Scotty’s Word

My favourite Blackcaps ODI things right now...

New Zealand is 18-4 in ODIs since the start of 2025 while using 27 different players.

Blackcaps just won an ODI in India without five of their best ODI players since the start of 2025.

Four batters have scored 440+ runs in this period and only two are playing against India. Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway are playing, Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson aren’t.

Six bowlers have 17+ wickets in this period and Michael Bracewell is the only one in this ODI squad. Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner and Jacob Duffy are the leading wicket-takers, along with Will O’Rourke and Nathan Smith.

Mitchell has the highest ODI batting average for kiwis with 1,000+ runs by a pretty big margin...

• Daryl Mitchell: 56.73

• Kane Williamson: 48.69

• Luteru Taylor: 47.55

• Glenn Turner: 47

2026 New Zealand Tour Of India: ODI Series Preview

2025/26 Super Smash: The Bevon Jacobs Report

Along with many others who have put up a score or taken wickets in their first few games for Aotearoa, Kristian Clarke has 4 wickets in his first two ODIs and Jayden Lennox took a wicket on debut.

Clarke hasn’t been in tremendous form this season and his call up to the ODI squad vs England came after a century in Ford Trophy, but not many wickets. Clarke averaged 89 with the bat in five Ford Trophy innings and 37.5 in six Plunket Shield innings this season, which flowed into a handy 24* @ 141sr on ODI debut.

Scores in last 10 games: 1, 31*, 24, 47, 12, 32*, 34*, 1, 0, 24

Clarke has also snuck in at least a wicket in his last four games. Clarke and Zak Foulkes have batted ahead of Kyle Jamieson which highlights their batting ability and they are part of a wave of talented all-rounders on the rise in Aotearoa, also featuring Nathan Smith. This is something we have covered plenty at the Niche Cache and whether it’s the funky combos we have seen for Blackcaps recently (Clarke/Foulkes and Smith/Foulkes), every domestic team has at least one, usually two seaming all-rounders with enticing potential.

I have a few more Blackcaps things beyond the paywall with notes about Jamieson’s ODI mahi and Will Young finding a splash of batting form. I also have plenty more Super Smash notes as usually and expand on a few more NZ Warriors hot pockets. All of which is copied into Patreon for the generous folks funding our mahi over there.

My favourite Super Smash thing is Northern’s batting unit led by Katene Clarke and Brett Hampton. My appreciation for Clarke (Katene not Kristian) led me to ponder how he could form a funky opening combo with another Maori batter in Southern’s Jamal Todd, which then flowed into a rather incredible crop of Maori cricketers who are highly visible in Super Smash.

NZC have invested heavily in Maori, Polynesian and all diversity matters in kiwi cricket. Most of the players listed below have featured for the NZ Maori Schoolboys teams or regional Maori teams and many of these players have progressed to the domestic level.

Some of the best emerging players in Super Smash are Maori: Katene Clarke, Jamal Todd, Rhys Mariu, Ben Pomare, Jock McKenzie, Angus Olliver.

Others include Ollie White who has had a few games for Northern, and Ben Lister hasn’t played much for Auckland.

There is no shortage of wahine with Lea Tahuhu at the top of the pops. In 2024 there was an Aotearoa Maori women’s team that featured Eden Carson, Marama Downes, Kerry Tomlinson, Jess McFadyen, Holly Topp, Skye Bowden, Georgia Atkinson, Nicoe Baird, Ocean Bartlett, Sam Mackinder and Anika Todd who have all had various levels of involvement in Super Smash.

Martin Crowe got a wee bit racist back in 2003 about this topic. Thankfully, Maori have found a way to concentrate for a whole day and display patience to excel in cricket.

Olliver has had a fabulous start to his T20 mahi with Auckland: 17.35avg/8.3rpo

Rohit Gulati is another who is commanding attention with Auckland...

• FC: 26.1avg/2.7rpo

• LA: 25.2avg/4.2rpo

• T20: 20.4avg/6.5rpo

Super Smash started with Izzy Sharp (21yrs) and Flora Devonshire (22yrs) leading the emerging batters, with Emma McLeod (19yrs) flashing her class as well. Since then there have been nifty contributions from Natasha Wakelin (20yrs) and Eve Wolland (19yrs), as well as Prue Catton (22yrs).

