Sutherland Triumphs in the Southerly

 New Zealand v Australia, 50 overs, Basin Reserve, 21 & 23 December 2024

21 December

23 December

The intention was to laud the world champions. This was New Zealand’s first appearance at home since their surprise victory in the World T20 in Dubai in October, and it was appropriate for it to be at the Basin, home ground of the captain, Sophie Devine and player of the tournament Melie Kerr. And laud the world champions we did, but it was the 50-over title holders Australia  that attracted the praise as they confirmed their vast superiority in the longer form of the game. 

This was no surprise. Before the three-match series began, the RA Vance Pessimists agreed that the best chance of home success rested in the Wellington weather, always a capricious presence. As we saw it, there was next-to-no chance of New Zealand winning two matches against the green-and-gold juggernaut, but if the capital’s resident tempest were to wash away two of the games, there would be a chance that they could abscond with the other, particularly if the southerly could roar in and impose temperatures that the Australians had experienced only in the walk-in beer fridges that feature in some Australasian supermarkets. 

It was a strategy that had promise when the first game was abandoned at an early stage. Indeed, had the rain come ten overs earlier it would have accounted for the second too, but when it arrived it was like a boxing referee intervening to declare that the contest was over through being too one-sided. 

Australia were put in by Sophie Devine. For the greater part of the innings it appeared to be a good decision. Though all the top seven attained double figures, wickets kept falling. At 211 for six after 41 overs it seemed possible that the target might be a tough-but-gettable 250-260. 

But Annabel Sutherland was still there. At that point she had 47 from 52 deliveries, and continued to be measured but untroubled for a further five overs, at which point she had 63 from 64. New Zealand could have thought that they were in the race only then to discover that they were in a Corolla while Sutherland was at the wheel of a Ferrari, the throttle of which she now depressed smoothly, becoming a dot in the distance before the bowlers realised what had happened. In the last four overs of Australia’s innings she scored 42 runs in 17 balls, including six fours and two sixes. 

In the past couple of weeks we have seen fine centuries by Harry Brook and Joe Root at the Basin. Sutherland’s unbeaten 105 was as impressive in many ways, including judgement, planning and execution, and its repertoire of classical shots. She accelerated but never hurried. At 23-years-old she is proof that the quality of the Australian team will perpetuate beyond the Healy/Lanning/Perry generation. 

Australia does not have all the talented 23-year-old cricketers. Auckland’s Molly Penfold dismissed Healy, Perry, Mooney and McGrath on her way to four for 42, as impressive a display of disciplined medium-fast bowling as I can recall from the White Ferns. Penfold and the other bowlers received disappointing support from the fielders, with at least half-a-dozen chances going down, the women emulating the standards of the men in the first test against England.

It was one of those afternoons when the informed spectator held the rain radar in one hand and the DLS charts in the other. The near certainty of an early finish should have worked in New Zealand’s favour, but the ocean of quality between the teams was a journey too far. When the rain reached us, in the 31st over, they were already 65 behind the adjusted target. There were two many dot balls off an attack that was doing its best Scrooge impression in the spirit of the season.

The third match was the first of the series to proceed without the intervention of the weather. It was warm and many of the pohutukawas were flowering, a crimson pelmet to the grass bank along the eastern side of the Basin. A perfect day to be at the cricket. Australia batted first, this time of their own choosing. After 31 overs they were 190 for four, apparently heading for a total somewhere in the 350-plus stratosphere. But the wickets kept falling, with Sophie Devine dismissing Sutherland, and the usually hard-hitting McGrath who did not find the boundary in 33 balls today. Kerr, wicketless two days before, took four, including top scorer Ash Gardner (74). 

Australia were all out in 49 overs for just a run fewer than they made in the second game, but reached by a contrasting route, one that left New Zealand feeling much more positive. Hope, rather than being expunged by a late charge, was revived as the expected target diminished in the last hour of the innings. 

