Otago Country beat Dunedin Metro by three runs in the annual Stuart McKnight Memorial Trophy game at the weekend. It was a low-scoring fixture at Oturehua Domain. The home team posted 133. Opener Josh Shackleton added 21 and Will Anderson added a valuable 24 not out. Benedict Hardie took three for 28 and Mason Gain grabbed two for 14. Mayank Malhotra clobbered 34 at the top of the innings, but Dunedin Metro’s innings fell away. They were rolled for 130, agonisingly close to the target.
Bazball is taking a lashing. England were routed by eight wickets inside two days in the opening game of the Ashes and the critics hold the whip hand. England coach Brendon McCullum, the architect of the game plan, is urging calm. If only he had been calm during the opening over of the 2015 World Cup. Honestly, every time someone brings up Bazball, that Mitchell Starc over comes flooding back. Starc was bowling at 150 clicks and swinging it plenty, while Baz was swinging for the fence. Ball five on the scorecard is a big red block of ink. Starc swung in a yorker and bowled him. But you know what, McCullum had played that way the whole tournament and it got the Black Caps into the final. He played without regrets and England is not about to change their game plan either. Australia plays that way more or less as well. Makeshift opener Travis Head clouted a 69-ball hundred to help clinch the win. That was pretty Bazball, if you ask me.
Hugo Bogue has swatted 101, 148, 48 and 68 for Albion this season and he is not even the leading scorer in the club. That honour belongs to Chris Morris, who has compiled undefeated knocks of 134, 84, 139 and 200 for a haul of 557 runs in the third grade without losing his wicket. That undefeated double ton, by the way, was against Green Island, who were all out for 32 in reply to Albion’s tally of 355 for two. Brutal.
It was just delightful watching Ish Sodhi (108 not out) celebrate his maiden first-class century yesterday. He teamed up with Sean Davey (101 not out), who also posted a maiden hundred, to put on an unbroken stand of 204 for the eighth wicket against Otago at the University Oval. The shot to bring up the milestone was a sliced drive which hung in the air. Sodhi could see it was going to narrowly avoid the fielder and started removing his helmet midway down the pitch. The veteran leg spinner clasped his hands as if in prayer, then raised both arms in the air and held the pose, perhaps acknowledging the very, very real cricketing Gods. He had one last flourish left. He slapped his thighs a couple of times as if he was snatching revolvers from his holsters.
adrian.seconi@odt.co.nz
