Gidday Dylan That's an excellent piece on Ajaz. Congrats. I reckon the very least NZC could have done was to have a special presentation to Ajaz before the first Bay Oval test against Bangladesh last year. It would have been so easy for them to ask Ajaz for the ball, have it mounted appropriately and then made a deal of presenting it to him. That's the very least he deserved for his historic effort. The fact no one at NZC thought of this shows just how cloth-eared they can be.
I like the way your stats show up the ineptitude of the selector(s) when it comes to picking and using spinners. I guess various NZ captains are culpable on this score too. Williamson, who I admire as a player, captain and person, has to shoulder more than some of the blame for Ajaz's treatment. I'm sure he has a big say in selection. His use of Ajaz in NZ conditions in his wicketless home test career hardly gave Ajaz the chance to shine. I'd hazard a guess that Ajaz bowled most of his 29 overs in home tests in defensive mode. There may have been a token slip, possibly a short cover and short mid-wicket to stop the single and that'd be about it. I'd also guess that quite a high proportion of Ajaz's overs would have been three overs before tea, lunch or the close of play. The rest would've been bowled defensively because no-one else looked like taking a wicket.
Another illuminating stat featuring Santner's first class record shows he's played 88 matches, taken 86 wickets at 47.22 with a best of 4/111 and a strike rate of 96.2. The contrast with Ajaz's first class record is stark.
Finally the highlight of the day for me at the CD v ND one dayer yesterday was seeing Ajaz dismiss former Captain Kane after Williamson had smacked him over mid wicket for six and two fours. Adding to the satisfaction was the fact that Will Young took the catch. He's another who has been somewhat poorly treated by the NZ selectors but I won't get into that. Patel finished with 3/38 off his 10 overs and on a day where the left arm spinners shone (four of them) Ajaz looked pretty darn good.
So there you go. Good on you for giving NZC a good serve about their treatment of Ajaz. The pity of it is that for all our (and many, many others) grizzling about it, it won't make any difference.
Agree Dylan. We seem to be very poor at player management, spinners especially - Kane never seemed to know when to bowl any of his spinners and would only do so reluctantly and maybe to improve our over rate.
About Jamieson - I hope they only play him if he’s 100% ready. He seems to be a confidence player more than most and if he struggles in his first up experience in months, it will do medium term damage to him I think.
Agree wholeheartedly on Jazz. The 'little or no consideration on human condition' is so true. Our record of developing and backing spinners is so poor, because we leave them behind a glass case marked 'break in case of emergency/sub-continent tour' and presume they'll preserve whatever craft they have whilst encased. Doesn't work that way. Contrast that with the way Leach is used for England, where they back him in for most conditions and keep him Test fit.
A fair bit to absorb there but overall a really good analysis. Just finished watching a good old grovel between Northern Districts & Central Districts on Spark, runs hard to come by. Good spectacle though. Only negative was Scotty Stevenson’s lack of cricket parlance - Dylan can you have a word and let him know a full swing of the bay is not “a punch” and a turning ball does not “slide on”, just to name a couple…? 😂
What's happened to Rachin? Seems to have been replaced by Bracewell, basically, his teammate at Wellington. But he's clearly the future. Hope he gets another chance soon.
Hi Chris, I think he still has a big part to play in NZ's future but he looked a bit overmatched at test level - both batting and especially bowling - so I think it's one of those cases where they tell him what he needs to do and give him a couple more seasons of domestic and 'A' team cricket to hone his game.
Gidday Dylan That's an excellent piece on Ajaz. Congrats. I reckon the very least NZC could have done was to have a special presentation to Ajaz before the first Bay Oval test against Bangladesh last year. It would have been so easy for them to ask Ajaz for the ball, have it mounted appropriately and then made a deal of presenting it to him. That's the very least he deserved for his historic effort. The fact no one at NZC thought of this shows just how cloth-eared they can be.
I like the way your stats show up the ineptitude of the selector(s) when it comes to picking and using spinners. I guess various NZ captains are culpable on this score too. Williamson, who I admire as a player, captain and person, has to shoulder more than some of the blame for Ajaz's treatment. I'm sure he has a big say in selection. His use of Ajaz in NZ conditions in his wicketless home test career hardly gave Ajaz the chance to shine. I'd hazard a guess that Ajaz bowled most of his 29 overs in home tests in defensive mode. There may have been a token slip, possibly a short cover and short mid-wicket to stop the single and that'd be about it. I'd also guess that quite a high proportion of Ajaz's overs would have been three overs before tea, lunch or the close of play. The rest would've been bowled defensively because no-one else looked like taking a wicket.
Another illuminating stat featuring Santner's first class record shows he's played 88 matches, taken 86 wickets at 47.22 with a best of 4/111 and a strike rate of 96.2. The contrast with Ajaz's first class record is stark.
Finally the highlight of the day for me at the CD v ND one dayer yesterday was seeing Ajaz dismiss former Captain Kane after Williamson had smacked him over mid wicket for six and two fours. Adding to the satisfaction was the fact that Will Young took the catch. He's another who has been somewhat poorly treated by the NZ selectors but I won't get into that. Patel finished with 3/38 off his 10 overs and on a day where the left arm spinners shone (four of them) Ajaz looked pretty darn good.
So there you go. Good on you for giving NZC a good serve about their treatment of Ajaz. The pity of it is that for all our (and many, many others) grizzling about it, it won't make any difference.
Cheers and keep up the good work
Peter
Thanks Peter.
Agree Dylan. We seem to be very poor at player management, spinners especially - Kane never seemed to know when to bowl any of his spinners and would only do so reluctantly and maybe to improve our over rate.
About Jamieson - I hope they only play him if he’s 100% ready. He seems to be a confidence player more than most and if he struggles in his first up experience in months, it will do medium term damage to him I think.
Agree wholeheartedly on Jazz. The 'little or no consideration on human condition' is so true. Our record of developing and backing spinners is so poor, because we leave them behind a glass case marked 'break in case of emergency/sub-continent tour' and presume they'll preserve whatever craft they have whilst encased. Doesn't work that way. Contrast that with the way Leach is used for England, where they back him in for most conditions and keep him Test fit.
A fair bit to absorb there but overall a really good analysis. Just finished watching a good old grovel between Northern Districts & Central Districts on Spark, runs hard to come by. Good spectacle though. Only negative was Scotty Stevenson’s lack of cricket parlance - Dylan can you have a word and let him know a full swing of the bay is not “a punch” and a turning ball does not “slide on”, just to name a couple…? 😂
What's happened to Rachin? Seems to have been replaced by Bracewell, basically, his teammate at Wellington. But he's clearly the future. Hope he gets another chance soon.
Hi Chris, I think he still has a big part to play in NZ's future but he looked a bit overmatched at test level - both batting and especially bowling - so I think it's one of those cases where they tell him what he needs to do and give him a couple more seasons of domestic and 'A' team cricket to hone his game.