The Pink Report

When Silly Points Matter

There’s nothing like a quick overseas jaunt to freshen up your cricket season. Oh all right, Invercargill isn’t really foreign. But after weeks of steamy 30 degree heat in the north, landing in a place where the overnight temperature dropped to single figures, the daytime high wasn’t that much higher and a few more layers of clothing were required was definitely like being in another country.

Unfortunately the rain clouds were also able to locate the bottom of the South Island and set about scotching a decent battle at Queen’s Park, in the kind of damp conditions that usually present a bit of an extra challenge. James Marshall won the toss for the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights and batted, but it was the Volts who gained the upper hand early on, ripping through the first five wickets with only 73 on the board for the Knights. Scott Styris was still out there, however. Fresh from his classy performance with the ball in the previous match, this time he showed why he’s also one of the most dangerous batsmen in the competition, turning up the gas once Pete McGlashan joined him at the crease for a brisk partnership of 70 off 91 balls. He was on 67 when Pete fell to Nathan McCullum in the 37th over, then lost late order partners Graeme Aldridge and Bradley Scott in quick succession.

Cue flicking it up another notch, from “high” to “explosive”. Scott burnt Ian Butler for three sixes and two fours in a single over, then hit James McMillan for six first ball when he replaced Butler, then four. Now the ever-competitive campaigner was on 118 off 109 balls, eight fours, five sixes and smoke coming from his bat. The innings total was over the 200 hump with five overs left to bat, and would have made for juicy game of it in those fairly bowler-friendly conditions had the clouds not decided to empty their tank over the ground at that precise moment.

Net result? Two points each for an abandoned match.

Now on this business of points, I’m not terribly impressed with the design of this year’s one-day competition. As we know, it’s a short, sharp contest this season - eight rounds, followed by preliminary finals (1v2, 3v4, then the winner of 3v4 plays the loser of 1v2), then the final final. But six teams into eight rounds does not go, so the Knights play the Aces and Wizards only once, the Firebirds, Stags and Volts twice.

I wouldn’t be bothered by that if the way points are allocated didn’t place so much emphasis on who has beaten whom. The order on the table is determined by:

1.    Total points
2.    Number of wins
3.    Number of wins against equal team(s)
4.    Number of bonus points
5.    Net run rate

So for example, after the first three rounds, the Knights, Aces and Volts were all on 8 points, but the Knights were in number one slot, ahead of the Aces in second spot, despite the Knights having a negative run rate (-0.001) and the Aces having a positive run rate (0.139). If I was an Auckland supporter that would brass me off, but because the Knights beat the Aces in their only scheduled encounter, that’s an advantage the Knights will retain throughout the competition.

I think it amounts to an unfair advantage. The playing field isn’t equal. It means that any team you play twice has the opportunity to ‘level it out’, an opportunity denied to the other two teams simply by virtue of the draw. It also means there’s more riding on the result when you play those other two teams - plus, if one or both of those games happened to be washouts, the two points would be stuff all consolation if you ended up being seriously disadvantaged from having missed out on those games. It leaves too much to chance.

That’s not going to bother players because players just go “whatever” and focus on making sure of things by winning matches. Positive-thinking players and cynical nitpicker journalists are breeds apart. But it might bother them if a bunch of teams end up on equal points and they miss out despite having the best net run rate and being the better performed team overall. Surely in an “uneven draw”, it would have made more sense to make net run rate the more important determinant?

I’m bound to carry on bleating about this, especially if the weather continues to interfere. At least it’s all good at the moment for the Knights, since the Aces - the “once” team that they’ve already beaten - are proving themselves a top contender. Next stop, a home game in Whangarei against the Wizards - their other “once” team - on Sunday, with the weather prospects not too bad at this stage.

After Wednesday’s fourth round, the current leaderboard looks like this:

1. Aces             12 points (3 wins, 1 loss)    
2. Wizards      10 points (2 wins, 2 losses, 2 bonus points)
3. Knights       10 points (2 wins, 1 loss, 1 abandonment)    
4. Volts            10 points (2 wins, 1 loss, 1 abandonment, lower net run rate)    
5. Firebirds      4 points (1 win, 3 losses)    
6. Stags           4 points (1 win, 3 losses, lower net run rate)
 

***

Wednesday’s domestic one-day round and even the last day of the test match in Wellington was overshadowed by the announcement of New Zealand’s finalised World Cup squad. The big talking point was the omission of Pete McGlashan, given Brendon McCullum’s slightly dodgy back history and the age-old dictate that states thou shalt always take two keepers to the subcontinent.

