HITTING THE MARK
There were a couple of outstanding performances during the latest round of the Plunket Shield.
Central Districts paceman Brett Randell got himself on television for his five wickets in five balls. In the billions of first-class games that have been played, the right-armer was the first to take five wickets in five consecutive balls.
But it was the performance of our own Thomas O’Connor that captured the attention of Notes from Slip. The Otago left-armer is one to watch.
The Black Caps test side were at their best when they had two quality left-arm seamers in Trent Boult and Neil Wagner firing. They are missing someone like that at the moment. That raises the question: who is the best leftarmer in the country?
Auckland’s Ben Lister was being groomed as an international. He has played a dozen T20s for his country and three ODIs. He is still the leading candidate, while Central Districts lefty Ray Toole is starting to press his claims. He has had a strong Plunket Shield campaign.
Mohammad Abbas claimed a five-for in his last outing and shapes as a quality all-rounder if he can stay fit. But there are not a ton of quality left-armers around. There is definitely a gap for O’Connor if he can string together some good summers.
CREASE BOUND
Foul. In all fairness, India were the best team at the T20 World Cup and South Africa were arguably a very solid second despite losing to the Black Caps in the semifinal. It is only right that their players dominated the tournament team. India provided four players and South Africa supplied two.
There were no New Zealanders named in the 12. None. They did get to the final, right? Surely there was a spot for Finn Allen in the lineup somewhere, even if he was not opening. He played the innings of the tournament, and Tim Seifert was the second-leading scorer. Rachin Ravindra made a big impact with the ball and Mitchell Santner was frugal.
CLUBBING IT
Albion Kilda’s Chris Morris went past 1000 runs for the season last weekend. The experienced campaigner has scored 1031 runs at an average of 343.67. He has clobbered a double hundred, two centuries and eight half-centuries. There has also been plenty of red ink - he has been undefeated in 11 of his 14 knocks. It has been said before and is worth saying again - are you sure you belong in the third grade, Chris?
THE DECLARATION
Some observations from the White Ferns’ three ODIs against Zimbabwe in Dunedin.
• The home side conceded way too many extras in all three games. They will need to tighten up in that area against South Africa.
• Melie Kerr has really got her legspinner going. Previously, she leaned on her wrong’un, but is a lot more threatening with both deliveries coming out so well.
• Where were the spectators? The official crowd for the first two games was 325 on Wednesday and 481 on Sunday. People need to support events like this if they want them to return.
