Wagner swings into action
He knows at age 34 he’s never going to be the new King of Swing.
But don’t tell old dog Neil Wagner he can’t produce new tricks.
For the most part of his sixwicket match haul at Seddon Park, the Black Caps left-arm paceman shunned a predominant short-pitched approach that he’s become famous for and has troubled test batsmen around the world with.
Wagner got some noticeable swing as New Zealand hammered the West Indies by an innings and 134 runs in the first test in Hamilton and said it didn’t come about by accident.
‘‘I’ve always worked on that. ‘‘I don’t want to be seen as a one-trick pony. I know I can do other things. In first-class cricket I do work really hard on those sorts of skills. It’s summing up the conditions and what’s in front of you.
‘‘We know the short-ball plan hasn’t always gone to plan, with the shorter boundaries you can leak runs. I guess it comes down to experience and the knowledge of the ground, and discussing with the other bowlers.
‘‘If the short-ball stuff is going to be effective obviously we go straight to that plan . . . but to be able to do other things is quite pleasing.’’
Wagner took 2-15 in the first innings and led the New Zealand wicket haul in the second innings with 4-66 to take his test tally in 49 matches to a hugely impressive
212 wickets at an average of 26.31. He paid tribute to his fellow quicks Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson, who proved far too good for an ill-disciplined West Indian batting line-up in ideal conditions on Saturday that set up the big win.
‘‘What I thought we did well as a pack is we didn’t go searching and try to force something when it wasn’t there. We bowled really well, we bowled patiently and kept asking questions for long periods of time.’’
Southee spearheaded the attack in the first innings when the tourists were bundled out for
138 and another second-innings scalp left him just 11 wickets short of joining Sir Richard Hadlee and
Daniel Vettori as New Zealand test players with 300-plus wickets.
‘‘Tim’s been a class performer for us for a number of years now,’’ Wagner said. ‘‘He’s gone through tough periods . . . and I think it’s part of the game – you’re not always going to get the rewards you want.
‘‘What he’s done is that hard graft work, running into the wind, doing the tough sort of yards and bowling for the others guys around him. He’s still doing exactly the same things, it’s just swings and roundabouts and now he’s finally getting that reward.’’
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said Seddon Park proved an ideal venue to use all four quick bowlers and leave leftarm spinner Mitchell Santner carrying the drinks.
‘‘On a surface like that it’s particularly nice the way the ball swung and obviously a little bit of nip as well – nicks were carrying throughout which was great ... compliments to the surface, last time we were here [versus England last year] it wasn’t the case.
‘‘When we get to Wellington [for the second test starting on Friday] we’ll just have to have a look at the surface and see what we think is the best fit.’’
Wicketkeeper-batsman BJ Watling missed the first test through a hamstring injury but was progressing well towards being fit to play at the Basin Reserve. His return would see debutant opener Will Young drop out of the XI with Tom Blundell – who took the gloves in Hamilton – moving back up the order to open.
The wait to return to Mt Smart continues for the Warriors, but coach Nathan Brown sees a silver lining in the Kiwi NRL club’s decision to kick-off next season in Australia.
With no word on when the Government might agree to a trans-Tasman bubble, the Warriors have made the tough call to base themselves in NSW for at least three months from January 3, which includes the first four games of the season.
With a new coach and seven new signings, the Warriors need all the time they can get to gel. However, their pre-season preparations have already been hampered by having to train in two groups – one in Auckland with 14 other players training in Australia – before they come together in Tamworth.
Not that Brown seems overly worried. In fact, he sees having all of his players under one roof for six weeks ahead of the start of the season as a ‘‘bonus’’. Indeed, the access Brown and his staff will have to the squad may well be the envy of many NRL coaches.
‘‘When we get to Tamworth we get a good month where there’s not many distractions for them,’’ Brown said. ‘‘It’s pretty much nearly a whole month of focusing on the team working together and getting that process right before we get to the Central Coast.
‘‘The fact we’re all going to be living together is probably a bonus for us as opposed to living in different parts of New Zealand. Our access to the players and the players’ access to all the staff is far, far more reaching if we’re all living together.’’
Brown also had a positive spin on the Warriors’ disjointed preChristmas training block, particularly for the younger players in Auckland.
‘‘We can use it as a negative or positive and the positive is we’ve got smaller groups of players who can really do a lot of work with coaches because the groups are smaller ... more one-on-one attention.’’