The operative word is 'over' 3 seasons not in each of the 3 seasons aydee. It's pointless to even begin to argue because you know nobody else has opened half as much as Duffin. Vusi&Vermeulen maybe, but the rest, forget it! Ebrahim has been fluctuating between positions so you can't count him. Granted, Horton&Ballance have done better than him when they've opened in the franchise era, but that's irrelevant to this discussion because as foreigners or double-dealers, they don't count - you should be diligent enough to know that! Once again, of the current Zim batsmen in our Logan Cup, Duffin is overall the best and most accomplished opener. For a decade he's been doing nothing but opening and succeeding in comparison to the others who've opted to fluctuate between roles when it gets hot.
That point becomes even more pronounced when you take it to the international scope. Against Full Members, Duffin's average as an opener is only bettered by Hamilton. Because Hamilton's average is inflated by poor Kenya, it makes sense to exclude all the weaker teams, including Bangladesh(in case you attempt to hide behind that excuse again), leaving just the top 8, and Duffin's average leaps to a figure which dwarfs some of his compatriots immensely, further underlining my point! What I have done is focus on the man who faces the first ball, which is tougher, as opposed to one who cowers at the non-strikers end. The idea is to identify THE ULTIMATE OPENER. Interestingly, margin of the number innings between ducks the others have in comparison is huge, and I encourage you to relax my query to include the 1st&2nd wicket and you will notice just how wide that gap becomes! He's not too bad in other positions by the way, which means that his record could've been just as good or even better than the others if he moved to the middle order, further underlining how much better his stats are as an opener!
Anyway, in case I'm labelled with the fallacious statement that I ALWAYS make unsubstantiated claims, you're welcome to review old stats below, particularly the matches. While it's clear that many have had outstanding seasons and scores as openers like Mawoyo&Vermeulen, they've also had very low returns and resorted to hiding themselves in the soft middle order. Probably the reason why Zim has always suffered when it comes to quality openers. Unlike Duffin most simply don't cut it! On a serious note, it's quite disturbing that some of the senior or national players continue to expose young and up&coming players to the new ball, which harms their progress, while they resign to the safety of the later overs. Ewing on the other hand, has set a fine example in sending himself up the order when circumstances call for it and flourished inspite of that!
Old Logan Cup Stats
2011/12, 2010/11, 2009/10, 2008, 2006/7, 2005/6(Postponed), 2004/5, 2003/4,2002/3, 2001/2, 2000/1, 1999/00, 1998/99
I rest my case!
