Boult is King of the Bunnies
All hail Trent Boult, King of the Bunnies.
Boult made an unbeaten 37 yesterday as New Zealand were dismissed for 373 in their first innings of the second cricket test against the West Indies in Hamilton.
That took the tailender’s test average with the bat to a mouthwatering 16.96.
What also makes Boult the most influential No 11 of all-time is his ability to score runs in a hurry - while he can also occupy the crease when the occasion demands. His score on day two at Seddon Park came off only 27 balls and featured five fours and two sixes as he added 61 runs in 8.1 overs with new-ball team-mate Tim Southee.
Boult has blasted 46 fours and 22 sixes batting at the bottom of the Black Caps order while driving opposing bowler’s wild with his unorthodox style and superb handeye coordination.
New Zealand’s lower-order batting had a minor alteration for the second test, with Neil Wagner being promoted to No 9 ahead of Southee, who didn’t play in the first test.
Such is Boult’s prolificacy that there’s a case that he should be promoted from a position forever associated with bowlers who saw their task with the willow almost as an insult to their major role.
Southee - who made a whirlwind unbeaten 77 on test debut - averages 16.81 while Wagner averages 12.31.
But Boult may likely fancy cementing his place in test history as the King of All Rabbits.
He has played 57 test innings at No 11, totalling 458 runs (with 30 not outs) and has a high score of 52 not out.
So who are his challengers to the crown?
The most obvious one is Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon. The man nicknamed ‘‘Garry’’ averages 15.65 when batting at the bottom, with 313 runs from 45 innings and a highest score of 40 not out.
Others in the past with useful records for a tail-end charlie include the English duo of Brian Statham and Bob Willis, along with South Africa’s Allan Donald.
The most runs from a No 11 in test history is 623 from the game’s greatest wicket-taker, Sri Lankan leggie Muttiah Muralitharan, who averaged a handy 11.32. Ahead of Boult also sit Glenn McGrath (603 runs at 7.63), Courtney Walsh (553 at 7.47) and Jimmy Anderson (472 at 9.44).
A long list of Kiwi test cricketers with a worse batting average than the 28-year-old leftarm quick include Doug Bracewell (13.85), Grant Bradburn (13.12), Neil Broom (10.66), Lance Cairns (16.28), Simon Doull (14.61), Grant Elliott (10.75), Evan Gray (15.50), Robbie Hart (16.25), Phil Horne (10.14), Peter Ingram (15.25), Paul McEwan (16.00), Kyle Mills (11.56), Michael Papps (16.40), Mike Shrimpton (13.95), Daryl Tuffey (16.42) and Paul Wiseman (14.07).
It’s noteworthy that Boult is filling the role of No 11 in such a fashion after the job once, in the not distant past, belonged to Chris Martin.
Third on the list of New Zealand’s top test wicket-takers, Martin looked like a man who’d never handled a bat - which wasn’t far from the truth.
He averaged 2.36 from 104 innings, with a high score of 12 not out and a total of 123 runs. Martin made 36 ducks and seven ‘pairs’ - a mark only surpassed by West Indian legend Courtney Walsh, due to Walsh playing a whopping 61 more tests than a player who made Ewen Chatfield look like Martin Crowe.
The Naenae Express was the byword for batting haplessness during his New Zealand test career, but Chatfield did average 8.57 and played his part in a memorable test-winning partnership with Jeremy Coney.
Other contenders for the World’s Worst Test Tail-end Charlies XI besides ‘openers’ Martin and Walsh include Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, Phil Tuffnell, Devon Malcolm, Danish Kaneria and Monty Panesar.
For the latest from the second test go to stuff.co.nz