In its linear clarity, plasticity of form and striking vividness of colour, The Cricket Match is instantly recognisible as a work by Michael Smither. Particularly intriguing is the fact that this painting exists in something of a "middle ground", mediating the space between Michael Smither's celebrated expressions of New Zealand locale and nature, and his more intimate interpersonal portraits and scenes of domesticity

The precise composition of this work is of note, for each player has been positioned in such a way as to capture the sense of a fleeting moment in a game of cricket. As viewers, we are compelled to anticipate the trajectory of the ball as we trace the gaze of the bowler and interpret the batter's poised stance. The significance which has been afforded to each of the players, in poses both candid and contorted, effects an almost sculpturesque quality. Thus, these local sportsmen donning their cricket whites possess a certain gravitas and seem almost frozen in time, in the manner of a Greek or Roman statue. Finally, there is an undeniable geometric elegance which underpins the work, elevating the cricket field from its purely functional role to something of higher aesthetic merit, through the careful intersection of lines and meticulously arranged blocks of colour

Although the work was painted in 2002, The Cricket Match was based on a cricket match which was played on the cricket ground at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, in the early 1990s. The work therefore offers insight into the richness of the time/ space continuum in which Smither operates as an artist, whilst combining the two aspects of his work for which he is so celebrated - the spirit of the Taranaki region, and his quest to capture and express something of the everyday human condition in force