Notes from the Basin #4
PLUS: Foster’s weird vibes, Super Rugby’s lost vibes, the Warriors yeah-boy(!) vibes and a bunch of other vibe vibes
NZ 580-4 dec
Sri Lanka 164 & 358 (f/o)
NZ win by an innings and 58 runs
New Zealand did the job against Sri Lanka after a long, wind-blown slog today, but I can hear you whispering on the breeze: “Forget the match and instead give us your summer test ratings!” Okay then…
Tom Latham 6
4 tests
246 runs @ 35.1; 9 catches (1 run out)
Batted really well at the Basin in the momentous test against England, but went through the home summer without a signature big dig. When he got in against Sri Lanka at Hagley, you just expected him to cash in, but he fell victim to a terrific yorker. He has a terrific set of hands, though he can thank Michael Bracewell for him being credited with a run out.
Devon Conway 6
4 tests
248 runs @ 35.4; 3 catches
Still some debate as to whether Conway is best employed as an opener. He has everything you need to do the job well in terms of temperament and a technique that works for him. He will be immensely frustrated he didn’t turn one of his three plus-50 scores into a big one, especially his 78 against Sri Lanka at the Basin where he looked imperious. A competent fielder who took an absolute screamer in the final test of the summer.
Kane Williamson 9
4 tests
479 @ 79.8; 6 catches (1 run out)
Easily New Zealand’s highest run scorer of the season, it’s remarkable to think he started the summer with 6, 0 and 4 against an England team that seemed to have his number. In Williamson’s defence, two of those failures were artificially lit, but there were ripples of angst among Black Caps’ supporters - was this the start of a steady decline? Those concerns have been emphatically allayed for now. His 132 and 121 not out against England and Sri Lanka respectively were studies in determination and acute match awareness - his 215 in the first innings of this test was just sublime.
Henry Nicholls 4
4 tests
292 @ 48.6; 4 catches
The toughest one to judge for the simple reason is you have to calculate the degree to which one epic performance rinses away a long period of underperformance. My internal debate revolved around the idea that 5 is a pass mark and Nicholls’ collective work falls just short of that. It has been suggested to me that Nicholls’ 200 not out was a low-pressure knock, coming to the crease at 118-2, but I don’t buy that: it doesn’t matter how phlegmatic a character you might be, walking to the crease without a score behind you for a year brings a crushing type of pressure. Nicholls’ step will be a lot lighter now.
Will Young 2
1 test
10 runs @ 5; 1 catch (as sub)
The unluckiest player in New Zealand failed to turn his one test into a winner. His second innings dismissal, bowled by Jack Leach, spoke to his career - stuck betwixt and between.
Daryl Mitchell 8
4 tests
324 @ 54; 5 catches
0 wickets for 112
Got under the skin of the English, who could be heard calling him a selfish player, a curious charge to lay at the feet of a player who always seems to play the right innings at the right time. His double of 102 and 81 at Hagley Oval last week was critical to New Zealand’s brilliant victory. Would help the balance of the side if he was a genuine fourth-seamer option, a la Colin de Grandhomme, but he’s not and probably never will be. A fine slip fielder.
Tom Blundell 8
4 tests
294 @ 49; 19 dismissals (15 catches, 4 stumpings)
It’s been a while since I’ve even thought about BJ Watling, which is an indication of the seamless way Blundell has become part of the furniture. Started the campaign with a brilliant but futile century at the Mount and would have had another against England at the Basin were it not for some dubious tail-end “support”. He dropped a simple catch in that same test, but more than made up for it with an outstanding fourth-innings performance, standing up to New Zealand’s seamers to keep England moored to their crease. An excellent, understated cricketer.
Michael Bracewell 5
4 tests
81 runs @ 13.5; 10 catches (1 run out)
11 wickets @ 36.5
An enigma. Certainly hasn’t provided the runs he would have been expected to and worse than that has found some weak ways to gift his wicket, most notably his run out at the Basin Reserve against England. Bracewell has made some marked improvements as a bowler. It’s probably no longer fair to call him a part-timer and he consistently turned it more than Leach or the Sri Lankans, but his wickets have tended to come at the front end of matches, not the back when the spinners would be expected to play a bigger role. A fabulous fielder, which nudged him up from 4 to 5.
Doug Bracewell 5
1 test
2 wickets @ 38.5
DNB; 1 catch
You wouldn’t call it a clamour for his return, but there were justifiable questions asked to how he had slipped down the pecking order behind Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn. Bowled nicely in Wellington without looking as penetrative as the other seamers. Didn’t get a chance to show how his batting has improved and would bolster the tail, but did take a nice catch in a swirling, gusty wind.
Scott Kuggeleijn 4
1 test
4 wickets @ 40.25
22 runs 11; 1 catch (as sub)
Controversial selection for the day-night test at Mount Maunganui, not least because of an unflattering first-class record in recent seasons. Bowled with decent energy without necessarily looking test class.
