Hitting the mark
The ICC is trialling a stop clock in ODIs and T20s in an effort to speed up the pace of play in international cricket.
It had its first outing in the opening game of the T20 series between England and the West Indies in Bridgetown this week, and will run through to April 2024.
Fielding teams will have just one minute between overs to be ready to bowl the next.
A three-strike rule will be applied.
Teams will get two warnings per innings, and on the third offence will be penalised five runs.
Please, please extend this innovation to test cricket.
Crease bound
The emails trickled in this week regarding Tim Southee’s six-hitting feats in test cricket.
He is one behind Chris Cairns (who hit 87) and two ahead of Viv Richards (84), which is a travesty.
I tell you what else is a travesty: that someone so adept at middling the ball refuses to get into line and make more of his batting ability.
It is enormously frustrating Southee has chosen to limit himself in this fashion.
In 96 tests, he has scored 2059 runs at an average of 16.34.
He is there to take wickets, and he has plenty of those (374 at 28.94).
But it would be nice if he occasionally showed more resolve and batted with more responsibility.
Clubbing it
University-Grange bowler Lahiru Vimukthi is leading all wicket-takers in the premier Dunedin grade heading into the last round before the Christmas break.
He has picked up three five-wicket bags and has 17 wickets in total at an average of 9.12.
Albion’s Tommy Clout has 15 at 13.27 and North East Valley all-rounder Hunter Kindley has 12 at 18.67.
Kindley is the second-leading scorer as well, with 249 runs.
Taieri’s Nick Kwant occupies pole position with 329 runs at 54.83, while team-mate Beckham Wheeler-Greenall is in third spot with 241 at 48.2.
Taieri lead the overall standings with 34 points from North East Valley (23), Green Island (22), Albion (22), University-Grange (18) and CDK, who are yet to register a point.
* Disclaimer. All club statistics are sourced from PlayHQ — the scoring system thrust upon community cricket before it was anywhere near being up to the task.
Suzie Bates. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
The declaration
Apologies to the great Suzie Bates, or should that be Suzie Bales?
We spelt her name wrong in a headline, to our chagrin, this week.
A reader insisted we do detention and write her name out 500 times.
Seems fair. Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates, Suzie Bates ...