While both Jamie How and Kane Williamson can back up as emergency keepers at the World Cup, it’s clear that Pete is still the selectors’ “second keeper” of choice - you’d think that’s the reason he’s been placed on official standby, along with fellow Knight Daniel Flynn, Rob Nicol, Daryl Tuffey, Andy McKay and Grant Elliott. Pete is the unluckiest on that list to miss out, and I suspect it ultimately came down to the difficult decision as to whether or not they took Kane.

Kane experienced it all in his first tours on the subcontinent with the BLACKCAPS: a couple of ducks against India, a maiden ODI century against Bangladesh (youngest ever centurion for New Zealand no less), a maiden test hundred against India, and a stint on struggle street when the unfamiliar conditions seemed to minx him. Just when things were settling down a bit back home, he gets bumped up to bat three in a test match. Never a dull moment in this lad’s career.

Critics are saying it’s not going to do his confidence much good by taking him back to the subcontinent, chucking him into the blazing furnace of a World Cup no less, while he’s still “finding himself at this level”.

Hmmmm. Something worth remembering here is that less than 12 months ago, Kane was the most outstanding one-day batsman in the country - blitzing it for the Knights, who easily won the men’s one-day comp on the back of his bat. The intriguing part was that he did so off the back of another stint on struggle street - having endured a low-scoring trot through the start of the season.

Kane’s in love with the art of batting (shameless plug: see the story on him in this month’s edition of North & South magazine) and can spend an endearing amount of time thinking and talking about minor details like a certain grip for a certain shot. Team-mates in the team hotel can always tell which room Kane is in: it’s the one from which a constant, dull tap-tap-tap is emanating, the sound of the batsman practising his stance.

Anyway, early last season when things weren’t happening, Kane realised the best thing he could do for himself was to not get keyed up about it. His technique had worked fine in the past, so he reasoned that he could back himself technically. He felt he just had to relax and let it flow - so in spite of his tendency to zero in on all and everything to do with batting, he put some extra strategies in place to take his mind off cricket (focusing on anything 24/7 is going to end up frying that focus) and to stay mentally relaxed. It worked big-time - and showed he has the strength to work things out for himself. I suspect that last bit is why the selectors have backed him for a return trip to India and its associate hosts so soon.

But I’m still gutted for Pete. He’s a clever, confident player who’s right on the boil. All he needs is the opportunity to take it to the next level.

***

Monday sees the national men’s under-23 tournament begin in Canterbury and the keen-eyed may have noticed that Northern Districts’ squad contains a representative all the way from Western Australia. Daryl Mitchell’s father is rugby coach John Mitchell and moved to Perth from Hamilton in his early teens when John was appointed to coach the Western Force in what was then the Super 14.

Daryl had already played representative age-group cricket locally and Northern Districts has kept in touch. Now, impressed with cricket he’s been playing in Perth, they’ve flown him back for the week-long tournament in Lincoln.

A right-hander who bats five and bowls medium pace, Daryl has previously made the Western Australia under-19s and an Australian “centre of excellence” under-19 squad which cherry-picks promising players from throughout that country. Although John Mitchell moved on to coaching rugby in South Africa, the family remains based in Perth for the time being while Daryl’s younger sister Ciara finishes school.

Daryl is at university over there and Northern Districts have encouraged him to finish his degree, while keeping the door open to represent them. After all, with its hard, bouncy pitches and fierce cricket culture, Perth’s not a bad finishing school for any aspiring cricketer.

The national under-23 tournament runs until 31 January with Northern Districts drawn to meet Central Districts in the opening three-day match, followed by one-dayers against Canterbury, Otago and Wellington and a Twenty20 against Auckland. Teams are permitted to include up to five players over the age of 23, so Northern Districts has added their contracted player and right-arm offie Jono Boult into the mix.


ND’s 2011 under-23 squad is:

Michael Dodunski, Hamilton
Bharat Popli, Bay of Plenty
Jono Boult, Bay of Plenty
Tamati Clarke, Counties Manukau
Jono Hickey, Counties Manukau
Daryl Mitchell, Western Australia
Mitchell Santner, Hamilton
Brett Hampton, Bay of Plenty
Shane Gadsdon, Counties Manukau
Anurag Verma, Hamilton
James Baker, Hamilton
Andrew Mathieson, Hamilton
Tony Goodin, Bay of Plenty