Plunket Shield: Round 2 Review

The previous week's domestic round-up was notable for the presence of most of the regulars in the New Zealand side, and as I pretty much covered their performances in the previous post, I'll try to wrap this one up quickly:

Wellington 162 & 216
Northern Districts 608/9 dec
Northern win by an innings and 230 runs

Canterbury 491/7 dec & 243/9 dec
Auckland 381 & 196/4
Match Drawn

Otago 207 & 63
Central Districts 277
Central win by an innings and 7 runs

In the ND-Wellington game, the Northern Knights fielded probably the most complete bowling lineup you could hope to see in a Shield game - Southee, Boult, Arnel, Aldridge and Vettori - and predictably proved far too strong for a hopeless Wellington side. The game was dominated by the foreseeable two premier players of NZ's future - Williamson and Southee. Williamson (284*) was a bit unlucky to be denied a triple century by a declaration, while Southee's 7-37 was a crucial signal to the management that he's ready for Austalia.
Wellington are currently far too reliant on their middle order of Elliott, Franklin and Woodcock and look set for another difficult season.

At the end of the third day, the Auckland-Canterbury game looked to be heading for a good finish. Canterbury were 288 ahead with 5 wickets in hand, but declared conservatively with a lead of 353 and Auckland batted out 57 overs for a tame draw in the end. Guptill (carrying his bat for 195) showed further signs that he finally has a first-class game to complement his relative success at limited overs, while the young opener George Worker(120*) held Canterbury together. The Zimbabwe-born Colin de Grandhomme hammered 117 in 134 balls, and is shaping up as a possible T20 and ODI option for NZ.

The Otago-CD game produced the sort of crazy result which makes you wonder whether anything can be read into these domestic games at all. Otago have the best new ball attack in the competition (Wagner and Finn) and had rolled over Canterbury for 61, to an innings defeat, in the previous round. This time, they were given a dose of their own medicine by being bowled out for 63 in the second innings. This against a ridiculously weakened Stags attack. The chief wrecker? 37-year old former Black Cap, Michael Mason, who had quit the first-class game but was drafted in because of the injury glut to CD's bowlers. Mason took 6 for 20 in his demolition job, and promptly announced that this was his final game. I give up.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THE WEEK: Mark Gillespie's effort for Wellington - 3 for 128 in 23 overs of penetration and no accuracy whatsoever, ending in an injury, pretty much summed up his international career to date. More encouraging was legspinner Tarun Nethula's haul of 6 for 32 for Central in Otago's first innings - if he keeps taking wickets, a test squad might beckon.