• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Super Smash 2021 22 Auckland Clinch Victory Against Wellington To Get Off The Mark

Super Smash 2021-22: Auckland clinch victory against Wellington to get off the mark

Auckland rode on a good show from the bowlers to etch a 13-run win against Wellington during the Super Smash fixture in Wellington on Friday. Chasing a target of 135 runs in 20 overs, Wellington were restricted to 121/8 in the innings. 

The Wellington side had a struggling start as they lost early wickets and were reduced to 10/3 within the first three overs. They continued to lose wickets and eventually suffered a defeat. 

Captain Michael Bracewell was the lone warrior as he notched up a fifty and remained unbeaten at 58 off 46. 

Adithya Ashok was the pick of the bowlers after he returned with figures of 3/8 in 4 overs while Ben Lister also scalped three wickets for 27 runs in 4 overs. Apart from these two, Louis Delport impressed as well bagging two wickets for just 20 runs in his allotted 4 overs. 

Earlier, Auckland batters, barring Chapman, struggled against the opposition. They lost an early wicket and were 4/1 when Worker and Chapman joined hands for a partnership of 57 runs for the second wicket. 

But Worker’s departure for 23 off 25 broke the shackles and Auckland began to lose wickets at regular intervals and ended the innings at 134/9 in 20 overs. Chapman top-scored for them with a 48-ball 55. 

Ben Sears picked up three wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs. 

Auckland will now face Central Districts on Monday in Palmerston North while Wellington will be up against Otago in Queensland on Tuesday.  

Discover more
Top Stories
news

James Anderson takes on Joe Root, calls out batters for not putting up decent runs in Adelaide

England’s veteran pacer and one of the greatest of all time - James Anderson has taken on captain Joe Root over his assessment of the defeat in the Adelaide Test. Contrasting Root’s claims about the bowlers not hitting correct lengths, Anderson has put the blame straight back on the batters for not putting enough runs on board. Arguing that it was one of the flattest Adelaide surfaces ever produced, Anderson in his column for the Telegraph pointed out that the English bowlers did create chances but they weren’t taken. “We did not bat well enough on a pitch where the data said it was one of the flattest Adelaide surfaces ever produced and the pink ball did the least it has ever done in a day-night game,” Anderson, 39, wrote in his column for the Telegraph. “From a bowlers’ point of view you want to be hitting the right lengths all the time. We did our best on the first two days to do that … Maybe we could have gone a touch fuller at times but we still created quite a few chances that were not taken.” Anderson insinuated that it was not very gentlemanly of Root to go after the bowlers at the end of the second Test and rather the entire group should have been asked to be more proactive. “We have to be better at assessing it during a game. We can’t just go after the game, ‘we should have bowled fuller’… We have to be a bit more proactive at that too as a whole group.” James Anderson has only played one Test match in the series where he picked up three wickets after toiling for 39 overs in two innings. He was benched for the first Test match at the Gabba despite not having any injuries. Coming into the series, Anderson had been vocal that he wanted to play all five Test matches in Australia, but the team management does not seem to be on board with that idea. England are suffering an injury crisis in the pace bowling department with Jofra Archer out of the series owing to an elbow surgery. His replacement Mark Wood is also facing fitness issues that have put questions on his availability for the Boxing Day Test. England have called up Saqib Mahmood for the final three Test matches of the series.

news

The Ashes | Joe Root confident that century drought will be broken in this series

England captain Joe Root has been Test cricket’s finest batsman in the calendar year. Having scored over 1600 runs this season Root is head over heels against the next best Rohit Sharma, who has 906 runs in 2021. Root has scored in all conditions this season, raking up runs in Sri Lanka, India and in his home conditions as well. However, despite scoring eight 50s in his 11 innings Down Under, Root is yet to score a hundred. Addressing the same in the press conference ahead of the MCG game, Root stated that he feels confident that a hundred is just around the corner. "I feel in a really good place with my batting. I'm playing nicely still. I'm confident I can bang out a hundred in these next three games. I know that's a brave thing to say but that conversion rate hasn't been an issue at all this year. I feel like I have an understanding of how I want to score my runs.” The England captain has scored two half centuries already in the two Test matches and he has argued that he knows exactly what to do to convert those starts into a big score. "It's about managing the conditions for me. If you look at three of the four dismissals I have had, they've been in that channel. It doesn't swing and it doesn't seam as much in these conditions, so you feel like you can hit the ball. You feel in control and that can lure you in. And that extra bit of bounce can bring the nick." Root has only found support from Dawid Malan in this Test match and barring the left hander, no one at the moment has put their hands up to get England to a commanding position in any of the matches. Jos Buttler played an unbelievable innings in the last Test match where he shielded England from a certain defeat for 207 balls. Root has been vocal about the batting issues of the team, but has not given any indication if there would be any changes made for the Boxing Day Test match.