NZ test cricket in a happy place
Nothing ever happens in cricket, especially tests. It’s treacle disguised as sport. Five days of toil without a result is conclusive evidence the game has as much future as sandpaper on a cricket ball.
Anyone holding firm to those views after the past few weeks of action will never connect with the summer game and will get more satisfaction counting the road markings between Auckland and Wellington.
It’s been a spicy time ignited by the lethal bowling burst from Trent Boult and Tim Southee at Eden Park which destroyed England and allowed New Zealand to ride out the intrusive weather and win the opening test. Boult was especially impressive as he swung and nipped the cherry off the
Wynne Gray Now the whites are back in the cupboard until October . . . there’s some thinking to be done. These inquiries are a positive change from a lack of answers which used to beset the side.
track to wreak havoc on the poor technique of the Poms.
Switching on to watch the start of the first session became a question of whether England would make it past NZ’s lowest score in test history, then whether they would make it past 20 overs. They lurched past both markers as the Kiwi pace duo and some magnificent catching suffocated the visitors.
Victory after the rain interruptions was justice before the Aussies pushed their way into the spotlight.
They were getting slapped in South Africa and tried to cheat their way out of that mire. Steve Smith and David Warner coerced Cameron Bancroft to drive the plot before television cameras unmasked their methods and sent the three in blubbering purgatory where they were joined by coach Darren Lehmann. The drama has continued, with Smith and Bancroft feeling a sympathetic embrace from the public who showered something else on Warner and his attack dog traits.
Back at Hagley Oval, the NZ top order made an early mess of plans to bat out a last day draw until the final session heroics from Ish Sodhi and Neil Wagner saved those blushes and ensured the series triumph. Sodhi spat out a message about his batting as he rode his luck and defied every plan for more than three hours while Wagner showed the beauty of strokeless resistance. What drama and what a series.
Now the whites are back in the cupboard until October, when NZ play Pakistan in the UAE before Sri Lanka and Bangladesh tour here in the summer. There’s some thinking to be done.
Opener Jeet Raval looks a little starchy in his methods but who are the alternatives and doesn’t the team have better balance with BJ Watling batting at six?
All-rounder Colin de Grandhomme had a strong summer and should he compete with Mitchell Santner for one spot, with Sodhi and Todd Astle to vie for the main spinning duties?
These inquiries are a positive change from a lack of answers which used to beset the side, one which blossomed to such an extent that the side’s captain and best batsman, Kane Williamson, failed to figure at the national awards evening.