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.

A loss for New Zealand and other matters

New Zealand v India, ODI, Cake Tin, 3 February 2019

Scorecard (links to video)

As I took my seat before the start of this game—the fifth and final of the series—I reflected that a little under four years ago from much the same spot I observed a hapless young West Indian captain fielding on the boundary in front of me, near the exit leading to the dressing rooms, his symbolic desire to get off the field as quickly as possible obvious and painful. It was the World Cup quarter-final and they had given him pop guns to deploy against the artillery of Martin Guptill, on his way to 237 not out.

So it was cheering to have started the day listening to radio commentary from Antigua of that same young captain—Jason Holder—leading the West Indies to a series victory over England, and performing so well with bat and ball. As I have written so often before, I owe much of my love of cricket to early exposure to Caribbean cricketers, who made it look such a joyful and thrilling way to pass the time. That they are on their way back is the best news.

As we all know, Holder missed the final test, suspended for not hurrying up the bowling sufficiently for the match to finish earlier than the last session of the third day. I recall Backwatersman writing that he is never aware of how fast or slowly the overs are being bowled, and isn’t much concerned about it. I’m the same. Without looking at the scoreboard, I have no idea, at lunch say, how many overs have been bowled in the session just concluded. You might as well fine a river for reaching the sea tardily. Imagine if blame-the-captain justice had been in operation in the seventies. The Yorkshire team would have moved like statues so as to get rid of Boycott for a couple of games.

I have enjoyed the Talk Sport commentary from the West Indies (in New Zealand we have no TV coverage of the series, so the radio is not geoblocked). It gets the job done, has some interesting features and is not as self-regarding as Test Match Special. Mark Nicholas is one of the best broadcasters around, as long as he is not in Australia. For a posh Pom without an international cricket pedigree he did well to front Channel Nine’s coverage for a decade or so, but the Devil (played by Kerry Packer, born to the role) demanded as his price that Nicholas had to worship Australia and all things Australians with an enthusiasm that in comparison made Dame Edna Everage look no more a patriot than Germaine Greer.

The defeat in the West Indies has shaken England’s recent confidence in itself as a test team, despite the consolation win in the final test. This one-day series against India has had much the same effect on New Zealand’s self-perception in this form of the game. It began with New Zealand ranked third in ODIs, after a comfortable three-nil win against Sri Lanka (and we know how misleading three-nil wins against Sri Lanka can be). India would be tougher test of course, but New Zealand would be competitive; a close three-two defeat, like that against England last year, was thought the worst that could happen. So the three drubbings that were the first three games sent the cricketing nation into deep introspection.

I noted during that England series that New Zealand’s strategy appeared to rely on one player, probably Williamson or Taylor, to play a world-class innings, and that this had been surprisingly successful. The solid contributions across the top half of the order that are the more conventional basis for success did not happen last year or this, but this time were not compensated for by a cricketing Popeye with his tin of spinach. The second-highest individual New Zealand scores in the first two games were 24 and 34, the third-highest in the third 28.

Like England’s test team, the problems start at the top of the order. Martin Guptill is out of form, but the hope is that class will out. Colin Munro has been his partner for a while. A dominating batsman in T20s, his technique has become exposed over 50 overs. In T20 he is bold, in ODIs he is bowled.

Henry Nicholls was moved up to open in the fourth game. Here, My Life in Cricket Scorecards boasts its first exclusive in nine years, or as close to one as it likely to get. I fell into conversation with the guy two seats along, who, it turned out, was Nicholls’ father. I can reveal that Henry is very happy to open, relishing the challenge, and would be equally happy to be reserve keeper in the World Cup squad, having kept proficiently throughout his early career. This seems the sensible way to go, better than the selectors managing to persuade themselves that Tim Seifert is good enough to take a batting slot.

New Zealand Cricket backed Nicholls’ talent early and have been vindicated. His test average is 43 and climbing. Though his ODI record is more patchy, he is more likely to offer long-term consistency than any other available candidate. It was good to hear that he has a positive team’s-needs view of his ability (cf Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and the No 3 position).

For the first three games, Munro was the sixth bowler, but he is more a seventh bowler, a Graham Gooch-style dobber (those of us who were there have never got over the disaster that was making a fifth bowler from a combination of Gooch, Boycott and Larkins in the World Cup final of ’79). In these bat-dominated times, captains need six bowlers capable of bowling a full allocation if they are to respond properly to events.

Nicholls’ promotion to the top of the order allowed this to happen, but India’s collapse for 93 in the fourth game was, from the selectoral point of view, the worst thing that could have happened, as the recalled Todd Astle and Jimmy Neesham bowled fewer than three overs between them, no test at all.

It was five for 21 from Trent Boult that undid India in game four, which told us nothing new. Boult apart, the selection of the bowlers has been subject to rotation throughout this series. Boult takes the quaint view that the best way of maintaining form and fitness to bowl at international level is to bowl at international level, and has the mana (a useful Maori word meaning respect and status) to stand aside from the rota.

This fifth game was New Zealand’s last chance before the World Cup to test players against top opposition. Three-match series at home to Bangladesh and away to Ireland follow, but against lower-grade opposition a moderate player can do well and be difficult to drop. New Zealand should by now know what their World Cup squad will be, but have at least four bowling/all-rounder places that are undecided. Here, Henry, Neesham, Astle and Munro (back in for the injured Guptill) might be regarded as in the selectoral repecharges, with Bracewell, Ferguson and Southee also contending. The inclusion of Southee in this list will probably surprise overseas readers, but his one-day stats have been going downhill since the last World Cup. He is said to be in the rotation, but appears to be following the orbit round the sun of Pluto, so rarely is he seen.  

