” Bowden, already well advanced in his rain-divination ritual. Sure enough, microscopic water droplets were coaxed out of the air, and the players were off the field before a ball had been bowled.

It did get a bit heavier, but only briefly, and hardly sufficient, it seemed to make much of a difference to the state of the outfield. Nevertheless, it was determined that play could not start until a hot-air blower had circled the ground a few times, and at some speed. This is the twenty-first century’s version of a rope being dragged around the ground, but less effective, one would have thought.

With Bowden satisfied that the outfield had been returned to as near a desert state as was possible in the circumstances, play began. But not for long. In the sixth over of the day Logan van Beek slapped a straight four that disappeared under the sightscreen. First one player disappeared behind the screen to retrieve the ball. Then another. Then another. Five players there in the end. They emerged in the manner of schoolboys from behind the bike sheds, but the ball was found—in a drainage channel, so it was soaking wet. Umpire Bowden retreated, at stately gait, to the dressing rooms, returning with a replacement. This was deemed unsuitable, so he repeated the excursion, this whole proceeding taking place at a speed that would have shamed a funeral. The next ball was bowled more than ten minutes after the last.

In between the interruptions, Conway completed his 150 and van Beek his 50. With maximum bonus points harvested, Wellington declared at 400, earlier than would usually have been the case because of the foreboding weather forecast.

Northern Districts captain Daniel Flynn inside edged to uproot his leg stump from Hamish Bennett’s second delivery, but that was only wicket for the rest of the truncated day. Cooper should have been a second, but was dropped by keeper Blundell, diving across Patel at first slip. There was some criticism from the cognoscenti about Blundell having taken the catch away from Patel, but the man with the gloves should always go for anything catchable. His mistake was not that he went for it, but that he dropped it, and it was to have critical consequences towards the end of the game.

Northern Districts were 78 for one at lunch, but the rain returned, diffidently but enough to finish play for the day, bar one brief return during which three were added to the total. So it was an afternoon of hanging about at the cricket waiting for something to happen, which is never disagreeable as long as I have a book and a coffee.

When we got to the ground for the third day, the scoreboard showed the Wellington were nought for nought, so, assuming that the North Koreans had retaken control of the information channels, we joked that ND must have declared. They had, 319 behind on first innings. I have seen many a declaration deal that was a consequence of the weather, but can’t recall one predicated on the forecast of rain, rather than actual wetness. The assumption, entirely correct as it turned out, was that there would be no fourth day. Nobody likes these negotiated finishes, but there are occasions when it is for the best and this was one of them.

Obviously, Wellington would score as many as needed to reach an agreed target, but this passage of play was different to what would normally be expected in this situation. The Northern Districts opening bowlers, Kuggeleijn and Baker, bowled with hostility at full pace, with plenty of short stuff. The Wellington batsmen sliced and swished, the runs coming rapidly as a result. No cognisance was taken of this in terms of the field settings or the approach of the bowlers. It was as if two games were taking place at the same time, each politely ignoring the other.

Wellington reached 53 for two in six overs in this manner before the declaration, leaving Northern Districts a target of 373 with 88 overs scheduled. However, this was the third, not the fourth, day, so the possibility of an extra eight overs if a result could be achieved had to be factored in. This would reduce the required scoring rate to under four an over, possibly generous on a pitch as friendly to batsmen as a labrador to a butcher.

Flynn went early and softly, guiding a legside delivery into the hands of Blundell. Seifert was dropped early at third slip by Nofal off the bowling of Newton, high to the left-handed fielder’s right. That chance apart, Seifert and Cooper reached lunch progressing at the required four an over and looking easy about it. Already the second gully and third slip had been relocated to more defensive positions.

Hamish Bennett began his second spell after the interval and a menacing line on off stump dismissed both batsmen to slip catches. At any other point in New Zealand’s cricket history, Bennett would be in or near the national team, but such is the depth of pace bowling here that he isn’t mentioned.

At the other end, Jeetan Patel called the batsmen to him and attached a leash to their collars, conceding just 17 from his first 12 overs. Dean Brownlie hit a series of attractive cover boundaries at the other end, but it may have been Patel’s control that induced him to play loosely at McPeake to be caught at third slip by Nofal.

Daryl Mitchell (to repeat, not the Worcestershire version) slipped Patel’s leash and went for a run in the park by hitting a six onto the top deck of the RA Vance Stand, happily missing the only spectator in any of its thousand or so seats at the time—your writer—by some way. His liberty was temporary as Bennett had him leg before, playing across a full delivery from Bennett.

