I can’t deny that I was pretty happy to score three hundreds and a fifty in five T20 innings playing for Ringwood Under 21s in Melbourne last week.
Although I’m playing my club cricket for Beaumaris, I have been training midweek with the International Cricket Programme, which is run by Ian Holland, the Leicestershire all-rounder. And Ringwood is his club.
They were taking part in a four-day franchise style T20 festival, which is being trialled out here in Melbourne.
In the other states around Australia, they hold men’s competitions where they play for prize money and it’s a big thing. In Melbourne, it’s only the second year. So they’re kind of trialling it with Under 21s, Under 17s and Under 15s with the hope of launching a men’s comp in the next year or two.
These Under 21s teams got drafted in the Aussie winter, but Ian asked me the week before if I wanted to play. It was Monday to Wednesday group games and then Thursday was finals. We lost in the final.
Each team was allowed to field two blokes over 21, and Ringwood had Rishi Patel from Leicestershire. Even though I’m only 19, I filled the other spot. We both opened the batting, and it went well for me.
Picture by Century Cricket Competitions. Noah Kelly celebrates one of his three T20 centuries for Ringwood Under 21s last week.
T20 cricket is such a funny game. I got a hundred in the first game, and that gives you so much confidence, especially when it comes to ball striking. It just takes your game to another level when you add the confidence element.
It was pretty tough on the body. We were playing two games a day for four days straight. And T20 cricket’s pretty tough, body wise. Because of that, I was delighted to be able to carry it on through the week.
I’ve been feeling good on a Saturday for Beaumaris.
I think I’m averaging about 65 at the moment.
Confidence comes from doing all the right things, training hard during the week. It’s nice to see a bit of reward for that, especially in T20.
I’ve worked so hard on my T20 game in the last year, it’s nice to see that coming through.
Picture by Century Cricket Competitions. Noah Kelly is in sensational form in Melbourne.
I went into last week with a really relaxed mindset. Even though I’d been in decent form, Ian said to me, ‘You’re playing for a team in which there’s no pressure on you to score runs whatsoever. Just go and experiment, play some good cricket and see where it takes you’.
I’d only met my team-mates when I rocked up at the ground, and there was just that freedom to go out and play the game we love.
It’s a good lesson for the future. If I can try and take myself back to that mindset as often as possible, hopefully it serves me well.
I have one more game for Beaumaris this weekend before a three-week break for Christmas and New Year.
One of our lads at Beaumaris has a house down at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, so we’re going there for New Year. We’re also looking at travelling down the Great Ocean Road as well and we’re going to the Boxing Day Test.
I will still net once or twice a week to keep ticking over and do all my fitness stuff, but it will be nice to have a bit of a break.
Picture by Matt King/Getty Images. Noah Kelly is getting used to the unusual sights and sounds of Christmas in Australia, including Santa Claus at the cricket!
My parents are coming out in mid-January as well, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them. It’s going to be a nice little period coming up.
This will be my first Christmas abroad, and it’s weird because it doesn’t feel like Christmas out here.
Walking down a cold street in England, you’d have lights and bunting up in all the shops. But over here, it’s not the same.
Christmas still gets celebrated, but not in the same way. I don’t know whether that’s because it’s so hot or not. There’s also a lot of sport on and a lot of people seem to go away for Christmas, which is a bit unusual in the UK.
I’m certainly looking forward to playing some backyard cricket on Christmas Day, that’s for sure!
It’s wall to wall cricket in Australia at the moment.
Picture by Matt King/Getty Images for Cricket Australia. Jafer Chohan on Sydney Sixers duty at the Big Bash.
The Test Match is on during the day, and then you can flick the Big Bash on in the evening.
One thing I’ve noticed in the early Big Bash games is that it looks like teams are going really hard in the powerplay.
Finn Allen whacked his first ball for six the other day for Perth and then got out second ball trying to do the same. The game after that, it was Jake Fraser-McGurk and Josh Brown whacking it for the Melbourne Renegades.
It looks like a real emphasis on going hard in the powerplay and then taking it from there. You only get four overs of powerplay up top in the Big Bash because they have the surge included.
That Under 21 festival I played in, that had the two-over powerplay surge rule.
The plan was to go hard in the first four overs, then try and make sure I’m there at the 11-over mark knowing we can take the surge at 11 and 12 overs. Then, once they’ve gone, it’s a bit of a Home Run fest for eight overs to see how many we can get.
Picture by YCCC. Will Luxton, Ben Cliff, Harry Duke and Noah Kelly are all wintering in Melbourne and undertook a fitness testing day today organised by Yorkshire’s head of strength and conditioning, Harry Booker.
It worked really, and I enjoy that format.
I prefer the four and two powerplay format rather than six at the start.
The surge offers something for the bowling team. I think we’ve seen that consistently in the Big Bash, and we’ve found that in the games I’ve played out here.
If you can get a wicket in the surge, it’s hard for the new batter to start straightaway.
I captained in the second half of that tournament last week. Rishi captained the first half but was unavailable for the second half.
It certainly makes you think even more about your fields as a captain.
Picture by YCCC. Will Luxton gets to work at a Yorkshire-organised fitness testing day in Melbourne today.
Who do I think will win the Big Bash?
I like the look of the Renegades. They haven’t got a great history, but they look to have recruited well. Fraser-McGurk and Brown can cause some serious damage up top. If Fraser-McGurk comes off, especially, he could get you 100 off 30 balls. Thunder as well, they have David Warner, Sam Konstas and Lockie Ferguson. They look good.
I really hope Jafer Chohan gets a run of games and does well for Sydney Sixers. I’m going to try and get to the games when the Sixers are in Melbourne. It would be great to see him perform in those.
Talking of seeing the Yorkshire lads out here, myself, Ben Cliff, Harry Duke and Will Luxton all met up today at an Institute of Sport facility in Melbourne today to do a fitness testing session which was organised by Harry Booker back at Headingley.
It was a pretty tough day but very rewarding to see the progress we’re making off the pitch. We were put through a series of jumps and strength tests to assess where we are moving into the New Year. The facility was ace, and we were lifting alongside some serious athletes – namely Australian Peter Bol, who ran a silver medal in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
We then headed into the city for a bite to eat and a coffee as I caught up with the lads before they fly to Sydney for Christmas.
