The Pink Report

Flynntastic

Was it the most devastating hour of batting yet seen in a bona fide session of the Plunket Shield? That is to say, against proper bowling: not counting those occasional silly sessions when teams dish up full tosses and baptise card-carrying batsmen as bowlers in order to contrive a declaration.

Francis Payne is already burrowing through the mounds of scorecards and records that only statisticians keep, let alone know their way around - and I’m expecting a chunky paragraph or two in the “Happenings” section of the 2011 New Zealand Cricket Almanack as a result. But it’s a question that may ultimately evade even the best trainspotters.

Runs per hour, you see, is not a stat commonly recorded. The scorebooks will say that on the third day of the penultimate round of the 2011 Plunket Shield, Northern Districts made 198 runs between lunch and tea batting against Otago. But you really had to be there. Rubbing our eyes  for that ballistic hour in Hamilton, watching as Daniel Flynn and Hamish Marshall started smashing it to, and over, the boundary rope ball after ball at the dizzy heights of a 150-run partnership.

From the middle of Seddon Park the voice of a frustrated Volts bowler rose like a hot air balloon over the field as his captain asked him where he wanted the fielders. “Put them wherever you bloody like, they’re going to smash me anyway.”

OK, so if perhaps you weren’t fortunate enough to have been following the game as intently as me, you want to know some details. Here ya go.

• Daniel Flynn’s 241 is the highest score by anyone in Northern Districts’ history (not to mention his first double century and own personal best, of course).
• The previous record had been held by his batting partner at the time he broke the mark on the afternoon of day three: James Marshall had scored 235 against Canterbury in Christchurch in 2002 - breaking a record 212 that had been set by Scott Styris just one week earlier against Otago at Seddon.
• Daniel hit three sixes in his first (brisk) century - he was 104 not out at stumps on day two - and didn’t lose his stride even when, on 97, he lost second wicket partner BJ Watling (who’d just smacked consecutive boundaries off Warren McSkimming when he was tempted to miscue on 89).
• With Hamish Marshall, he poured on 183 for the fourth wicket. Hamish blitzed 82 from 68, with four sixes and 11 fours - coming in after nightwatchman Trent Boult had hit the ball sweetly en route to his own first-class best of 46 (perhaps helped by the lure of a few dozen golf balls from the CEO if he got a 50!). Inspired, after Hamish had finished trying to take me out at my fave square camera-shooting position on the boundary, Pete McGlashan then whacked 43 off just 30 - pretty much like playing a Twenty20 game in whites.
• Flynn got oh-so-close to dislodging Peter Ingram’s 247 as the Plunket Shield highest score yet made on Seddon Park, set by the Central Stags opener in 2008 - but Ingram’s 247 took 356 balls and 458 minutes, compared to Daniel’s 253 balls in 408 minutes. So there.
• And one of the sets of 50 runs came off just 18 balls. To sum it all up, after lunch on day three, no one could remember seeing batting in a single session quite like it.
• Oh, and the Knights’ 559/9 declared (in 115.4 overs) was their highest ever tally on Seddon.

Up in the stand, the Waikato Times’ cricket man Ian Anderson came as close as it gets to finally having a six fly into the press box, which is just to the side and above the sightscreen: one of the most difficult angles to pull off, funnily enough we’d been debating the possibility just a couple of weeks earlier. And in the room above, Northern Districts scorer and statistician Bill Andersson was doing his best to will Daniel past Peter Ingram’s mark, even as Bill and his fellows up there raced to match the strike rate on paper. I’m sure he and Francis Payne, who told me he would have loved to have seen the innings himself, will both come up with a stack more interesting facts and figures than me. It was a “Happenings” kind of day, all right.
In years to come, as I doubtlessly grow more senile I’ll probably manage to forget that, earlier, de Boorder had scored his first hundred and then Redmond had joined him after James put them into bat on a lifeless pitch, or that a few dropped catches let the Volts get away some (Redmond had been dropped on 33 going on to make 122), or that the two first innings points netted from the game finally restored the Knights to the top of the points table (reining in the Stags, equal on 29, for the first time this year) ..... well, for just over 24 hours, at least. For while the guys in Hamilton were packing up after the draw was called, up in Auckland the Aces were once more failing to reach a gettable total. You’d think 289 runs in a day wouldn’t be too difficult, but the Canterbury Wizards gambled correctly on the Aces’ general woefulness to collect the outright win that sent them into the trophy lead.

I’ll probably even forget that “G” Aldridge took two wickets in his first four overs on day one, which was a fine ol’ start on a batter’s track that hadn’t seen the sun in the previous two days.

As the game wound down in the final day four session - after a flurry of pretty good lbw shouts had been turned down in the previous hour or two (much to one’s frustration - but that’s the luck of cricket, and the role it can play when you’re trying to squeeze an outright out of a batter’s pitch), I caught up with man of the match Flynny on the boundary, where he was now running the drinks department with his left hand in a bandage. He hadn’t taken the field again since his dismissal the previous afternoon. So now that it had begun to sink in a little, I wanted to know his reflections on an innings and particularly a session that was, to borrow Willie Watson’s great phrase, like batting in the highlights.
 

Me: What do you think you will most remember about the day you broke the ND individual batting record?

Daniel: The partnership with Hamish was a special one, particularly after lunch. We said that we wanted to be a bit more aggressive, but we just got on a bit of a roll and fed off each other. “H” was hitting the ball really well and it was good fun being down the other end. We were just having a lot of fun - I think we put on 180 in 20 overs. It must have been pretty good to watch, and I can tell you it was pretty good to be a part of, too.