Prue Catton this season…

• HBJ Shield: 195 runs @ 39avg/78sr - 1st for Auckland

• North vs South T20s: 103 runs @ 51.5avg/112sr - 2nd overall, 1st for North

• Super Smash: 118 runs @ 19.6avg/97sr - 3rd for Auckland

Marama Downes is averaging 14.5 in T20 bowling. Here are her four seasons of Super Smash....

• 2022/23: 1w @ 2avg/1rpo

• 2023/24: 16w @ 12.6avg/5.5rpo

• 2024/25: 8w @ 26.1avg/6.2rpo

• 2025/26: 11w @ 8.6avg/4.7rpo

Dragons have been one of the worst Kiwi-NRL pipelines over the past five years but they have added more Aotearoa blokes and wahine to their pipeline ahead of the 2026 season. They have added Setu Tu (Otahuhu), Demetrius Kilisimasi (Howick) and Rokko Walker (Auckland Grammar) to their men’s pipeline this summer with each covering a different zone from NSW Cup down to U17s.

The Tauaneai sisters (Wainuiomata) initially joined Bulldogs in Australia and Alexis made her NRLW debut for Dragons before moving to Bulldogs for their first season. Trinity made her debut for Dragons last year and Paige is on the rise, alongside Mangere East junior Seriah Palepale.

This summer Dragons have picked up the Liufau sisters (Lavinia and Mele - Manurewa High School) and Tayla Peters (Pakuranga) recently. This should mean that Dragons will have a junior from Aotearoa in most of their junior teams U17 - U21s next season.

Samoan international Jessia Patea (Wainuiomata) has been in the system for a few years as well. Gezreyal Maiu’u (Mt Albert Grammar) left Auckland for a year with Dragons but has returned to join NZ Warriors.

Dragons haven’t made major moves outside of Auckland but they have doubled or tripled their Aotearoa flavour below the NRL/NRLW levels. They are one of most active NRLW systems in recruited wahine from Aotearoa and their record in developing women is among the best in the NRLWahine ranks.

Musical jam…

Nick’s Notebook

If you happened to be watching the Newcastle Jets ALW team on Tuesday evening then you’ll have seen New Zealand’s Charlotte Lancaster smash in a spectacular winning goal in stoppage time from long distance. Her second goal of the season (the first came after a great touch from an Anna Leat long ball). Kelli Brown scored a banger for the Jets in their previous game, albeit they lost that one 2-1 to Central Coast. No Olivia Page in the Sydney victory but she’s had some nice cameos this season. We know how good Anna Leat has been. The kiwis are doing good things for the Jets (whose men’s team has won 3/3 games on Aotearoa soil this year – they’ve got a couple dual-nationals with kiwi eligibility, though nothing too fancy).

Charlotte Lancaster and Kelli Brown were inaugural squad members of the Wellington Phoenix, if you can remember back that long ago (four years). Brown had a few injuries that year and wasn’t re-signed. She returned two seasons later... and played even less. Lancaster was a bit-part player for the first two years as a scholarship player but never got a full contract.

In both cases there was huge talent. In both cases they were played who’d impressed for NZ age grade teams. In both cases they were signed a little too early by the Phoenix who then didn’t keep them around for the benefits... though in both cases they also may not have gotten to where they are now (and where they are is hopefully just the beginning) had they not also honed their game at the NPL level in Australia.

Both have won trophies in the NPL as well as earning individual honours. Brown was among the top goalscorers in the country for a couple of years before linking up with Perth Glory (after they hired her former NPL coach) where she scored five times last season and broke into the Football Ferns. Lancaster had to wait an extra year but got there in the end. The pair have also dominated in the NZ National League during that time though it was their NPL form that got them into the A-League and that’s something to note down as we try and build out our professional player pool. There’s a definite NPL to ALW pipeline. Deven Jackson is another who has utilised it recently, while someone like Alyssa Whinham seemed likely to benefit from a strong NPL stint in her offseason until the dreaded ACL happened.

Callum McCowatt (Silkeborg, DEN) and Elijah Just (Motherwell, SCO) compared to other attacking players in their leagues...

