NZ under GrahamB (story)

[GrahamB]

India v NZ - 5th ODI 2013

What a blow - the conditions here were cloudy/very cloudy and clearly suited seamers. However, our two main seamers, Wagner and Norman are both desperately tired and need to be rested. Sam Wells is fit again and available, but we have little option than to play both McCullum and Lyman.
Likewise, Dean Brownlie is struggling, so we've had to bring in Van Wyk. De Boorder will hand over the gloves and play solely as a batsman.
As Ross Taylor is going to be a crucial cog in today's batting line up, the captaincy has been handed back to Murdoch.

The Indians batted first and came out firing big time!
With Sehwag (89), Rahane (66), Gautam (59), Vijay (39) and Pathan (36no) all contributing, our bowlers were belted around the park as the home side ran up a massive 315/5.
Sam Lyman was the best of our attack, taking 2/52.

We were hoping to make a good fist of things, but with conditions now very cloudy, Pathan and Kumar proved virtually unplayable. In what is probably one of the most devastating sessions ever witnessed in an international ODI, our batsmen were sent back in rapid succession to leave us at a humiliating 36/8!
Thankfully, Peter Fulton had survived the carnage and he combined with Nathan McCullum to add 63 for the ninth wicket. However, there was to be no miracle today, and in being dismissed for a shameful 123, we'd been thumped by a colossal 192 runs.
Pathan finished with an incredible 6/30 to go with his earlier unbeaten innings of 36. No surprises for guessing who man of the match was.



India take out the ODI series 3-2.
Can we save some face in the T20s?

[GrahamB]

NZ T20 Squad in India 2013

Some tough calls in selecting the squad, with batsman Andrew de Boorder and bowlers Brent Arnel, Tim Southee, Bradley Scott and Bruce Martin all unlucky to miss the cut.
The balance of the squad enables us to play a predominantly pace attack or spin attack without compromising the batting depth.

[GrahamB]

India v NZ - T20 Series 2013

The less said about these two matches, the better!
Apart from Jeet Raval's entettaining knock in the first game, our batting just couldn't cope with the quality Indian spin bowling in particular.
Once their bowlers had wrecked our batting, Gambhir singlehandedly dealt to our bowling.
A comprehensive performance from the home side to complete what had been a dismal summer for us in India.

[GrahamB]

NZ v Pakistan - 1st Test 2014

Will a new year bring better results for us?

The selectors announced the following side for the first test against the unpredictable Pakistanis:



Captain, Stephen Murdoch, has had a poor run of form lately, but is our best opening batsman and has a proven record at test level. Retaining him in the side was a no-brainer!
22 year old Ben Smith has had an average season on the domestic scene, but showed enough in his test performances so far to persist with. There are others snapping at his heels though should he fail.

Amongst the other batsmen, Kane Williamson has been axed following his continued dismal form at international level and Dean Brownlie is unavailable through injury.
Tim Weston has been the standout batsman on the domestic scene over the past few seasons and has shown enough in his handful of tests to warrant a spot.
Jesse Ryder has been solid for us, although his form has dipped recently. Again, he deserves his spot based on his test record for us. Additionally he is our fifth bowler which gives him added value to us.
The big talking points were the inclusion of youngsters Len Barrett and Harry Boam ahead of more seasoned campaigners like Ross Taylor and Scott Wells. Their performances will come under close scrutiny from the sporting public.

Derek de Boorder has been performing way better at domestic level than Kruger Van Wyk and has taken over the keeping spot due to Kruger's disappointing form in recent tests. De Boorder has shown his class for us in other forms of the international game to boot.

With cloudy overhead conditions expected throughout the game, we left out leg spinner Sam Lyman, going in with four specialist seamers.
Vic Skinner, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult have all shown their pedigree at test level, but this will be young Norman Norman's test debut.
Norman got the selection nod ahead of Tim Southee.

[GrahamB]

NZ v Pakistan 1st Test 2014

We got off to a solid start and were looking good at 158/2, but once the third wicket partnership between Weston (46) and Ryder (78 ) was broken, we slumped to 236/8. De Boorder (47) and Skinner (35) put on 64 runs for the ninth wicket, but we were bitterly disappointed at only scoring 310 all out.
Spin bowler K.Hussain picked up 5/125, while paceman Daud was also impressive with his 4/61.

Led by Salahuddin (44), Shehzad (103) and the aggressive Sabri (86), the Pakistani top order saw their side through to a position of strength at 305/5. There was hope for us if we could run through the middle and lower order quickly, but Nizam (45) and Zaider (89) had other ideas as they guided their side through to an imposing 470 all out and a big lead of 160.
Vic Skinner (3/119) and Jesse Ryder (2/52) were the best of our bowlers.

On a now deteriorating pitch, most of our batsmen got starts as they showed they were prepared to dig in and fight. However, only Weston (69) and nightwatchman Wagner (51) managed to survive for long periods. Further down the order, de Boorder (33) and Norman (38) helped us get through to a fairly creditable 325 all out under the circumstances, leaving the Pakistanis an awkward 167 runs to chase down for victory.
K.Hussain again starred with the ball, picking up a further five wicket haul.