In reply, Suzie Bates top scored with 53, but a more substantial contribution was needed from the top order if New Zealand were to get anywhere close. The RA Vance Pessimists declared it over when Sophie Devine’s misjudgement caused Melie Kerr to be run out. We were impressed by the debut performance of Otago’s Bella James, who got the innings off to a brisk start in both games.

It is fitting that the new honours board at the Basin, recording the results of all international games played there, includes women’s matches, but disappointing that no space has been left for additions to the test match list. South Africa are now playing tests regularly and the cricket community here in New Zealand are downcast that the national body does not want to emulate them. Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine both deserve a test debut in the autumn of their careers. 

Early Adventures in the New Zealand T20

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.

 

Christmas Eve at the Cricket

Wellington v Otago

Women

Men

Until the 1970s, provincial cricket was played on Christmas Day in New Zealand. There would be a late start to allow for the hasty opening of presents and the bolting down of some turkey, but the afternoon could be spent on the bank at the Basin, Lancaster Park or Carisbrook. Perhaps it is as well that the practice was abandoned; the ensuing negotiations would be tricky in many households.

In Wellington we have the pleasing new tradition (this is its third year, so “tradition” passes, just) of Christmas Eve cricket, a T20 double-header, to be precise.

All fixtures in New Zealand’s domestic T20 competition—not merely the “Smash” but the “Super Smash”—pair a women’s game with that of the same men’s teams, the women usually (but not always) playing first. All games are shown on television, with 18 of the men’s games and 15 of the women’s free-to-air (with the imminent closure of rights-holders Spark Sport, from next season all domestic and international cricket in New Zealand will be free-to-air for three seasons).

The Basin is at its best at this time of year. The cricket-ball red flowers of the puhutukawa trees bloom for Christmas, draping a crimson ribbon round the ground and up the hill to Government House. The bank was near-full, with an increasing number of spectators arriving in time to take in most of the women’s game. Despite the presence of Billy Bowden, Rain-deviner-in-chief, the sun was out, and all was right with the world.

Otago will look back at both games with the ruefulness of a child who wakes up on Christmas Day to find that Santa has stolen their presents from under the tree. They could and should have won them both.

When both Kerr sisters were out with the score on 110 in the 17th over it seemed that Wellington would be some way short of setting a challenging target, but Maddy Green and Leigh Kasperek took 31 from the final two overs to finish the innings on 146 for five, very attainable with Suzie Bates opening for Otago.

With Ebrahim, Bates put on 49 for the third wicket, but five was the most scored from any over between the third and the ninth, which left an asking rate of almost ten an over, unsustainable against an attack of the quality of Wellington’s. The innings subsided like a sherry-filled grandma into an armchair after the Christmas pudding. Wellington won by 19 runs. Kasperek was the best bowler with three for 16. Her omission from New Zealand’s World Cup squad last year remains mystifying.

For the men, Adam Milne made his Wellington debut, after 12 years with Central Districts. As Kent fans know, Milne is a quality bowler who offers a desirable combination of pace and smarts, so the Basin faithful were pleased to hear that he was coming to the capital. However, some of us were sceptical that we would ever see him in a Wellington shirt on the field of play, given that he is a regular in the white-ball national squad, in demand from the franchises, and more prone to breakage than a Chinese vase in a situation comedy. Yet here he was.

The match followed the pattern of that of the women. Wellington batted first and reached an underwhelming 152. It was only thanks to Rachin Ravindra that it was that many. Regular readers may be rather bored by my regular extolling of Ravindra’s qualities and class, but I can merely report what I see. Here, once more, time appeared to move more slowly when he was at the crease, such was the facility of his shots.

A team chasing a modest total and that is 80 for one after 12 overs, as Otago were, should not lose. But they blew it. Run rates that were unimaginable twenty years ago are now commonplace. Ten an over is the new six an over. But this is not an entitlement, as Otago demonstrated here. They were complacent, expecting to go up through the gears as they wanted. When 29 came from overs 17 and 18 they would have considered themselves on track, but no further boundaries ensued and they lost by eight runs. They had the chance to secure the game earlier and should have taken it.