Darren Bazeley’s job is to mould an All Whites team that can win games at the World Cup (against Belgium, Egypt, and Iran) and while the nation’s most renowned player, Chris Wood, happens to be injured at the moment... we’ve got an abundance of dudes who are not only in strong club situations but are playing excellent football at the moment:

• Callum McCowatt is equal third-top scorer in Denmark at the winter break

• Elijah Just is absolutely sizzling for a Motherwell team making a European push

• Joe Bell won the Norwegian Eliteserien as a key player for Viking

• Max Crocombe unseated a Premier League loanee to win the Millwall starting GK spot and is now challenging for promotion

• Alex Paulsen is settling smoothly into overseas footy in Poland

• Matt Garbett has been voted Man of the Match in three of the last five Peterborough games

• Tyler Bindon has forced his way back into contention at Sheffield United

• Ben Waine has done the same thing at Port Vale

• Ryan Thomas is in resurgent touch in the Netherlands, captaining his club

• Owen Parker-Price joined Örgryte and had his new coach doubting the abilities of Swedish scouts because nobody else had signed him sooner

• Michael Boxall was voted an MLS All Star at age 36 and captains his club

• Finn Surman led the entire MLS for defensive clearances in his first full season

• Liberato Cacace returned from injury to score the winner for Wrexham in an FA Cup upset against a Premier League opponent

• Kees Sims got a run of starts late in the season for GAIS and helped them qualify for continental footy

• Andre De Jong just got signed by a title-challenging club in South Africa

• Moses Dyer is scoring or assisting goals basically every game since moving to Cambodia

That’s 15 players right there who are all brimming with confidence... and some of them aren’t even in the All Whites picture. Dyer’s not going to make it. ADJ will be lucky to do so. Sims is no guarantee. At this present moment in time, however fleeting it may be, this is how I’m feeling about a 26-man World Cup squad...

GK: Max Crocombe, Alex Paulsen, Kees Sims

DEF: Tim Payne, Finn Surman, Michael Boxall, Liberato Cacace, Tyler Bindon, Nando Pijnaker, Francis De Vries, Bill Tuiloma

MID: Joe Bell, Marko Stamenic, Ryan Thomas, Matt Garbett, Alex Rufer, Owen Parker-Price

FWD: Chris Wood, Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just, Sarpreet Singh, Ben Old, Kosta Barbarouses, Ben Waine, Jesse Randall, Andre De Jong

Others in contention: Henry Gray (GK), Michael Woud (GK), Sam Sutton (LB), James McGarry (LB), Storm Roux (RB), Dalton Wilkins (LB), George Stanger (CB), Corban Piper (?), Luke Brooke-Smith (FW), Logan Rogerson (FW). If he can get a run between now and the end of the ALM season, I’m genuinely thinking Luke Brooke-Smith could sneak in there (in place of ADJ, probably). Max Mata I think has left it too late and even if he scores bundles again in Ireland he’ll likely miss out to the more versatile Ben Waine anyway.

Flying Kiwis – January 13

2025 Men’s National League – Team of the Season

2025 Women’s National League – Team of the Season

Sam Waardenburg since returning from injury for the Cairns Taipans...

27.8 MIN | 15.5 PTS (56.6 FG%, 43.5 3P%) | 5.4 REB | 2.8 AST | 0.8 BLK

Those are per game averages across 8 games... and the numbers are rising, especially the scoring. He had single digits in two of his first three games back and since then has dropped 19pts, 22pts, 17pts, 20pts, and 13pts all with field goal percentages of 50% or better.

Meanwhile, the Adelaide 36ers have surged to the top of the NBL ladder and in Flynn Cameron’s last four games (3-1 for ADL) he’s done this...

17 PTS (5/11 FG, 3/6 3PT) | 6 REB | 5 AST vs Perth (W)

25 PTS (9/10 FG, 6/7 3PT) | 1 REB | 4 AST | 2 STL vs Sydney (W)

18 PTS (6/12 FG, 3.7 3PT) | 5 REB | 3 AST vs Brisbane (W)

25 PTS (9/11 FG, 1/3 3PT) | 6 REB | 1 AST vs Tasmania (L)

Cameron scored 25 points in that most recent Tassie loss... as his team only scored 72 in total. He shot 9/11 in a team performance that only hit 40.3% of their field goals overall. Take out FC’s numbers and they were 18/56 (32%). Bryce Cotton, Zylan Cheatham... nah we know who the real star of this team is.

