Cricket: Will Young returns for Taranaki's Hawke Cup defence

Ian Snook

Blackcap Will Young will step out in Taranaki colours for the first time since the 2020/21season, in Whitaker Civil Engineering Taranaki’s fourth defence of the Hawke Cup, since uplifting it 12 months ago in Napier.

The classy Young will play alongside his brother Rupert, a crucial player in the Taranaki ranks, coming off a 2024/25 season where he won the ‘Players Player’ trophy and the batting cup, with 640 runs at 49.23. This season he has a top score of 157.

Two Youngs in one team. How good is that.

Will has just returned from India with the Blackcaps where they won the One Day series 2-1, and prior to that, a test series in India which the Blackcaps won, and where Will was named ‘Player of the Series’.

Since being selected for Central Districts in 2011/12, Will has also honed his skills, no doubt in preparation for the Hawke Cup, with stints in the UK with Durham, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.

Having a player of his stature in the side will lift the performances of the local players where coach Chris Coombe will be without two key members in speedster Ryan Watson and spinning all-rounder Mattie Thomas, both experienced campaigners, out with injuries.

On the plus side the big fast bowler, Freakish Ben Frewin, returns from injury, and he will be a key cog in an attack lacking Watson and Thomas. Frewin took 21 wickets at a miserly 16.04 last season and will be hoping to step straight back into that sort of form in his first outing for a while.

Also returning to the playing XI is last seasons ‘Player of the Year’ Trent McGrath.

McGrath is a canny performer, highlighted by his ability to play crucial innings at important times. Any time in a Hawke Cup game is crucial of course and McGrath is well aware of that.

Coombe has named a strong squad to play in defence number four against Hawkes Bay commencing on Friday 30 at Pukekura Park:

Josh Borrell - 673 – 33 games
Bailey Wisnewski - 680 - 37 games
Will Young - 646 - 34 games
Rupert Young (W-K) - 664 - 22 games
Liam Muggeridge - 665 - 90 games
Jacob Leuthard-Richards - 684 - 16 games
Trent McGrath - 660 - 16 games
Davis Mills - 674 - 37 games
Jordan Gard © - 688 - 51 games
Ben Frewin - 683 - 30 games
Liam Carr - 700 - 30 games
Callum Stuart - 663 - 19 games

Borrell has been in good nick this season with a highest score of 196 and 335 runs at an average of 55.83.

A cross between a bludgeoning Henry Sampson (Taranaki 395) and a gritty Ralph West (412), Borrell is growing into a leading provincial batsman in the Central Districts region, and a pivotal player in the Taranaki lineup.

At the top of the order alongside Borrell is Wisnewski, with a high of 79 this season at an average of 30, following plenty of starts.

With a best of 97 last season and a century the previous season, Wisnewski is well capable of neatly compiling a big total.

Coming off a season where he averaged above 40 with a highest score of 125, Muggeridge has failed to find that form so far this time around, but like any quality player, particularly one referred to as a small version of the dominating West Indian Clive Lloyd, Mugggeridge will be hungry to do well in this first defence of the season.

He is only one innings away from a huge smile returning, so fingers crossed that this, his 91st game, is when that happens.

Leuthard-Richards, is at the beginning of his career, blasting a top score of 95 last year, and so far this season only being dismissed once in his five innings.

A strong player off both back and front foot in a similar mould to Stephen Robertson (492), Leuthard-Richards is growing into this middle-order batting role.

He may be a physically smaller than Trevor O’Byrne (363), the key all-rounder in Taranaki’s 70’s Hawke Cup era, but Mills has a similar job to perform – key wickets with his guileful deliveries, and critical runs lower in the order.

He is capable of achieving both. An astute thinker of the game with plenty of talent to boot, Mills will head into the fray with a smile and enthusiasm to meet the challenges.

Gard, in his first season as skipper, and a young one at that, has produced two outstanding bowling displays this season, both against the next challengers Hawkes Bay.

It was 5-10 in the Chapple Cup (T20) and in the Furlong Cup recently Gard took 6-82, bowling a mammoth 27 overs when two bowlers picked up injuries.

He is a tough and determined customer, well suited to Hawke Cup cricket, where every moment requires maximum effort and concentration. His contribution will again be an important aspect of the team’s performance.

The little Magician Liam Carr will once again be a vital performer with his flight, pace and angle variations emanating from a long left arm.

His strong tactical and mental ability against even the best batsmen, has grown rapidly during the past two seasons, and following last season where he won the

Taranaki bowling cup and took 32 wickets, he has taken 12 wickets @ 16.25 in the Furlong Cup this season, as well as another seven wickets in the Chapple Cup.

First class cricket must be just around the corner.

The lively quick bowler Stuart, returning to the squad this season after an absence of several years, has shown glimpses of what he is capable of, and with this season’s games now under his belt, more consistency and threat is beginning to emerge.

What he learned in Napier a fortnight back will hold him in good stead.

Hawkes Bay will be driving to Taranaki breaking every speed limit there is. Their enthusiasm to out muscle the Taranaki team that defeated them twice last season in both the Furlong Cup and then in their Hawke Cup defence, will be sitting at the forefront of their minds.

There won’t be one individual travelling in the team van that doesn’t believe they won’t win. They will arrive fortified with a strong lineup including their current Central Districts players; and that is a whole bunch of them.

This will be a real Hawke Cup defence. All the best players in action – well most of them. Taranaki’s Tom Bruce is off to the T20 World Cup representing Scotland.

The great thing about cricket is that the best team doesn’t need to possess all the best players. Taranaki proved that most emphatically in the early 1970’s and more recently in the 1990’s. They continued in that manner last season.

Here we go again.