India are without Virat Kholi, who took a break after the third game and is on holiday elsewhere in New Zealand, and Jasprit Bumrah. Giving these two key players a rest is wise, but a disappointment for those of us who were looking forward to watching two of the current World XI. However, MS Dhoni had recovered from the injury that kept him out of the fourth game, so giving us almost certainly a last chance to see him in an ODI in New Zealand.

India won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch of uneven colour, though nothing like the lunar surface that produced such a good game against England last year. Then, 234 was, just, a winning score. In the tenth over, at 18 for four, this seemed beyond India’s dreams.

Matt Henry conceded just two runs from his first two overs, then knocked back Sharma’s off stump with killer late outswing reminiscent of Southee from the same end against England in the World Cup.

In the next over, Henry was at third man to take the catch when Darwan lashed out at a short one from Boult, a reward for both opening bowlers for keeping it so tight early on.

This brought together the tyro Shubman Gill and the old master Dhoni. Looking back at the scorecard in 20 years’ time it might be a curiosity to find them both together in the same XI. Gill played one sumptuous off drive that had “promise” written through it like “Blackpool” in a stick of rock, but was then caught at short cover, pushing leaden-footed at a Henry delivery that didn’t come on as he expected.

Those of us hoping for something magnificent from Dhoni on his farewell were to be disappointed, though it would be a fair description of the Boult inswinger that uprooted his off stump.

Rayudu and Shankar set about rebuilding. They must have made a astute estimate of what a winning score would be and realised that they did not need to go for 300 at all costs. Wicket preservation was the priority, so that sufficient reserves were in place for the final charge. They put on 98 for the fifth wicket in 22 overs before Shankar went to a Brexit of a run out: no plan, utter confusion and no majority for any course of action.

Surprisingly, Williamson opted to put Munro on ahead of Astle, who would have wanted the opportunity to make his case for the second spinner’s spot (assuming that Santner has the first because of the balance he offers). Superficially, it was the right decision. Munro bowled straight through, conceding 47 from ten (and that included two sixes in his last over). But he didn’t take a wicket, and didn’t look likely to. Rayudu in particular used him like a life raft to navigate to a secure position. The run out apart, no wicket fell between the tenth and 44^th overs, when Rayudu fell ten short of a deserved hundred.

The key to success in contemporary ODI cricket is to take enough wickets through the innings so as to limit the potential of the batting side  to explode with runs in the last ten overs. Their failure to build upon an excellent start to do this cost New Zealand the game.

Hardik Pandya led the charge in the final overs with five sixes in his 45, three of them off consecutive deliveries from Astle. India finished with 252.

Matt Henry performed the best of the bowling auditionees, finishing with four for 35 from ten, almost enough to get him on the plane. Todd Astle was only given five overs finishing with nought for 35, so it was a day when Ish Sodhi did better by not playing.

Television companies might consider adapting one of those endless property restoration programmes to New Zealand cricket. “This is Kane. My, the innings is in a sorry state. Can he apply a bit of paint and bang in a few nails in the right places to rescue it?”. Today, it was 38 for three in the eleventh over, Nicholls, an unconvincing Munro and Taylor gone.

Williamson looked out-of-sorts at first, making only five from his first 24 deliveries, but the first two balls of the 18^th over, bowled by Shankar, went for silky, feather-light fours, the first a cut, the second a straight drive. The partnership with Latham advanced, mostly in singles, until it reached 66, parity almost restored.

Williamson then miscalculated in a way that he rarely does, attempting to pull Jadhav over the mid-wicket boundary, only to provide an easy catch. With the required rate only just above six, there was no need to interrupt the steady flow of singles at that stage.

Latham was also out swinging across the line, lbw to Chahal. De Grandhomme followed a couple of overs later, a couple of handsome fours impressing les than the ability to work the ball around for a while would have done.

At 135 for six, much now depended upon Jimmy Neesham. Like De Grandhomme’s, his ability to crash and bash is unquestioned, but has he the repertoire for all occasions? This innings provided a good deal of evidence that he does. There were big shots, including two sixes, both over mid-wicket from deliveries that were ripe for the purpose. On 44 from 32 balls, 77 needed at under six an over, he had put New Zealand back into a position of near-equality.

“What happened next?” is a question that Neesham will wake up in the middle of the night for decades to come trying to answer, without being able to. Swinging across the line to Jadhav, he was hit on the front pad. There was a loud appeal, but the impact was clearly outside the line of off. The ball hit Dhoni’s leg and trickled a few feet behind the stumps. A couple of steps and it was in the keeper’s gloves. But Neesham had set off for a single, and had no chance of getting back before the stumps were broken. Had Santner set off from the non-striker’s end, the old cliché “they wouldn’t have crossed” would, for once, have been absolutely accurate.

A few big blows from Matt Henry notwithstanding, that was it, a 35-run defeat, New Zealand left with an uncomfortable number of uncertainties about form, selection and prospects with no more games against top-level teams before the World Cup.

There was a good turnout form the local Indian community, who brought to the occasion a generous exuberance that reminded me of the Caribbean crowds at Lord’s and (in particular) the Oval in the 1970s.