Bracewell puts hat in IPL ring
Wellington Firebirds skipper Michael Bracewell was told by his team-mates he’d be crazy not to get in the auction after his ‘‘surreal’’ innings.
After his Wellington team-mates told him he’d be crazy if he didn’t, in the wake of his recordbreaking Twenty20 innings, Firebirds captain Michael Bracewell has thrown his name into the Indian Premier League auction.
What follows at next month’s mega sale could be anyone’s guess – a lucrative life-changing deal, or not even attracting a bid – in the erratic auction game. But one thing’s for sure, Bracewell has all of a sudden lifted the lid on the sort of bighitting potential he has in his game.
The 30-year-old has been around the domestic circuit a decade – and his surname around New Zealand cricket almost half a century – and the lefthander known as ‘Beast’, who grew up idolising Adam Gilchrist, certainly did his best to emulate the hard-hitting Australian great in his stunning Super Smash knock last Saturday.
Chasing the Central Stags’ imposing 227-4 at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park, the Firebirds were in all sorts of strife at 43-5 inside the powerplay, before the skipper atNo3 pulled off the unthinkable with his unbeaten 141 off just 65 balls to lead the visitors to an astonishing twowicket win with a ball to spare.
Bracewell remarkably found the boundary on average every third ball he faced, smoking 11 fours and 11 sixes – including three maximums in a row off his better-known cousin Doug Bracewell – in a total that surged past the previous T20 record score seen in New Zealand – Martin Guptill’s 120 not out for Auckland against Canterbury in Rangiora a decade prior. Not that Bracewell knew the record at the time, or even how many he’d ended up with, such was the Pukekura Park scoreboard simply showing runs to win and balls remaining.
It all came to light pretty quickly afterwards for him, and with eight days until his side’s next game and tickets already purchased for the L.A.B. concert in the city that night, it made for a great team celebration, where the captain most certainly did not have to do any work at the bar.
But Bracewell admitted it wasn’t until a couple of days later that the magnitude of his achievement properly sunk in, with his phone unsurprisingly going ballistic with congratulatory messages.
‘‘It was quite a surreal sort of feeling, to be honest,’’ he told Stuff four days later, just prior to picking up a bat again at training.
‘‘It was really cool to hear from some people who I hadn’t heard from in a while, some cricketers who I started playing with down in Dunedin.’’
Those southerners would have known a thing or two about Bracewell’s power game. Fresh out of school he thumped 151 off 136 against Auckland’s Parnell to lead the University-Grange club to the
national occasion brook North East Dunedin he club Valley. whacked final, needed 140 while of to the win on 170 another against Caris
before, ‘‘I’ve just played not at an this innings level,’’ Bracewell like that said of his latest feat, crediting new Firebirds batting coach Doug Watson for keeping things simple for him this summer and alleviating some of the overthinking he used to do with his game.
‘‘I sort of knew I was capable of a performance like that, it was just being able to do it at the domestic level. I’ve played a couple of innings probably, just not for as long. So that was really pleasing, to be able to do it for an extended period of time.
‘‘Pukekura Park are very small boundaries, but the wicket on that day in particular was really nice to bat on. So it was just one of those things where all the stars aligned, and it was pretty cool to be able to do something quite special.
‘‘What was most important for me was actually being able to get the win. It would’ve been a pretty hollow feeling if we hadn’t been able to get those last 17 runs off that over.’’
Tand Doug, domestic In Brendon, a Masterton-born bid he played late New debut son to 70s, Zealand reinvigorate two as in of and 2011. well Mark games internationals nephew Michael as Bracewell, for first-class his Otago career, of made former in John who rep the his he made ahead immediately Shield the of captaincy move the being 2017/18 from reins, handed Otago season, it’s to perhaps the Wellington and Plunket after the red-ball more of a game name where for himself, he has averaging made a bit 33 with and last 22 half summer centuries hitting and a 11 century hundreds, for New Zealand A against the West Indies, then captaining the side against Pakistan.
But Bracewell now boasts a decent T20 record, with a healthy average (30.12) and strike rate (132.56) that could actually see him more in line for a chance in the short form, particularly with the former wicketkeeper now also sending down handy off-spinners at a T20 average of 18.05 and economy of 7.55.
In fact, Bracewell would have been part of the Black Caps squad touring Bangladesh and Pakistan last September
October, when the frontliners were absent ahead of the World Cup, but he ended up turning down selection because of the impending birth of his first child, Lennox.
‘‘At the time I considered it for about a couple of minutes, but I can’t even believe I considered it for that long, because it was such a special feeling being there for the birth,’’ Bracewell said.
‘‘It’s something that is definitely a goal of mine, to test myself at the highest level, but you can’t make that your focus, you’ve just got to just keep trying to put performances together that you can be proud of, and those things generally take care of themselves, if the timing’s right.’’
It’s a similar story with the IPL, which Bracewell made the last-minute decision to get his name in the mix for ahead of today’s deadline, only thanks to the encouragement of a couple of teammates.
‘‘I’m a believer that if you’re not in it, you can’t go, so you’ve got to put your name forward,’’ he said. ‘‘But I’m pretty realistic about my chances of actually going.
‘‘I think I’d be a very long shot at a contract, but it’s just funny sometimes how the timing works with things like that.
‘‘But it’s not really something that I’m thinking about too much, to be honest. I’m very keen for us as a Firebirds team to get the third championship in a row, that was one of our big goals at the start of the season.’’
Wellington get back into action tomorrow against the Northern Brave in Whanga¯rei, and so just how does Bracewell re-focus and manage all the extra expectationswhich comewith such an amazing performance?
‘‘It’s important to try and stay level,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s so many highs and lows in a cricket career, and playing for 10 seasons, I’ve probably been through it all.
‘‘So I’m not getting too carried away, I don’t think I’m going to go out and be able to play an innings like that again on Sunday.
‘‘Just try and go out and not necessarily repeat the performance, but repeat the process of how I was able to go about an innings like that.’’