Dream11 Super Smash final: Final #Statchat

By Andrew Dunford

The New Zealand men’s domestic T20 competition is now in its 16th season, under various names. The previous 15 competitions have been won by:

4 Auckland (A)

3 Central Districts (CD), Wellington (W)

2 Northern Districts (ND), Otago (O)

1 Canterbury (C)

This will be the second time the final has been held at the Basin Reserve. Seddon Park has hosted the most finals (four), followed by Pukekura Park with three. Canterbury is yet to host a men’s final.

Canterbury will be appearing in a final for the first time since 2011/12 and hasn’t won since the inaugural competition in 2005/06 when their lineup was captained by Chris Harris and included Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum and Shane Bond. Wellington is the defending champion and has won the title three times in the past six seasons.

Wellington is likely to field eight players who appeared in last season’s final, and has three players with two titles: Hamish Bennett, Michael Bracewell (one for Otago) and Tom Blundell. Canterbury has only one title-winning player, Daryl Mitchell who won twice with Northern Districts; Matt Henry is the only survivor from their 2011/12 final appearance.

The final has been won by the team batting first nine times, and just five times by the chasing team. Wellington batted first in all four of its previous final appearances (three wins, one loss).

Here are some numbers from previous finals (the 2008/09 final was completely washed out):

Team score

Average first innings score: 166

Highest first innings score: 211/5 A 2006/07

Highest successful chase: C 180/4 in 17.2 overs 2005/06

Lowest first-innings score: 99/8 CD 2017/18

Lowest second-innings score: 80 ND 2018/19

Lowest score successfully defended: 147/8 CD 2018/19

Highest individual score

80 Ross Taylor CD v A 2009/10

77 Rob Nicol A v O 2015/16

76 Michael Pollard W v A 2014/15

Best bowling (wickets)

4-1-18-4 Michael Bates A v CD 2010/11

4-0-24-4 James Fuller O v W 2012/13

4-0-34-4 Blair Tickner CD v W 2016/17

Most economical bowling (4-over spell)

4-0-13-2 Nick Beard O v W 2012/13

4-0-15-2 Ish Sodhi ND v CD 2017/18

Daryl Tuffey, Scott Styris, Brent Arnel and Anton Devcich all conceded 16 runs.

Most titles

4 Colin de Grandhomme (A)

3 Michael Papps (C, W)

3 Martin Guptill (A)

3 Andre Adams (A)

3 Colin Munro (A)

3 Brent Arnel (W, ND)

3 Michael Pollard (W)