Tim Southee 7
4 tests
17 wickets @ 26.6
111 runs @ 18.5; 2 catches
Earlier in his career he faced criticism for not bowling well when it mattered and for picking up ‘cheap’ wickets, but this summer he’s bowled far better than his numbers suggest. At times in this test he has bowled spells where the edge has been threatened nearly every ball, yet he took just four wickets for the match. Reminded fans of his clean hitting ability with an explosive 73 against England, an innings that brought New Zealand back from the dead. He has captained well for the most part, and you can tell his teammates enjoy playing for him, but there have been strategic errors, particularly around going to the short ball too early and for too long.
Matt Henry 8
3 tests
17 wickets @ 25.2
82 runs @ 20.5; 2 catches
The pick of the bowlers this summer. Was on paternity leave for the first test against England, which coincided with New Zealand’s poorest bowling performance of the summer. Henry is locked in now. His rhythm is smooth, his pace quick enough to trouble the best and he has an unerring ability to hit the seam. Although they go about their work with different arms and in different ways, Henry’s rapid improvements has eased the pain of Trent Boult’s absence. His hard-hit 72 in the first test against Sri Lanka was crucial.
Neil Wagner 5
3 tests
11 wickets @ 40.9
63 runs 21; 2 catches
Another tough one to judge. Wagner is a drama magnet and it thrusts him into many improbable situations, like taking the final wicket in one of the greatest tests ever played, and dashing through for a match-winning bye on a torn hamstring in the next. He picked up wickets against England, but was subject to batting savagery that suggested his short-ball tactic might have run its course. Ineffective when used as a traditional left-arm seamer. Some useful contributions with the bat.
Blair Tickner 6
3 tests
12 wickets @ 36.3
13 runs @ 13
You can question the guy’s quality, but not his ticker. Mirrors Wagner in the way he gets better deeper into the test. An effort rather than a rhythm bowler, Tickner’s release can look ragged, but he keeps on coming. To continue the Wagner comparison, looked like a worthy heir after a sustained spell of around-the-wicket bump bowling today. Unlikely to force his way into a full-strength side, but a useful depth piece. Not a great bat, but stuck around to help Blundell through to a big hundred at the Mount.
Bad Vibrations
The Crusaders and Blues played out one of the better Super Rugby games in recent memory and come Monday morning we’re talking about Ian Foster’s vibe.
Foster told Sky panel show The Breakdown he’d held a two-day management camp to “clear the air… and and talk about what’s happening and the uncertainty. Because [the NZR’s appointment process] has created an interesting vibe in the group.”
The match between New Zealand’s most successful Super Rugby franchises, won 34-28 by the six-time defending champion Crusaders, was a beauty. The quality might not have been vintage, but there were some brilliant team tries engineered by both sides and the difference in the end was the sort of last-ditch goal-line defence the visitors from the south are famous for.
I can’t speak to the vibe in Foster’s management team but there seems to be a positivity around Super Rugby this season not seen since pre-Covid days and possibly a long time before that. Drua’s victory over the Crusaders in Lautoka last weekend was a shot in the arm for the sport and the emergence of the Chiefs, Blues and Brumbies in particular as challengers to the Crusaders pre-eminence can only be good for the maligned competition.
It’s almost like that’s what we should be talking about.
Got to spend most of the day with Dai Henwood yesterday while commentating this second test for the ACC.
He arrived with a smile and left with one too as he proudly announced he was going home to watch the Warriors v North Queensland for a second time - though I suspect it was actually the third.
What impressed me so much about the win was the sheer functionality of it. That might sound like damnation by faint praise, but it’s not because it points to larger concepts that are too often lacking from the Warriors: game plan, method and connection on defence.
The Warriors got ahead and shut the game down, something they’re famous for not doing, winning 26-12. The Cowboys, at home, didn’t score for the final three-quarters of the match and in the second half in particular, the Warriors were rarely stressed.
With the ball, the game plan is a long way from the sort of expansive football that is often wrongly attributed to the club, but there’s a clear plan there. Perhaps as the team gels further under coach Andrew Webster, there will be a few more attempts to move the ball early in tackle counts and a little more variation on the fifth, but at the moment they’re locked in on the basics and it’s largely working.
Two wins from three and a rare victory in Australia: this is about as good a start as fans could have hoped for so early in the Webster Project. Ed Kosi is not going anywhere any time soon, either.
There’s a classic Sunday afternoon kickoff next week against a team also under a rebuilding project using a branch of the Cleary coaching team.
For the past few seasons a Warriors-Bulldogs clash would have been one for neutrals to avoid.
Not in 2023.
Auckland Cricket looks set to make Colin Maiden Park its permanent home, alienating a good portion of their clubs and the city’s cricket fans in the process.
Auckland Cricket is understood to have presented the project to club chairs this month and despite asking for feedback it is understood to be locked in, much to the chagrin of the North Shore and far west clubs.
