Ben Lockrose. Photo: ODT files
Hitting the mark
That was some hitting from Ben Lockrose at the death to seal a four-wicket win over Central Districts in a Super Smash game at the University Oval on Sunday.Quick reminder - Otago needed 30 off the last two overs to win and its No 8 was facing.
In my mind, Lockrose was still that lanky kid from Otago Boys’ who was emerging as a useful left-arm spinner.
He is not the boy any more. He is a big lump of a lad now and awfully powerful. He smashed 58 from 26, including flaying 24 off the penultimate over in a memorable finish.
Lockrose was also part of the Otago team that won the under-19 national tournament in 2016-17.
That side featured Nathan Smith, Max Chu, Llew Johnson and Hunter Kindley, who have all since played for Otago.
Kindley made his debut this week, while Smith plies his trade in Wellington these days.
Otago has a really good crop of young players when you add in the likes of Thorn Parkes, Jacob Cumming, Dale Phillips and Dean Foxcroft, who are all under 25.
Maybe this generation can end Otago’s long drought in the Plunket Shield in the years to come.
Clubbing it
Choked on my coffee when reading the Otago Cricket Association newsletter this week.
Dunedin cricket manager Nic Kittelty made the following statement about the transition to controversial new scoring platform PlayHQ, which was rolled out nationally this summer.
"[It] has been a challenging yet exciting process for the cricketing community," he wrote.
"While there have been teething issues along the way, the regularity and pace at which PlayHQ has advanced has been the most pleasing."
Have to respectfully disagree with Kittelty. He went on to thank the volunteers, which was nice.
But the majority of the volunteers Notes From Slip has spoken to have certainly not used the word exciting to describe the changes thrust upon them.
They used other, well, more colourful language. And who can blame them?
It is February and there is still no proper fall of wickets. Mr Fill-In gets around.
He still features in most club scorecards, rendering the scoreboard irrelevant.
There is still no statistical database where you can go and look up who the leading scorers or wicket-takers might be.
PlayHQ’s greatest achievement to date, in my assessment, has been to make club cricket really hard to follow.
As for the pace of improvement, that would best be described as glacial.
The declaration
Long-serving South African captain Dane van Niekerk was this week overlooked for the Women’s T20 World Cup after failing to meet the fitness standards of the
squad.
Cricinfo reported the players were required to run 2km in 9min 30sec or less.
Van Niekerk, who has been recovering from a broken ankle, was 18 seconds too slow, which was actually a personal best.
A couple of thoughts came to mind.
Who cares if she is more tortoise than hare as long as she still takes wickets and scores runs, which she has consistently done in 86 T20 games for her country?
The other thought, which briefly popped into my mind, was: how fast was Jesse Ryder over that distance?
But then I realised I don’t actually care.
He absolutely leathered the ball, and that was the best metric.