Did you almost have to calm yourselves down?

Yeah we did speak about that, but we also trusted each other and I think that was big. We understood what we were trying to do, but between overs we spoke about just trying to hold our shape, about not being too reckless. But you have that trust, as well, that the other guy knows what he is trying to achieve - just let him go.

That was the first time in quite a while that you’ve batted with Hamish.

Yeah. We batted together last year, but not a lot. His experience is invaluable - he’s seen a lot of cricket and done just about everything. You can always learn off the Marshall boys and they’re always willing to share, as well. It was pretty special to be out there with James, too, when I went past his record score. He said congratulations, well done, and it was just great to have him out there because he’s been a fine servant for ND.

His record lasted a bit longer than Scotty’s!

It did. But I wouldn’t be too unhappy if mine went missing in the next game as well. Yeah, it’s nice to have that record, but I’d trade it for the Plunket Shield. We’re still in the running for it if we can get maximum points in Rangiora.

Was it the kind of innings where you felt better and better as you went along?

Yeah I was a bit scratchy to start with. My first 20 balls, I didn’t feel like I was moving too well - but once I managed to get a few out of the middle, my footwork improved and I went from there.

What did it feel like when it really started flowing?

I guess it was just one of those days where you’re moving well at the crease and everything just starts flying out of the middle. You try and make the most of it, put as many on the board as you can, and it was a pretty flat wicket so you’ve got to cash in. I enjoy the challenge of playing on a wicket that’s more in the bowlers’ favour as well, but when you’re going well on a wicket that’s made for batting - like I say, you just want to make sure you do your job as a top order batter and cash in.

Where do you most enjoy batting - Whangarei or Hamilton?

That’s a tricky question. They’re both great grounds to play at. I don’t really have a preference: I’ve scored runs at both of them so I’m pretty happy. Although, given we were on the side of the block here at Seddon, and the square boundaries are short here anyway, there’s probably a bit less running involved!

After you got the first ton, did you have the feeling it was going to be a big one?

I didn’t really think about it too much, to be honest. I came back on the morning of the third day on 104 not out and I was fresh again, so I just started my innings again and built from there.

I imagine you would have been a bit knackered that night?

Yeah, pretty tired. But it was a ‘good tired’. You’re pretty happy to be buggered after scoring 240s. I couldn’t complain.

Had it felt like a long time since your last hundred in the Plunket Shield?

Yes and no. I felt like I’ve been playing well since then, I’ve never really felt out of nick or anything, but I haven’t got the scores I should have got. So it was good just to spend some time out there and get into my rhythm again.

I would have thought your season would have been one of mounting frustration, after holing out again and again when you knew you were striking it well...

Yeah, I guess so. I missed out in the game against Auckland here at Seddon which was frustrating, then obviously we were rained out in Napier - so my next innings was back at the same place and I wanted to make the most of it.

What was the self-talk before you went out to bat?

Nothing different, really. I’ve got my key focuses when I go out to the middle. I’m looking to play straight, get forward as much as possible - and things fell into place from there.

Did you find Otago’s pace attack more exacting than their spin?

They’ve got some quality bowlers, but I wouldn’t say they’re any more difficult than the slower guys. I think Beard’s a promising spinner. Ian Butler and Neil Wagner are both quality seam bowlers, so there weren’t many easy opportunities to score out there.

So you could never quite relax then?

I think if you start relaxing, that’s when you play a false stroke. Switching on and off between deliveries, that’s something I felt I did quite well in this innings. When I was off strike, I managed to relax then, to switch off, and so I stayed quite fresh throughout the innings.

I know that can be easier said than executed. Is there a method that you find works?

I guess it would be different for each individual. It’s something that I’ve wanted to work on, a part of my game that I can definitely improve if I want to bat for longer periods. I managed to take my mind off my innings when I was at the non-striker’s end and that helped me conserve my energy - so much of it is mental.

So what is it that you did to your hand to keep you off the field for the remainder of the match?

I got hit on it while I was batting and it swelled up, so it was just precautionary, just trying to get the swelling down in case I needed to bat again in this game and to make sure I’m good to go in the next one.

My feeling is that despite the average one-day and Twenty20 results this year, the Plunket Shield could yet define the way the Knights’ 2011 season is remembered.

Definitely. Things didn’t quite go to plan in the shorter form, but I still think this (the Plunket Shield) is the toughest competition to win. We’ve got to play 40 days of good cricket, there’s four days to go and if we can come out on top it will be a great finish to the season.

Do you feel this year’s campaign and the cricket the team has played has been much different from the winning campaign last year?

I think it’s just cricket - some things go your way and sometimes they don’t. We obviously didn’t play well during the Twenty20s and one-day comp and the results reflect that, but we’ve got on a bit of a roll in the back end of the four-day comp, got a couple of wins, got back in the hunt and we’re right in contention going into the final round. We’ve always had that confidence in our own ability and belief in each other’s games. We’ve done it in the past, so it almost doesn’t surprise us when, for example, we post a big score like we did on the final day against Wellington in Whangarei.

And now for something completely different. You’re off to play in Scotland for the off-season and I see the team is called the Dunfermline Knights. So you’re going from the Knights to the Knights. Did that clinch it?

No, I didn’t actually know until after I’d signed - and then looked up their website. It was quite the surprise, but there’s something in it I guess! I head there at the end of April, the league starts on the 30th so I’ll try to get there earlier that week to meet everyone at the club, have a couple of trainings and away we go. I haven’t met any of them before so it will be a new experience, interesting people and good fun.