Quiet achiever Nicholls is making a noise
After securing a rare series win on foreign soil, the Black Caps had no time to waste in coming home with their next assignment starting Saturday, and their arrivals at Auckland Airport told a story.
Captain Kane Williamson was one of the first through, all business after a series where he scored the most runs, and notched his 19th test century to tilt the deciding test against Pakistan in New Zealand’s favour.
Offspinner Will Somerville made a beeline for his family, glad to be home less than 48 hours after finishing his first test with match figures of 7-127, the fourthbest match figures by a New Zealand test debutant.
Fellow spinner Ajaz Patel took his time but the crowd of two dozen family and friends didn’t mind one bit, mobbing him as soon as he was through the arrival gate. Playing all three tests on his first international tour, he took 13 wickets at an average of 29.61, including a haul of 7-123 on his debut, slightly better than Somerville’s.
Then there was Henry Nicholls, the quiet achiever as New Zealand won an away test series for just the 15th time. Finishing second to Williamson on the Black Caps’ run-scoring chart with 287 to his name at an average of 79, it was a strong tour for the batsman who turned 27 while away.
The skipper and the spinners may have got most of the plaudits but Nicholls played an important role, sticking with his captain on the fourth day of the third test after arriving at the crease at the fall of the fourth wicket with Pakistan still in front by 14 runs. Unbeaten on 90 overnight, he quickly brought up his third test century on the final day and finished 126 not out off 266 balls.
‘‘Kane was batting so wonderfully that it was just about trying to build a partnership with him,’’ Nicholls said..
‘‘We knew the conditions were tough and that it was only going to get harder to bat on, so we knew getting as a big a lead as we could get was going to be important heading into that last day.’’
Nicholls also had lengthy innings in the Black Caps’ second digs in the other two tests, lasting 171 balls for 55 runs as they won the first, then 187 balls for 77 runs as they followed on on their way to losing the second.
With a stay of 268 balls against England in Auckland in March, where he made 145, his highest test score, Nicholls has two of the three longest innings by a New Zealand batsman this year, and has faced 1016 deliveries in 2018, more than any of his team-mates.
‘‘Test cricket is tough, especially overseas in those conditions, as you saw throughout that whole test series. Starting over there is really hard and the importance of that is when you get in, you need to make it count for as along as you can,’’ he said.
‘‘That was the important thing with Kane, putting on that 200 partnership and keeping them out on the field for as long as we did, making those meaningful contributions.’’
The Black Caps are in action again in less than a week, with the first of two tests against Sri Lanka starting on Saturday at the Basin Reserve.
Seam and swing-friendly conditions are expected, which will make for quite a change from the United Arab Emirates but it’s a challenge Nicholls is looking forward to.
‘‘We acknowledged and enjoyed the success we had over there but now we’re home and we start a test on Saturday at the Basin. It’s exciting but we know it’s going to be different conditions and a different challenge, so it’s something we’ve got to prepare well for.’’
Something had to be done in a bid to stop the rot. The Blues’ new-look board knew they could not afford to sit on their hands and allow the blazing trainwreck of a franchise to continue on the same old futile road.
Hence why they fast-tracked Leon MacDonald into the coaching hot seat last month, a move which demoted Tana Umaga to an assistant coaching role after three dismal years calling the shots.
It was the second notable piece of news out of the grossly underperforming side since the 2018 season concluded in early August, perhaps a reason for the tortured fan base to believe brighter days loom.
The first whiff of change came in late August, after New Zealand Rugby (NZR) completed an independent review of the franchise’s governance structure, and the team’s 4-12 campaign this year.
It resulted in NZR taking back its 40 per cent stake in the franchise on an interim basis, and a vow from the governing body to form a board capable of digging the Blues out of a hole.
They appointed provincial union directors Kate Daly, Brian Wilsher and Shaun Nixon to the board, joining former All Blacks coach John Hart, Richard Dellabarca, Sam Lotu-liga and outgoing chairman Tony Carter.
In the months since, armed with player feedback, they clearly decided enough was enough.
As theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once said: ‘‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.’’
Umaga couldn’t remain in charge for a fourth year. Not after failing to guide a talentladen squad to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Going 8-1-6 in 2016 was forgiven. Regressing to 7-1-7 last year was frowned upon. Laying an egg in 2018 – they went 4-12 – was unforgivable.
And so it’s up to MacDonald, who initially signed as Umaga’s attack coach on a three-year deal, to make the Blues relevant again.
Dead last among the five New Zealand Super teams each of the last five seasons it goes without saying the former All Black, Crusader and Crusaders assistant coach has a mountain of work to do.
He made his first notable move last week, dumping