Carter gave Patel his only wicket of the innings with a caught and bowled to leave Northern on 236 for six, but not out of it as long as BJ Watling remained out there, at the scene of his two world-record test partnerships. There is no cricketer in the world whose excellence goes so unrecognised. He keeps wicket as well as any of the regular test keepers, if, as it seems we have to, we regretfully exclude Ben Foakes from that category. Williamson and Taylor apart, he is as good an orthodox batsman as New Zealand has. It is generally a surprise to look at the scoreboard to find how many runs he has, usually 20 or so more than you realise, made by playing appropriate shots with no fuss at all. He made 77 in this manner today, looking the best batsman in the side by a street. Only when he was seventh out at 258 did Northern’s aspirations for victory disappear. Kuggeleijn was bowled by Newton, leaving no doubt that the umpires would agree to the extra eight to settle it.

Just before the extra overs began there occurred the first of two fielding errors that decided it. Blundell—still with that failed dive across first slip in his head—did not go for a chance that passed him at a nice height before continuing past first slip well to Patel’s left. Earlier he failed to collect a Patel delivery that beat Watling. It was unclear from the long room where Watling’s back foot was, but it was certainly close enough for the bails to have been removed to test the case.

It was little over a year ago that Blundell played a couple of tests when Watling was injured, scoring a century on debut. Now he looks like a keeper whose confidence has gone.

From the first ball of the extra overs Baker was caught at first slip to give Bennett his fifth wicket. Twenty-one-year-old Zak Gibson joined Ish Sodhi with seven overs and five balls to see out for the draw, if the weather forecast was correct. Gibson looked a capable No 11 and Sodhi made no attempt to protect him from the strike. Given some of Sodhi’s shot selections, it might have been an idea for Gibson to have protected him.

With nine down and safety just a few overs away, hooking Newton was unwise. Sodhi got under it and the ball flew towards long leg where Bennett awaited. He had to move in a little way, but did so quickly, too quickly perhaps, as he now had a second or so to ponder the context, to make a list of all the ways in which it could go wrong.

It went straight through his hands.

There were a few close things and near misses, but Sodhi and Gibson survived the remaining overs. Players and spectators were all confused about how to react at the end of the day. Had Northern saved the game? It all depended on the weather.

Bennett—without whose splendid bowling Wellington would not have got remotely as close to winning the game—looked mortified. Had it been the real last day he could at least have put it behind him straight away. But he had to return the following day to watch the rain in the hope that there would be redemption. One over might have been all it needed.

I didn’t go down to the Basin on the last day (it might have been worth it to watch Billy Bowden’s all-day portrayal of torment, a fine substitute, I am sure, for those of us who missed Olivier’s Othello), but kept an eye on the weather just in case. Apparently, they came close to starting after tea, but another squall came in and that was that.

A win would have put Wellington up to third, just nine points behind new leaders Auckland. As it is, they are fifth of six with three to play.

The Return of the Kings

Wellington v Northern Districts, 50 overs, Basin Reserve, 4 November 2018

Scorecard

At full strength Northern Districts would be favourites to beat any other domestic team in the world, Surrey included. They have five bowlers in the top 15 of the world rankings in at least one format—Boult, Southee, Wagner, Santner and Sodhi—as well as one of the world’s best batsmen, Kane Williamson, other established internationals De Grandhomme and Watling, and Anderson and Seifert in T20.

“At full strength” is the key thing there. All the above except the injured Santner are on international duty in the UAE at the moment, where the Black Caps are taking on Pakistan in all three formats.

Wellington are without Blundell, van Beek and Rachin Ravindra, all with New Zealand A in the same location. Ravindra’s absence is particularly noteworthy as he is yet to play for Wellington’s senior team in first-class, list A or T20, but has been accelerated into the national A squad because of exceptional promise shown in international age group cricket, another straw in the wind that blows away the significance of the domestic first-class game.

What’s more, Jeetan Patel has opted out of the shorter forms for Wellington this year so as to preserve his aging bones for the next English season, for which nobody blames him in the least. Luke Woodcock has also decided to restrict himself to red-ball cricket, having made more first-class appearances for Wellington than any player has for any New Zealand province.

This is the New Zealand present, and the UK future: the national 50-over competition without the top talent, and with a fair portion of the middling talent unavailable too. This is what it will be like from 2020 when the Hundread (feel free to use that) gets under way.

