The 2014/15 season may be over, but some of the outstanding performances of the first-class summer will be talked about for years to come.
Chief among them will be Colin Munro absolutely smashing the world record for most sixes in a first-class innings, for the Mondiale Auckland Aces at Napier’s Nelson Park — his 23 against the Devon Hotel Central Stags flying past the old mark of 16.
Munro’s 281 that day also broke the Plunket Shield record for the most first-class runs scored by any individual in a day in New Zealand since John R. Reid in 1962/63.
Even despite not playing all of the rounds, Munro takes third place in the Aces’ all-time list of players to have scored the most runs in a Plunket Shield season. In a summer shaped by lengthy spells of good cricket weather over much of the country, he’s not the only player around the traps to have cashed in:
• Stephen Murdoch’s 998 runs in a first-class season was a new record for the Wellington Firebirds and obviously just a couple of singles away from posting a rare 1000, while top order colleague Michael Papps went past 10,000 career runs this season
• Will Young’s tally of 909 is third on the list of most runs scored in a season for the Stags
• Not far behind their teammate Munro, Jeet Raval scored the fourth most runs in a season for the Aces with 876, and Brad Cachopa the seventh most runs, with 783
• Anton Devcich, who scored his first two first-class centuries back-to-back and, like Henry Nicholls for Canterbury this season, scored five consecutive innings of 50 or better, is sixth on the list for the SKYCITY Northern Knights
• Reflecting part of the Plunket Shield champion’s recipe for success, Peter Fulton is fifth on the Canterbury list with 879, Domestic Player of the Year Andy Ellis sixth with 853, Neil Broom ninth with 820, and Henry Nicholls 14th with 778
Murdoch, Munro, Fulton and Cachopa each scored three centuries — for Cachopa, the first three of his career. Roll in the Knights’ Dean Brownlie scoring 334 in one innings — almost half his 691 runs for the season, at an average of 62.81; and the fact that his triple century was the fifth highest first-class score in New Zealand history, and you sit back and marvel at what a fine feast was laid on for the best batsmen.
MOST RUNS IN THE 2014/15 SEASON
The highest average of the Plunket Shield summer belonged to the Aces’ Michael Guptill-Bunce, who played only the last round, missed out on a maiden ton, but made two successive career bests for an average of 89.50.
Michael Guptill-Bunce bats in the final round
Of those who played more than one game, his teammate Brad Cachopa was top after his string of rearguard rallies, averaging 71.18. Munro averaged 56.18, Young 53.47, Andy Ellis 53.31, Stephen Murdoch 52.52. Others who averaged above 50 were Stags debutant Tom Bruce and the SBS Bank Otago Volts’ Derek de Boorder and Jesse Ryder.
Of the season’s 30 Plunket Shield matches, 25 ended in outright wins — in itself, an outstanding stat for cricket.
Canterbury captain Peter Fulton, whose best score was an unbeaten 209, now has 56 matches as a first-class captain — the seventh most in New Zealand after John R. Reid, Wally Lees, Craig Cumming, Matthew Bell, Lee Germon and Geoff Howarth.
Kruger van Wyk’s 39 catches and one stumping is a new Stags record for most wicketkeeping dismissals in a first-class season, bettering Bevan Griggs 35/1 mark from 2005/06.
Brad Cachopa also broke the season dismissals record for the Aces, with 39: Gareth Hopkins had 37/1 from the 2004/05 summer.
Derek de Boorder (pictured below appealing against Michael Guptill-Bunce) took 36 catches and made one stumping for the Volts, yet was still short of his own Volts best of 44 (43/1) set two seasons ago.
Ed Nuttall’s figures of 6-35 in Canterbury’s final and Shield-clinching win of the season was not only his maiden bag of five wickets or more, but the best haul by any player this season, pipping Doug Bracewell’s 6-41 for the Stags.
For the Volts, Jacob Duffy not only came of age with his maiden five-for, but burst into life with three in three games; while retiring Knights veteran Graeme Aldridge can hang up his boots in comfort knowing that his understudy James (Jimmy) Baker had the lowest average of any player who took 30 or more wickets this season, Baker’s 33 wickets coming in at 22.30.
Brent Arnel (Firebirds) and Neil Wagner (Volts) also took five-wicket bags on three occasions, while Todd Astle was just pipped for a second successive season for the title of the season’s leading wicket-taker.
MOST WICKETS IN THE 2014/15 SEASON
(average in brackets)
