Former Wellington player Luke Georgeson, now the Otago skipper. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Hitting the mark
Former Wellington player Luke Georgeson, now the Otago skipper. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Wellington must regret letting Luke Georgeson slip through their grasp two years ago. The Otago captain has taken 14 wickets at an average of 6.14 in three one-day games against his old side. Ooof.
Crease bound
Former Black Caps and Otago left-armer Neil Wagner’s book All Out came out this week and we got the real story behind his pressured international retirement. Won’t spoil the plot for you. But it is fair to say New Zealand Cricket, which probably had his best interests at heart, tried to manage the hell out of it and only managed to make it worse.
Clubbing it
Waitaki warrior and my boss Hayden Meikle insisted we mention young Henry Wilson, who took eight for 26 for the Waitaki Boys’ year 9 & 10 side against Timaru Boys’ High School.
"The week Nathan Smith makes his international debut, another Waitaki fast bowling star emerges," Meikle pointed out.
Timaru Boys’ won by 18 runs, though.
Also worth noting the nine-wicket win Otago A had over Canterbury A in a three-day match in Rangiora earlier this week.
Travis Muller got back into some good form with a 10-wicket bag in the match, and Thorn Parkes and Hunter Kindley notched hundreds.
Kindley got a half-century in the first innings as well. He must be knocking on the selection door.
Otago A women recently thrashed Canterbury A women by eight wickets in a low-scoring one-dayer at Hagley Oval.
The declaration
The two Phils weighed in this week. Longtime cricket tragic Philip Temple wrote in with a question about the 3-0 test sweep of India.
"What created that?" he asked.
Luckily, he answered his own question because no-one else has any idea.
"Two things to start, perhaps — change of captaincy and skittling India at the start of the first test gave belief.
"The tosses were crucial, including Rohit’s wrong decision in Bengaluru and then the Indians shot themselves in the foot asking for spin-friendly pitches.
"But they’ve been playing far too much T20 to handle good spin over an extended period."
Phil Somerville — who, full disclosure, worked at the Otago Daily Times for centuries — responded to a piece I wrote about four other great test performances.
He pointed out New Zealand’s first test win in 1956 was achieved without their best batter, Bert Sutcliffe, who was never part of a winning test team. The 3-0 win over India was also achieved without Kane Williamson, our greatest batter.
Thanks Phils.