New Zealand Cricket is understood to be a tepid supporter of the move due to a lack of viable alternatives at Eden Park or Western Springs, but have warned the ground needs significant upgrades before it will be considered for internationals.
CMP has been a very Auckland kind of embarrassment this domestic season, with eight scheduled matches in succession cancelled, some due to weather, some due to the ground’s inability to handle weather.
A move to the suburbs would also cut against modern trends.
Seddon Park is situated 1.8km from Hamilton’s central business district, the Basin Reserve even closer to Wellington’s, and Christchurch’s Hagley Oval is the closest of the lot. Bay Oval and University Oval, at 2.7km, are slightly further away from Mt Maunganui (6.5km from Tauranga) and Dunedin CBDs respectively.
CMP, with all of Auckland’s attendant traffic problems, is 10km from the CBD and even further from the North Shore and far west, where a lot of the city’s cricket followers live.
At first glance it appears to be a short-sighted, even bizarre decision, but what is certain is the status quo cannot continue. The example I like to use is Kane Williamson, the country’s greatest batter. He’s been playing international cricket for 13 years and has played three tests in the city that houses a third of the country’s population. To compare, Sir Richard Hadlee played 11 of his 86 tests in Auckland.
Here’s my prediction, should Auckland Cricket barrel forward with this “plan”.
It will take years to get Colin Maiden Park - which with the best will in the world isn’t even an attractive club ground - up to snuff. When they finally do get a test there, it will be met with some fanfare and a bunch of people will turn up. This fanfare will end about halfway into the second test at the ground. This will be evidenced in the desperation of the “free entry for school children” signs.
In about 15 years, when the board and administrators who placed the sport in Glen Innes have long since vacated their roles and the players have started aggressively lobbying their association to put pressure on NZC to not schedule games at CMP, Auckland Cricket will look to pivot elsewhere - either that or a cashed-up NZC would take a master lease on a decent central venue and run internationals in the city independent of Auckland Cricket.
I just can’t see a world in which this decision works.
Speaking of connecting people to an event…
These “we built it and they still didn’t come” stories often serve as a cautionary tale. SailGP came to Lyttelton on the weekend and it looked spectacular, with Canada shocking New Zealand and Australia to win the final. There was also a big crowd for the event, with an estimated 15,000 spectators, but that did not translate to overheated eftpos machines.
While the inaugural Sail Grand Prix put Lyttelton “on the map”, some business owners say the influx of customers they prepared for had not eventuated.
Most of the patrons, it appeared, didn’t move from the event village, prompting local legend Marlon Williams to say there needed to be more of an effort to integrate the Lyttelton community.
“Obviously we’ve got the landscape,” Williams told Stuff, “but Lyttelton is such an amazing cultural hub, and the people element didn’t seem to be connected to the event.”
I’ve met a surprising number of people who believe that if they had the courage to leave their jobs they could become sports-betting millionaires. As this story in the NZ Herald indicates, it’s not a sound long-term investment strategy, especially when it’s not your money.
A $10k prize for a race record won’t make anyone a millionaire, but it will make some people angry, reports Dana Johannsen.
The Bounce is aware that a Kiwi golfer won a lot of money today. Moving on…
This Formula One season is shaping as one of the most boring in history, with Red Bull so dominant that they were in one-two positions halfway through the Bonesaw GP, a race in which two-time defending world champ Max Verstappen started 15th on the grid.
The most interest happened off the track, where veteran Fernando Alonso lost third place under penalty, then had it reinstated.
A SHORT BREAK
Apologies to those who have just jumped on board as paid subscribers, but The Bounce is taking a short break from newslettering, though will reappear in your inboxes before the end of next week. There could be a guest appearance before then, so keep half an eye out.
Could a point be deducted from Southee for heinous use of DRS? The commentators at one point said he had had 1 decision in 23 reviews overturned. This may have already been factored in under strategic errors (agree that some of the bowling plans today in particular didn’t seem to make much sense). However I won’t let a frustrating afternoon spoil what turned out to be a test home summer that included two all-time great victories and a hard grafted one. As a born in but left long ago Aucklander, I hope there’s a better solution that CMP.
Wowza, a rollercoaster ride of ratings from the man who brought you the rating of the ratings. The same score for Kuggeleijn and Nicholls?!? Only 7 for Southee given he took wickets at 26 and we don't win the England Test at the Basin without his knock? Fair play, his captaincy is fairly off, but he did his core role so well. And I'm not sure your No.7 averaging 13 should earn him a pass mark, even if he bowled *OK*. The Macewell experiment is holding us back from picking the best spinner in the country (Sodhi on evidence of Pakistan) and honestly, you'd back Ish to average more than 13 - in fact he averages 9 more than that. Pick Ravindra to open, let Conway bat 4, which then allows Nicholls his preferred No.5, real depth with Blundell at 7 and we might get 3-4 years out of Sodhi with a few sub-continent Test tours coming up.