Jamieson strives

Squeezing into a limousine with a glass of bubbly isn’t your usual cricketing celebration. Then again, Kyle Jamieson’s journey to the Black Caps test side has been anything but conventional.

As Jamieson joined Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Ajaz Patel and wicketkeeper BJ Watling on Monday for the two-decade tradition – travelling in style up Wellington’s Mt Victoria after a Basin Reserve victory – he had time to reflect on where he’d come from.

And the fact that, seven years ago when he arrived in Christchurch from south Auckland to take up a Lincoln University scholarship, the 2.04m giant was a toporder batsman who rarely bowled.

‘‘It’s an amazing story,’’ said Black Caps coach Gary Stead who oversaw Jamieson’s rise to a firstclass debut for Canterbury in 2014.

‘‘I remember the first time I saw Kyle bowl at Burnside Park in an under-19 tournament and I looked at Dayle Hadlee and said ‘this boy has got a little bit about him’.’’

Jamieson, 25, started his secondary schooling at Rosehill College in Papakura – All Blacks captain Kieran Read its most famous old boy – then moved to Auckland Grammar where he was a top-order batsman and promising basketballer.

‘‘I was pretty much a batter all through high school. I made the New Zealand under-19s and [former test fast bowler] Dayle Hadlee got a hold of me and told me to run in, which shifted me towards becoming more of a bowler,’’ Jamieson said yesterday.

‘‘I worked with Steady for a couple of years to learn that craft of bowling which I didn’t have growing up.

‘‘I always liked batting. Whilst I still bowled I probably didn’t think