The BYC: Ep 43
Your favourite specialty cricket podcast, some random thoughts on last night's "cricket", the Black Caps return to England and Sophie Devine's gift and grit.
In this episode we recap the first three games of the “thrilling” T20 series between the Black Caps and Bangladesh, get our tails up with Bumrah and question the sanity of Shane ‘The Sheikh of Tweet’ Warne.
That was recorded Lockdown Level Four-style before last night’s loss.
Again, it was a really bad game of T20 cricket and again, it behooves me to give this hybrid NZ 2nd XI/ 3rd XI close to a free pass, despite losing and despite scoring less than 100 batting first for the second time in the series.
Take Will Young, who batted with maturity and no shortage of skill to top score with 46 off 48 balls. The first delivery he faced from man of the match Nasum Ahmed, a left-arm orthodox spinner, turned and ripped past the shoulder of the bat, being collected by the keeper at nipple height. The next skidded straight on at ankle height and it was such a mind-warp when Young kept it out that Bangladesh reviewed for LBW even though it hit only his bat.
This was an awful pitch for scoring, which you can tell by the home team taking until the final over to overhaul 93 even though they had six wickets in hand.
A couple of quick thoughts, though:
It is not doing Colin de Grandhomme any favours to keep picking him in conditions that allow him no chance to hit cleanly through the ball, which is the totality of his batting game. It’s pretty gruesome watching a guy who is normally such fun to watch struggle this badly, though he bowled nicely last night.
Ajaz Patel was brilliant again and if Tom Latham hadn’t missed a stumping off Mahmudullah, he could have bowled New Zealand to an improbable win. Nearing 33 and not part of the first-team T20 set-up, it questionable how many more T20Is he will add to his name, but he could end up with some extraordinary stats from those he gets.
If nothing else, Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie now understand that international cricket in foreign conditions is hard... really hard.
The final game at Mirpur is tomorrow night (thank goodness), then it’s off to Pakistan for three ODIs, followed by three T20Is.
Black Caps return to England
There will be plenty of all-nighters in June next year with New Zealand returning to England for a three-test series that will be part of the next cycle of the World Test Championship.
New Zealand will play at Lord’s, where they could have won this year if not for rain, Trent Bridge (Nottingham) and Headingley (Leeds).
Sophie Devine, leading on all fronts
Of more immediate importance, the T20 series decider between England and the White Ferns starts in the bucolic surroundings of Taunton tomorrow morning at 5.30am. It was a treat to see the brilliant Sophie Devine a) return to her best form and b) talk so openly about her mental health struggles.
“It’s hard to put into words how I was feeling at the start of the year,” Devine said. “Mentally I was nowhere and to try and play international cricket when mentally you're not at the top of your game, let alone 50 per cent, it’s always going to be bloody hard.
“Looking back on it, I was nowhere near my best with the bat and mentally I wasn’t in a position to produce my best either. It’s nice to have been able to step away and to put some things into place around that.”
Her most powerful message was also the most simple: just talk about it.
“Its becoming a lot more common, which I think it needs to be… we've seen a lot of athletes back in New Zealand actually stepping up and being really honest around how they're feeling and the mental space that they find themselves in, and I think we need to normalise that conversation.”