| Event: | State Championship 2004/05 |
The round robin portion of the State Championship ended with Auckland Aces trying to regain their confidence after a miserable wooden spoon performance in the State Shield competition, the continuing resurgence of Canterbury, and miserable collapses from Northern Districts and Central Districts. When the dust had cleared, the top three were Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury. These three will play exclusively against bottom rung ND, Otago, and CD in the last three rounds. Those three sides are in the onerous position of having to gain full points from all remaining games to give themselves even a sniff of a championship match.
After a brilliant four game winning streak, Auckland were derailed by 6 weeks worth of horrendous Shield play in which they won only 1 of 10 games. Their play against Otago in this week's Championship game showed that they were more interested in consolidating their top position and getting some needed batting confidence, rather than in winning the game. It didn't look that way when they had Otago on the ropes at 137/8. But then Warren McSkimming and Bradley Scott combined to add 208 for the 9th wicket to put Otago back in the game. It was a Volts record ninth wicket partnership, besting the 134 between Neill Mallender and Jeff Wilson in December 1992 v Canterbury at Christchurch. (http://www.cricketarchive.com/NewZealand/Scorecards/f/39/f39804.html).
It was also the second largest 9th wicket New Zealand partnership after the 239 of Harry Cave and Ian Leggat for Central Districts v Otago at Dunedin in January 1953. (http://www.cricketarchive.com/NewZealand/Scorecards/f/19/f19650.html)
In response, Aces batted for the best part of two days at around 3 an over to compile a massive 528/8, a 180 run lead. Lou Vincent was the star with his second century of the competition. But there was hardly a chance at an outcome after Chris Gaffaney and Craig Cumming put on 129 in 3 hours and 33 minutes for the first wicket. The game petered out into the inevitable draw, Perhaps Brooke Walker might have declared earlier, but Auckland had no incentive to win the match after gaining innings points. And they were able to garner much needed batting practice.
Wellington continued Central Districts miserable season by destroying Stags by an innings. The heart of Firebirds 410 run first innings was the 215 run second wicket partnership between Matthew Bell and Michael Parlane, their highest against CD, breaking the old record of 190 between Bruce Edgar and Robert Vance in January 1989 at New Plymouth. (http://www.cricketarchive.com/NewZealand/Scorecards/f/37/f37507.html).
After a miserable 107 in 69 overs forced Stags to follow on, they batted better in their second attempt, but not better enough to force Wellington to bat again.
Canterbury continued their upward trend, and propelled themselves into third place, destroying up and down Northern Districts inside two days. Wizards compiled a composed 310 in 90.4 overs on the first day, and then, inexplicably, ND capitulated twice in a total of 89 overs to not only frightfully lose the match, but drop themselves out of the top three as well.
The points graph shows Auckland's continued domination of this competition, although their ascendancy is flattening out a bit. But with their last victory coming after overcoming a 99 runs first innings deficit, and this round's winning draw overcoming what could have been a debilitating giant 9th wicket partnership, they still look to be the class of the tournament. And with only matches against ND, Otago, and CD to come, their place in the final looks booked. After slow starts, Wellington and Canterbury have cruised into second and third positions respectively. Firebirds destiny is in their own hands, but Wizards will need to take care of their business, as well as hope for the help of a bottom feeder in order to make the final. By dropping from a 10 game to an 8 game season, with sides 1-3 playing only sides 4-6 the last 3 rounds, this tournament has denied fans the mouthwatering possibility of another Wellington v Canterbury game, which might determine the outcome of the second finalist, not to mention other interesting matchups between Wellington, Canterbury, and Auckland. Instead, the last three rounds are set up for the top three teams to continue beating up on the bottom three. Is this any way to run a tournament?
The wins minus losses graph shows us what is really going on in the tournament. The most interesting lines are those of Wellington, ND and Canterbury. Wellington and ND lines both look like yo yos, but going in opposite directions. ND have a young and unsettled side, and thus far have shown that they can play exceptionally well (as they did in their great victory over CD earlier in the year) (http://www.cricketarchive.com/NewZealand/Articles/2/2078.html)
and exceptionally poorly, as they did in this round. They are nothing if not interesting. Canterbury, after a slow start, is really beginning to roll, and they have yet to achieve their batting potential. After 5 matches, they still have scored the fewest runs in the competition, but expect this to change over the next three rounds. Whether it will be enough to book a place in the final, assuming they win their last three matches, depends on how the bottom feeders do. This graph also shows how CD, after their crushing loss to ND referred to above, has had the bottom fall out of their season.
The net runs per wicket graph shows the ascendancy of Auckland, still with an almost 13 run advantage on their nearest competitor after 5/8 of the season. The Canterbury line continues to shoot up like a rocket, but the slow start may in the end doom them to watch the final from the sideline.
Sources for this article.
Terry Maddaford and New Zealand Press Association game stories via New Zealand Herald (Auckland)
(Article: Copyright © 2005 Jack Solock)