Wagner’s return a boost for Black Caps
Amid a gloomy New Zealand dressing room on Saturday night a glimmer of light beamed in from a club cricket ground in Dunedin.
Less than four weeks after breaking the ring finger on his bowling hand, Neil Wagner laced up the boots for Albion and left coach Mike Hesson confident of his return for the first test against South Africa on March 8.
‘‘He’s highly likely,’’ Hesson said. ‘‘It [recovery] has been as good as expected. Neil has done everything possible to be ready for that first test and he played club cricket yesterday and got through that fine.’’
Wagner made an impressive return at Tonga Park, snaring 4-20 off 10 overs to help dismiss NorthEast Valley for 110 in their 50-over match.
The left-armer suffered the break on February 1 when he tried to field a drive off his own bowling from test team-mate Jeet Raval, in a one-day match for Otago against Auckland. He didn’t require surgery and was initially given a 4-6 week recovery time.
Assuming there are no setbacks, Wagner will walk out on his adopted home ground University Oval for his first test in New Zealand against his country of birth, captained by Faf du Plessis, a former team-mate at Pretoria’s Afrikaans Boys’ High School.
New Zealand will welcome his return after the combative seamer snared 41 test wickets at 21 last year, ninth on the world list.
Wagner’s positive report is the final piece of the selection puzzle for the Black Caps who look very likely to field an unchanged XI in Dunedin, after winning all four home tests against Pakistan and Bangladesh. The squad will be named in the coming days, and will likely include backup seamer Matt Henry after he was sent back to play Plunket Shield for Canterbury in Wellington.
Wicketkeeper BJ Watling scored 42 for Northern Districts against Otago on Saturday in his comeback from a knee injury.
Allrounder Colin de Grandhomme’s spot was under scrutiny after some unconvincing performances against Bangladesh but his ODI efforts against world No 1 South Africa showed he was worthy of international standard.
His spell of 2-40 in the embarrassing defeat in Wellington showed how effective he can be on pitches with seam movement, and in two unbeaten knocks de Grandhomme scored 68 off 53 balls; the latter in a badly beaten cause.
‘‘We’ve given him a role to be our finisher and he’s certainly done that. It’s difficult if your top and middle don’t fire, it’s hard to judge the quality of your finisher. He’s starting to show some real batsmanship, Hesson said.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s eight test arrivals were scheduled to arrive in Auckland yesterday, including fast bowlers Vernon Philander (ankle) and Morne Morkel (back) who are both returning from injuries. Philander is expected to lead the attack alongside Kagiso Rabada but Morkel will be a long shot to play the tests after breaking down in Australia in November and playing just two domestic one-day matches in his latest comeback.