Today’s match was an illustration of what the game becomes in these circumstances—a contest in who can best disguise their inexperience. Of course, a fine game of cricket can be the outcome, tolerable in the New Zealand spring, but lacking something as the main attraction outside the big grounds in the high English summer.

Andrew Fletcher and Malcolm Nofal opened, ND having won the toss and put Wellington in. Fletcher, who has earned his first professional contract at 25 with a lot of runs in club cricket, has been Wellington’s 50-over star so far, with two centuries in three games. He didn’t start like a man in peak form. One handsome cover drive apart, he was fortunate not to touch at least one of the deliveries that Brett Randell sent down the off-stump corridor.

As so often, a wicket fell after the release of pressure when good but unrewarded opening bowlers were replaced. The deceptively amiably paced Daryl Mitchell came on and had soon accounted for the first three Wellington wickets.

Nofal played casually across to be leg before, Conway feathered a catch behind (from his disappointed reaction the bird was already plucked), and Michael Bracewell top-edged a hook to fine leg.

Mitchell, by the way, is no relation to the Worcestershire player of the same name but is the son of John Mitchell, the former All Blacks coach who seems to be doing a fine job as England’s defensive coach, judging from the difficulty teams from this half of the world have had in crossing the line in the last couple of weeks.

For all Mitchell’s success, there was a right-arm-medium sameness about the Northern Districts attack. Fletcher was given far too many opportunities to play off his pads, which seems to be a strength of his.

Off spinner Joe Walker provided a little variety. He is one of several Northern Districts players whose off field time (there being little else to do in Hamilton of an evening) is the cultivation of big, bushy beards. A field-setting discussion between Walker, Devcich and Brownlie resembled a meeting of the crowned heads of Europe in the years before the First World War.

 

Devcich and Brownlie model ND's one-day and T20 uniforms

At 81 for three, Fletcher was joined by Jimmy Neesham, perhaps the best player left in New Zealand this weekend. At once, he was on the attack with great reserves of timing and power. The extent of his domination can be measured by the fact that when he reached 50, the fourth-wicket partnership was worth no more than 67.

Fletcher edged a catch behind off the slow left-arm of Anton Devcich for 64, but with ten overs to go Wellington were 203 for four, looking to set a target not far short of 300. At that time I wrote a cautionary note saying “all depends on Neesham”. So when he was out chasing a Devcich down the legside in the 42^nd over, estimates of the final total tumbled like those for the post-Brexit pound.

It was a smart piece of keeping by Bocock. Everybody around the boundary thought that Neesham had been stumped, but the clue was that no wide was given. It took the online replay to confirm a sharp catch, the bails whipped off in affirmation. Neesham made 86 from 67 balls with eight fours and four sixes.

That Wellington got as far as 269 was due to some loose bowling and optimistic hitting, particularly from Ollie Newton, whose innings was the cricketing equivalent of the golfer who keeps driving into the trees only to have the ball rebound into the middle of the fairway.

Devcich cleaned up the last three wickets to give him a career-best five for 46.

In the break between innings I called into the Museum, where I was delighted to find that they were having a half-price Wisden sale. I settled on an unusual 1950 edition, bound in hard covers, but dark red with a navy blue spine. I have never seen one like this before. Perhaps it was an individual collector salvaging a dilapidated copy with their own design; one or two of mine could do with some help. It cost NZ$30, which is about £15 at current rates.

That’s No 73 on the shelves in Scorecards Towers, with 1951 the most recent gap. I must get round to writing something in each edition about how I got it and where it’s been so that when they end up on other shelves one day, their story will be known.

Wellington’s opening bowlers Bennett and Newton started well, conceding just five runs from the first four overs. Bennett had Cooper leg before with a full pitch. For the next 15 overs, Northern Districts made decent progress, but it was clear that much rested on the partnership between the Tsar and the King, who, with Mitchell, comprised the bulk of their team’s experience.

At 86 for two in the 21^st over it was pretty even, but Devcich’s slog-sweep to long on was the first of six wickets to fall in the next 12 overs, with just 44 added to the total. The last two wickets added a further hundred, with Randell, Gibson and (especially) Bocock striking the ball well and with spirit. But the rate required expanded throughout, so for those of us who stayed, the experience of the last hour was akin to knowing that your car has passed its warrant (= MoT for UK readers) but having to hang around for the paperwork to be completed.

With four for 34, Hamish Bennett was again outstanding. Nofal took three with his slow left-arm, with the word “occasional” now deleted from that description.

With four of ten rounds completed, Wellington were top of the table. The winner of the group stage hosts the final with second and third playing off for the other place.