The Burger King Super Smash trophy is locked away in the Knights’ lair after they slayed it in the 2018 Grand Final, but all teams will look back fondly on the most exciting summer yet.
Every side that engaged in the national T20 battles will find plenty of hope to take forward after a tight and thrilling contest for the richest payday in domestic cricket — remembering that five of the six teams were all still right in contention for the Finals series even in the last round.
The Otago Volts may have done it tough but they also found something to cheer about after finishing a difficult season on a much better note with some heartening back-end wins for their loyal southern supporters.
The Knights of course put together a class performance in their home Grand Final and right in the thick of it was New Zealand's world number one T20 bowler, leggie Ish Sodhi who bowled with pink fire in his heart for an outstanding 2-15 off his four overs as the Central Stags tried to fight fire with fire only to have a (rare) shocker with the bat — hitting their lowest ever Burger King Super Smash total at the worst possible moment.
“Burger King Super Smash grew so much as a competition this year and most definitely is getting better,” said Sodhi (below) in the afterglow of the Knights’ first title win in four years.
“I love these lads with a passion, and we all played some really positive and fearless cricket, something all T20 teams strive to do. The championship was a result of that.”
T20 has come off age, the inventive skill sets and boldness on display are a big part of the fun and from Whangarei to Invercargill crowds were thoroughly entertained by the performances across the board from the Aces, Stags, Volts, Kings, Firebirds and of course the Knights.
Overall crowd attendance figures were up on last summer as the word spread, with super family-friendly ticket pricing, mostly great weather this season and so many added bonuses to get involved like the Burger King Whopper 6 Deal that saw sixes delivering for the crowd in more ways than one!
Canterbury Kings keeper-batsman Cameron Fletcher put his big guns to great use and had an outstanding season down the order for his team, helping win crunch games with his ability to both play an anchor role when needed and to send it out of the park.
Despite the Kings not quite making the Finals series, Fletcher was still the king of hitting bombs — his 17 sixes for the comp put him one ahead of Central Stags BLACKCAP Tom Bruce and Knights gun Tim Seifert (16 sixes each), Stags captain Will Young who has one of his best short format seasons (15 sixes); the Aces’ super impressive Mark Chapman (14), Stags star Jesse Ryder (13) and arguably the MVP of this year’s all-round comp, Knights match-winner Anton Devcich (13).
The Wellington Firebirds lost their chance to defend their title after falling back-to-back against the charging Stags in the last two rounds, but there was one man on the winner’s podium who could uniquely claim to be a back-to-back champion.
Brent Arnel (above) returned to his old team the Knights this season after three summers, and success, with the Firebirds attack and, while a neck niggle restricted his game time, he came right in time to play his part in the Burger King Super Smash Grand Final and pocket yet another winner’s medal.
With a hiss and a roar, big, ebullient Stags entertainer Blair Tickner was the runaway outright top wicket-taker this season. Like all the Central stars, the big paceman (below) had a Grand Final to forget bowling first on a slow deck, but that aberration shouldn’t be allowed to take the gloss off his classy personal summer.
Tickner finished with 21 wickets from 11 games at a very good average of 15.76 — and a huge six wickets in front of the next best, Anton Devcich the most successful strikeman among the spinners with 15 and Canterbury King Andrew Ellis (below), Stags BLACKCAP Seth Rance, Stags off-spinner Ajaz Patel and Auckland Aces rising star Ben Lister all finishing with 13 wickets each. BLACKCAP Sodhi was just behind them with a dozen from just seven appearances.
Ellis’s 5-16 was the best haul of 2017/18 with Volts paceman Jacob Duffy picking up the only other T20 five-fa, Tickner, Devcich, Aces veteran maestro Ronnie Hira and new Volt Matt Bacon (below) all going close with four-fa's — Bacon incredibly picking up figures of 4-31 not once, but twice!
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Chapman, Young, Ryder and Devcich scored more 50s or better than anybody else but it was Knights opener Tim Seifert who set the comp on fire with his maiden T20 century at the start of the Smash, Mark Chapman (Aces) and Luke Ronchi (Firebirds) also celebrating their maiden domestic T20 centuries in sparkling style.
Aggressive Seifert, still a young player at 23, finished in the top three run-makers with 323 from 10 games, just behind the class Will Young (331) and savvy Devcich (343), all with a strike rate of 145 or better.
With so much of the focus on their batting, wicketkeepers can be the forgotten men in this format of big hits and fast action, but their quick-thinking, awareness and fast hands are vital to everything running smoothly for their side and the Stags’ Dane Cleaver can take a bow with 13 dismissals from 10 matches while Seifert grabbed 10 from 10 innings for the Knights.
Whether they’ve been celebrating, commiserating or just catching up on mowing the lawns over the last few days, all the players in all the teams will be starting again this Saturday as they come back together for the last seven one-day rounds of The Ford Trophy.
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The Stags are the current leaders in the one-day format but it’s the slimmest of leads, just one point ahead of the Auckland Aces — whom they will meet at Colin Maiden Park in Auckland in round four this weekend — and the Otago Volts and Northern Districts (the Knights only going by that name in Burger King Super Smash).
Defending champion Canterbury is ironically the only team yet to get a win on the board, but there’s plenty of time for them yet to get back in the mixer in what’s shaping as another wonderfully tight battle this summer for national supremacy, New Zealand domestic cricket — the place BLACKCAPS are made — riding a heartening high!
