*Official* West Indies in New Zealand - Nov/Dec 2020

[Beamer]

100 partnership between Kraigg and Bravo. 50 for Bravo also. Pitch looks really flat from the looks of all these drives on the up. Time for Chase, Brooks, Blackwood and Dowrich to get some runs under their belts. They are going to need the practice.

 

[Nintendo]

Ravindra literally had threads made about him on here when he was eight years old. It's preordained hype rather than based on what he's actually done in FC cricket so far.

Ohh that makes more sense. Did he break a schoolboy cricket record or something? Quick google search brings up jack squat.

 

[Flem274*]

Question for New Zealand supporters: Why are the bowling averages of the guys in this A side so high? Is it the pitches? Are they talent picks rather than performance?

Duffy takes his wickets at 32, Tickner at 39, Rippon at 35, Rae 35, and Smith at 40. Sears is the only one with a decent average (25). Any bowler in the Caribbean averaging over 30 per wicket has no chance. But then the pitches have been in their favour for years.

tl;dr - casting a wide net.

duffy had a rough early career (debut at 17 - easy to forget he's still a young man since he's been around so long), tickner started awful but has improved drastically in recent seasons, rippon's average is fine for a spinner on nz decks, rae is a bit of a raw materials selection and smith is a young allrounder who just isn't kicking on.

barring duffy it's debateable whether these guys are the best of the players not already in a white ball camp - our realistic red ball quicks outside the main trio are jamieson, ferguson and henry - but i think the selectors don't see much point picking a solid pro like doug bracewell, hamish bennett or scott kuggeleijn when they already know exactly what they're about and they're deathly allergic to anyone who bowls under 130 clicks like williams and mcewan.

i would have picked williams in tandem with sears for contrast lols.

 

[Flem274*]

Ohh that makes more sense. Did he break a schoolboy cricket record or something? Quick google search brings up jack squat.

there used to be a youtube video of 7 year old rachin batting. richard posted something like 'nice drive but realistically he's unlikely to amount to anything imo'

rachin made his fc debut for NZ A. he's always been a level above his age group peers, and for a (until recently) teenage opener in nz he's been promising imo.

 

[Beamer]

tl;dr - casting a wide net.

duffy had a rough early career (debut at 17 - easy to forget he's still a young man since he's been around so long), tickner started awful but has improved drastically in recent seasons, rippon's average is fine for a spinner on nz decks, rae is a bit of a raw materials selection and smith is a young allrounder who just isn't kicking on.

barring duffy it's debateable whether these guys are the best of the players not already in a white ball camp - our realistic red ball quicks outside the main trio are jamieson, ferguson and henry - but i think the selectors don't see much point picking a solid pro like doug bracewell, hamish bennett or scott kuggeleijn when they already know exactly what they're about and they're deathly allergic to anyone who bowls under 130 clicks like williams and mcewan.

i would have picked williams in tandem with sears for contrast lols.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Definitely better to give young bowlers a chance and see what they can do against international opposition.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ohh that makes more sense. Did he break a schoolboy cricket record or something? Quick google search brings up jack squat.

I suspect he would have, but his original claim to fame was looking ridiculously awesome for an eight year old in the videos his old man posted on YouTube.

What he's done so far in domestic cricket has been fine for a young opening bat, I wasn't really expecting more straight away, but if he'd come into FC cricket with no real hype he wouldn't be getting any based on what he's done yet IMO.

 

[Beamer]

Kraigg in getting out lbw hanging on the backfoot shocker......

 

[Mike5181]

I suspect he would have, but his original claim to fame was looking ridiculously awesome for an eight year old in the videos his old man posted on YouTube.

What he's done so far in domestic cricket has been fine for a young opening bat, I wasn't really expecting more straight away, but if he'd come into FC cricket with no real hype he wouldn't be getting any based on what he's done yet IMO.

He wasn't selected for NZ A because of some youtube video 10 years ago though. Hitting 60 and 70 odd scores against Pakistan A as an 18 year old, along with getting through a solid workload with ball in that same series, plus averaging 60 as an opener in the 2019/20 Plunket Shield season. That's what made the "this guys the real deal" hype.

 

[Immenso]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Definitely better to give young bowlers a chance and see what they can do against international opposition.

It's also that NZ have had crazy good (by our standards) mini generation of seam and pace bowlers. But the youngest of them are 28 now.

So, these are the best of our bowlers under that age , except Jamieson.

Apart from Sears it isnt looking too promising. Although I get the feels Duffy is coming out the other end of his bowling action wilderness , and Nathan Smith is undeniably a good cricketer.

Tickner was entirely ineffective for first few years in red ball, and his stats ballooned. But he has had very good last few years to bring it down to 'acceptable'. Trajectory is in right direction. This same pattern as 3 bowlers in generation I referred to above (Bennett, McClenaghan, D Bracewell) so not a barrier to international competence.

 

[Mike5181]

I kind of worry about Nathan Smith tbh. I was high on him but it's sort of undeniable that while he can generally keep it pretty tight he has real trouble actually taking wickets. SR of 87 with the ball in red ball cricket. He's basically the king of 1/30-50. He's better in white ball stuff but hopefully he kicks on.

 

[Nintendo]

Bravo is absolutely murdering rippon right now.

 

[NZTailender]

Looks like Michael ain't Rippon through them

 

[Bahnz]

Apart from Sears it isnt looking too promising. Although I get the feels Duffy is coming out the other end of his bowling action wilderness , and Nathan Smith is undeniably a good cricketer.

