The first-class season starts again

The national four-day series resumes again today, with most international players available for this round. This means we will see Daniel Vettori and Darryl Tuffey bowling to Stephen Fleming in the opening match, between Northern Districts and Wellington. Perhaps even more interesting than the prospect of seeing how our national representatives fare when facing each other, is the prospect of seeing how Jesse Ryder does against the same bowlers and how big the talent gap is between established test-class cricketers and those on the first-class circuit. The Black Caps website is promising live coverage so we can tune in and find out.

A couple of recent good results have boosted the Northern Districts side and the contest between them and Wellington should be more even than you would expect from a game between last year's champions and last year's wooden spooners. One of those recent good results was the superb victory over Central Districts before Christmas and someone called Jack Solock has produced "game graphs" to demonstrate exactly how that match panned out. They are worth puzzling through, but I can't see them replacing the could old score card.