ACS Overseas FIrst-Class Annual 2012

New Zealand in 2011/12 For New Zealand, the high point of the 2011/12 Test programme was surely a pulsating 7-run win against Australia at Hobart that snatched a 1-1 series draw. This two-match rubber was sandwiched between one-off Tests against Zimbabwe of which New Zealand won both: the first of them, at Bulawayo, by only 34 runs but the other, at Napier, by a crushing margin of an innings and 301 runs. This was followed by a sterner examination in the form of a three-match home series against South Africa. The visitors proved much the better side, winning the Second Test and drawing the others; but for bad weather they may well have completed a clean sweep. The new discovery V.D.Philander found New Zealand conditions much to his liking as he took 21 wickets at 15.47. The hosts could, however, take some consolation from the exceptional promise shown by K.S.Williamson, still aged only 21. New Zealand had thus played a total of seven Tests during 2011 and 2011/12. From this programme three wins was a respectable return, even if two of them were at the expense of Zimbabwe; but it was insufficient to lift New Zealand up the ICC rankings and the team remained in eighth place, a fraction behind West Indies. Apart from the Tests, all the first-class matches were played in the Plunket Shield. This was played, as before, as a home-and-away league with no final; but bonus points for batting and bowling were introduced and points were no longer awarded for a first-innings lead. In other words the scoring system moved away from what may loosely be described as the Sheffield Shield (or Ranji Trophy) format towards something much more like the County Championship. A further refinement was provision for matches curtailed by the weather to be played on a single-innings basis with reduced points, but this is not shown in the table because the situation did not arise in 2011/12. Points for a win were increased to 12 but if the intention was to reduce the number of draws it did not succeed: 14 of the 30 matches were drawn compared with 12 last year (when a further match was abandoned completely owing to the Christchurch earthquake). It could not be said that any side dominated the Shield: each team lost at least two of its ten matches, and no side won more than four. Northern Districts lost their first and last matches but were consistently strong in between and achieved what was unquestionably the win of the domestic season, a massive demolition of Wellington by an innings and 230. The eventual outcome was that Northern Districts and Central Districts headed the table with identical records of four wins and two defeats from their 10 matches, but Northern Districts took the title through scoring more bonus points. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, defending champions Canterbury suffered an alarming fall from grace and could win only one match. Central Districts certainly did not lack for runs: in M.S.Sinclair they had the season’s leading run-scorer, with 809 at 59.93, while C.F.K.van Wyk and C.Cachopa also scored well. Northern Districts, on the other hand, laid claim to the outstanding individual innings, 284* by K.S.Williamson to set up the huge win against Wellington. Bowlers, as the proportion of draws would suggest, tended to struggle in 2011/12. Otago’s N.Wagner again took most wickets, but his aggregate dropped to 46 compared with 51 in 2010/11, while his average rose from 18.15 to 26.32. Wagner’s first-class appearances were wholly in the Shield since he was still not qualified by residence for New Zealand; his closest rivals in the Shield aggregates were B.P.Martin of Auckland, whose 37 wickets cost 37.00 apiece, and B.J.Arnel of Northern Districts, whose 36 wickets at 23.25 were a vital factor in his side’s success. 213