The visiting batsmen struggled just as much as ours had and it was only a fine unbeaten innings of 50 from Alam that held the innings together as Pakistan achieved victory with five wickets to spare.



Pakistan go 1-0 up in the three test series.

[GrahamB]

NZ v Pakistan 2nd Test 2014

With sunny conditions expected for much of the match, we left out pace bowler Norman and brought in leg spinner Sam Lyman.
The Pakistanis kept the same playing eleven that had been victorious in the first test.

The visitors elected to bat first, but were stunned as both Skinner and Wagner picked up wickets in their first over to have Pakistan at 9/2.
Young batsman Sabri only knows one way to play and that's with aggression. He combined firstly with Shehzad (40) to put on 92 for the third wicket and then with old head Younis Khan (42) to put on 100 for the fourth wicket, as he pummeled a magnificent 154.
However, Sabri got little support from the middle and lower order, and we were mightily pleased to bowl the Pakistanis out for 292. Wagner was superb, bowling a spell of 20-6-41-4.

Our hopes of a big score were dashed as Umar Gul snapped up both Murdoch and Weston early to have us at 20/2.
Ben Smith and Ryder got us through to 79/2, but after Ryder became Hussain's first victim, the innings fell away and we were all out for a miserable 209. Smith (78) was the only batsman to prosper as Hussain bettered his five wicket hauls of the first test with 6/82!

We'd shown some grit to fight back gamely in the first test and we did so here too. Skinner and Wagner came out all fired up and they ripped through the Pakistani top and middle order, claiming three victims each.
Only Salahuddin (52) and U.Akmal (33) were able to trouble us we put ourselves back in the hunt by rolling the visitors for 186 all out.

We needed a rather daunting 272 to win and level the series and everybody was expecting the worst.
However, much to the delight of the NZ fans, Murdoch and young Smith put on a mammoth opening stand of 189 to virtually assure us of victory. Both deserved centuries for their efforts, but cruelly, both fell in the nineties.
Once the openers had both gone, Tim Weston saw us through to the win with an assured 43no.



A rare test win for us in recent times. Are we starting to turn things around?
The series now tied up at 1-1 with one to play.

[GrahamB]

NZ v Pakistan 3rd Test 2014

With this pitch and the expected conditions back in favour of the seamers, Lyman dropped back into twelfth man duties to make way for the return of Norman Norman.
Pakistan dropped both of their spinners to bring in pace bowlers S.Hussain and J.Khan.

Two of the more impressive Pakistani top order batsmen, Alam and Sabri, came together at 92/2 to put on 133 for the third wicket and put their side well on top. Alam scored 108 and Sabri 60.
Neil Wagner then captured three wickets in quick succession to give us some hope with the score at 267/5. However, good contributions from Nazim (51) and Zaider (39) saw the visitors rack up a very useful 374 all out.
Wagner continued his good form with 6/115.

Our first innings batting effort had let us down in the first two tests, and unfortunately it was no different here.
Len Barrett (69) desperately tried to hold things together, but could find nobody to stick around with him long enough to resurrect things. He was last man out as we were humbled for a lowly 202 all out, conceding a huge lead of 172 runs!
The Pakistani pace trio of S.Hussain (4/69), J.Khan (3/35) and D.Khurshid (3/75) were tremendous.

After Shehzad went cheaply, Salahuddin (74) and Alam (83) combined to put on 151 for the second wicket. Norman then sparked a mini-collapse with a fine spell of bowling and all of a sudden the Pakistanis were 190/5.
Nizam (54) and Haider (43) again turned things around though with a partnership of 105 runs.
The visitors finally declared at 313/8, leaving us the pretty much impossible task of scoring 485 over five sessions to take the series.
Norman finished with 3/49, probably his finest spell in his short test career to date.

Things looked ominous when Ben Smith was trapped plumb in front without a run on the board.
Tim Weston came out and responded by taking the attack to the Pakistani bowlers, but his belligerent knock came to an end at 41 and we were still in trouble at 66/2.
It was the third wicket partnership between our two most experienced batsmen, captain Murdoch (66) and Ryder (76), that gave NZ fans confidence that we could hold out for a draw.
Once both Murdoch and Ryder had gone though, there was still a lot to do, but our faith in young Len Bennett was rewarded as he crafted another half century to salvage the draw for us.



A drawn test series.

[GrahamB]

NZ ODI Squad v Pakistan 2014



We took the opportunity to rest Stephen Murdoch by bringing in Brad Wilson. Wilson has had an outstanding domestic season in all forms of the game, averaging 76 in six OD games, with a century and four half centuries.
Amongst the other batsmen, the aging Peter Fulton has been replaced by Neil Broom.
All-rounder Sam Wells was omitted in favour of Jesse Ryder, and young quick Ben Wheeler (one of the top OD bowlers over three seasons) has replaced Michael Bates.
Nathan McCullum is our second spin bowling option behind Sam Lyman, with solid OD bowler Nethula unlucky to miss out.