All the hope that we had for a Cameron breakthrough after leaving Melbourne United for a bigger role is coming true and then some. Per Spatial Jam, he’s got a 129 Offensive Rating and 109 Defensive Rating during his almost 700 mins of action... his Net Rating of +20 is amongst the very best in the league. Flynnsanity has arrived.

Some more things to know about Daryl Mitchell the ODI legend...

Highest Career ODI Batting Average

1. Milind Kumar (USA) – 67.73 avg (1016 runs, 22 matches)

2. Ryan ten Doeschate (NED) – 67.00 avg (1541 runs, 33 matches)

3. Virat Kohli (IND) – 58.45 avg (14673 runs, 310 matches)

4. Daryl Mitchell (NZ) – 56.73 avg (2553 runs, 58 matches)

5. Shubman Gill (IND) – 56.34 avg (2930 runs, 60 matches)

That’s for everyone with at least 1000 runs in the format... and keep in mind that the bro Milind Kumar has never played against a Test nation before. He’s an active player though, so his number is likely to drop at some stage. And if we raise the bar to 2k runs then Mitchell now sits second behind the One Day International GOAT Mr Kohli... having overtaken Shubman Gill thanks to their respective efforts overnight.

By the way, Daryl Mitchell’s three highest ODI scores all came against India in India. He’s averaging 85.5 from seven innings away against India, only Angelo Mathews (96.5 from 11 inns) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (88.0 from 9 inns) have higher numbers than that of players to score at least 500 runs under those conditions.

Innings Before First ODI Duck

(* = never dismissed for 0)

1. Kepler Wessels (AUS/SA) – 105*

2. Kumar Dharmasena (SL) – 72

3. Gordon Greenidge (WI) – 70

4. Samiullah Shinwari (AFG) – 70

5. Craig McMillan (NZ) – 68

6. Chris Cairns (NZ) – 68

7. Graeme Smith (SA) – 67

8. Faf du Plessis (SA) – 60

9. Ijaz Ahmed (PAK) – 53

10. Daryl Mitchell (NZ) – 53*

The Dazzler is top ten and rising in this one, with the second highest no-duck count in history (albeit in an active career, so this could change in a few days... knock on wood that it doesn’t). For what it’s worth, Mitchell’s average is twenty runs higher than Wessels and he has eight centuries compared to one for KW. Also, Mitchell has only ever gotten one duck in 55 Test innings as well.

Fastest To 2000 ODI Runs

• Shubman Gill (IND) – 38 innings

• Hashim Amla (SA) – 40 innings

• Zaheer Abbas (PAK), Kevin Pietersen (ENG), Babar Azam (PAK), Rassie van der Dussen (SA) – 45 innings

• Imam-ul-Haq (PAK) – 46 innings

• Daryl Mitchell (NZ), Jonathan Trott (ENG), Shai Hope (WI) – 47 innings

That’s eighth equal for Daryl Mitchell, again within the top ten. He reached 2k runs back in April 2025 when he scored 43 runs in a win over Pakistan. Since then he’s batted six more times and scored 2 hundreds with 3 fiftes. 512 runs at an average of 170.7. The previous NZ record for fewest innings to reach 2k runs was Andrew Jones who did it in 52 innings back in 1991. Kane Williamson got there in 54 innings.

The fastest to 3000 runs was Hashim Amla in a wicked 57 innings... ten clear of Shai Hope, Fakhar Zaman, and Imam-ul-Haq who all got there in 67 innings. Daryl Mitchell needs 447 runs in his next three innings to beat Amla... or 447 runs in his next 13 innings to settle comfortably into second place (that’d require around 35 runs per innings). Granted, Shubman Gill is only 70 runs away after 60 innings so he’s probably going to set a new second-placed mark before Mitchell can get there. Kane Williamson’s NZ record for fastest to 3k is 73 innings.

Musical Jam...