Hmmmm, unconvinced.

 

[Immenso]

I said cricketer ..... not bowler.
His bowling isnt where I thought it would be by now.

 

[Immenso]

Has that been 2 ground grubber wickets?

 

[nzfan]

I do think Nathan Smith is a very good cricketer overall. He hoops the ball real late is what I've heard around domestic circles. A very good quality batsman as well. There's a reason why he's in NZ A. Not a tall lad though just under 6 feet I think so doesn't get a lot of bounce. Bowls tidy 130k, hoops both ways and quite effective with the new ball.

 

[nzfan]

He wasn't selected for NZ A because of some youtube video 10 years ago though. Hitting 60 and 70 odd scores against Pakistan A as an 18 year old, along with getting through a solid workload with ball in that same series, plus averaging 60 as an opener in the 2019/20 Plunket Shield season. That's what made the "this guys the real deal" hype.

Coming from Wellington and having followed local cricket to the t I can confirm Rachin was notches above (then my older boy was playing against him). Played under 15 as a 11 year old, won games. Played as a 13 year old in under 17s and won games. Any school cricket finals or nationals he was the best player on the park. The list of his feats as a youngster is very long. I remember watching him the first time in an under 19 comp when he was like 15 years or something ridiculous in Christchurch with legends like Hadlee, the older Cairns etc watching and proclaiming he's going to be great after watching him bat few balls. I was involved with another under 19s team too then and he smoked us all over, took wickets for fun. Then realized he's bloody 15 and owned us on a green seamer. I don't know about youtube or anything but once I watched him many years ago I was convinced this kid is a real deal. My boy was few years older than him, played rep cricket all through and gave up eventually. I did my very best and thought he may have a chance at professional cricket but never quite went that way once he found the piss and girls more interesting.

I remember some of the firebirds players some years ago getting frustrated because the coaches were talking about some 13 year old, the way he goes about and his work ethic asking if they are as committed to cricket. They were like are the coaches kidding or what talking about a 13 year old and questioning us professional players commitment. I was there at Hutt Rec when the late Martin Crowe watched Rachin and claimed he is going to be a legend when he was like 12 or something. Then I thought that is a very tall (or even stupid) claim and felt jealous he didn't look at my boy haha.

I would be hesitant to give his parents/coaches any credit no matter what sacrifices they made or the effort they put in from the position of being a cricket mad father with two boys. I'd rather give credit to the player. I have a 15 year old son now playing cricket, reasonably good and scores lots of runs in school cricket in his own way. Not great technique but has reasonable eye hand. I would like him to put a bit more work and see where he takes him but it's nigh impossible to sell a dream to kids these days. They have a lot of distraction. As much as a parent can do it's up to the lad I suppose. It is impossible to motivate someone in the long term unless the kid loves it. Obviously Rachin's at an advantage as his old man is a level 3 NZC coach and heard he's played fair bit of cricket with Dravid, Srinath, Kumble and the likes (thanks google). I see his old man bowling like a beast at Hutt Rec with Rashid Khan/Murali like spin bowling skills or throwing balls with the dog thrower @ 200 k. Mostly to many other lads though. Rarely see him with Rachin. I think his old man has led teams to India as a coach with professional players for many years. I think Neesham, Blundell, Raval, Woodcock, Murdoch and many others have been on those tours. In fact I'm thinking about approaching him and see if the can take my lad under his wing lol...

In fact I'm desperate for him to do well so selling dreams to younger lot becomes lot easier and they will also reckon they can do it too if he can. Finally we have someone in Wellington young cricketers can emulate and aspire to be. It's a very much feel good story just because he's the most hard working and that virtue is hard to sell these days unless there's some serious success through that.

 

[nzfan]

Darren Bravo warming up with a hundy... the man is a beast. Amazing player. He had a great time some years ago smoking a double hundred. Since then he has missed playing for WI consistently. If he did play consistently he would have scored lot of runs. Lot of class about this guy.

 

[Moss]

It's also that NZ have had crazy good (by our standards) mini generation of seam and pace bowlers. But the youngest of them are 28 now.

So, these are the best of our bowlers under that age , except Jamieson.

Apart from Sears it isnt looking too promising. Although I get the feels Duffy is coming out the other end of his bowling action wilderness , and Nathan Smith is undeniably a good cricketer.

Tickner was entirely ineffective for first few years in red ball, and his stats ballooned. But he has had very good last few years to bring it down to 'acceptable'. Trajectory is in right direction. This same pattern as 3 bowlers in generation I referred to above (Bennett, McClenaghan, D Bracewell) so not a barrier to international competence.

Is Ben Wheeler out of the reckoning completely? I don’t recall seeing him in the CD lineup either. It’s a shame he hasn’t kicked on as he was given a taste of international cricket as far back as 2015 and should really have been where Jaimeson and Ferguson are now, putting pressure on the incumbent test trio. I see Ed Nuttall is working his way back too, I guess those two could be added to the generation you’re referring too.

 

[_Ed_]

Is Ben Wheeler out of the reckoning completely? I don’t recall seeing him in the CD lineup either. It’s a shame he hasn’t kicked on as he was given a taste of international cricket as far back as 2015 and should really have been where Jaimeson and Ferguson are now, putting pressure on the incumbent test trio.

I think his 0-64 in that Eden Park T20 against Australia was a bit of a career-killer. Not really fair when FC is clearly his best format, but there you go.