Sand-sational!
In the wake of Tuesday morning's extraordinary win, it's worth acknowledging that Daniel Vettori's team have exceeded expectations and hopefully left the debacle of the Andy Moles affair behind.
That is one for another day...in the meantime here are the three 'stars' from my deliriously happy and outrageously biased position:
#1 Brendon McCullum was magnificent. I've been banging on about him going back down the order but with the ultimatum issued, he delivered two fantastic knocks, 228 runs (100 more than anyone on show) and a strike rate of 97. Stay there Baz and score 80s, 90s and 100s - I am stoked to be wrong.
#2 Martin Guptill hit an accomplished 62 but has a tendency to get out to a sloppy shot. He looks like he is going to be very, very good. There has been some speculation he struggles against the spinners - but the statistics show this is a myth. He is more likely to get out to a bowler of pace: of his 18 dismissals, 13 have been against blokes like Gul, Anderson and Bracken. However in this series, his batting was well and truly overshadowed by some outstanding fielding. The back-flick to Vettori to end Butt's dangerous innings was a big moment, and a brilliant one. His catching was also superb, second only to the sticky KFC covered fingers of Ross Taylor.
(Also, allow me a moment to scrawl a dirty black mark upon Abdul Razzaq's reputation. In the 16th over, Guptill stood his ground when the Pakistani made an outrageous appeal for a caught and bowled when even Tony Greig could see the ball had clearly bounced. Guptill giving Razzaq the head shake of disbelief was a nice moment and a demonstration of his developing confidence.)
#3 Tim Southee was outstanding after a long time away from underneath the radar. (Hip-a-no-no-no-no, hip-a-no-no-no-no...) It was brilliant see the young buck return to the fray and so do so well.
An honourable mention to Shane Bond who was relatively subdued in terms of his usual hail of wickets - he took 4 in the series at a cost of 37.50 each - but bowled with a lot of ticker on the Abu Dhabi roads. Undoubtedly, NZ is a much more threatening side with him in it than not. On a green top somewhere soon he will inflict some pain - a comeback in the gloaming of the University Oval would be a great sight for NZ's long suffering test cricket aficionados.
Highly commended also to Jacob Oram who continues his wrestlemania with the batting demons but whose bowling was exemplary. He went for just 3.69 runs per over (even less than The Hairy Librarian's 3.76) and was a key architect in Pakistan's demise with 3/20 in the decider.
....meanwhile in the 'could do better' category it is hard to look past #1 Neil Broom who looked lost facing each of the 7 balls he faced in the series, which is a shame.
Daniel Flynn, BJ Watling, Jamie How and the young buck Kane Williamson will all be eyeing his position. However, the Extra Terrestrial Grant ElliotT is back on the Basin Reserve this week - and is a shoo-in to the New Zealand XI in one-day cricket. There are suspicions Broom's brace of ducks may well lead the selection panel to hit his ejector seat button.
#2 Taylor (44 runs at 14.66) and #3 Scott Styris (28 runs at 9.33) were more Gordon Ramsay than Flash Gordon too - expectations around The KFC Kid were particularly high after he delivered a series of rollicking innings for Bangalore in the Twenty20 Champions League. Few whinges have been delivered in his direction as McCullum saved the middle order's blushes this time around, but there will be some who will be questioning why he was a force of nature for his Indian domestic team, yet for NZ his most significant contribution was one identical pair of fantastic catches.
Styris made a significant contribution with the ball to pouch 3/23 from 4 overs but in his primary function he was needlessly run out twice, indicating he needs to return Inzamam-ul-Haq's highlights reel to the video store and get the Jonty Rhodes one stuck on high rotate instead. Methinks it is time for the return of the Mark Richardson Memorial Slowcoach Race (featuring the Beige Brigade lycra suit) at the end of each series: unquestionably Scott Styris would be our new representative, and this time around he would be up against the bearded wonder that is the artist formerly known as Yousuf Youhana. Who would you be backing?
-> Follow the Beige Brigade on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/BeigeBrigade
-> Check out The Plunket Episode #104 of The BYC Podcast at beigebrigade.co.nz/loop/byc
-> Beige yourself up here
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Nice Underworld reference there Holden, see ya later, see ya later.
Although you could have given a few more lines to Timmy's comeback. I thought he was exceptional and surely he's done enough to be in the side for the summer.
And thanks for the disturbing mental picture of Miley/Pig and Cat Stevens in a lycra race. I'd back the bearded one, especially now that he's test captain since Khan's gone off sulking again.
I thought Taylor's 44 in the decider was a great knock, especially when you look at the results for every other batsman (bar Baz) in that match. The 2 20/20s will be interesting to see if he's able to do any smoting.
Slick: Main reason cited is that it has been a long time since he played 4-day cricket (June 2008) so the bionic bolt-filled body might not be up to monstrous bowling spells - although on a green top in Dunners it will be a 2 or 3-day affair one way or the other http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/2987693/Bonds-test-comeback-could-be-postponed. Both run outs could have been avoided if Styris had hit overdrive rather than being stuck in second gear.
Sean the S: Well spotted Mr Lamb's Fry. Agree regarding Southee - found it difficult to write too much about him as his primary achievement was being economical i.e. boring and unpunishable. Fair call regarding Taylor, perhaps his mojo has been rediscovered (now he needs to convert that into an "aura").
So a couple of 2020's before the Tests
Here's how cricinfo see's the team shaping up, which considering Mills and Franklin are injured and Oram has head home for baby making, isn't much of a surprise.
Broom might get one more chance, if he fails, Watling will get a cap in game 2.
New Zealand (possible): 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Aaron Redmond, 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Daniel Vettori (capt), 7 Neil Broom/BJ Watling, 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Ian Butler, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Tim Southee.
Even with the decisions made for us, we could put a worse 11 on the park.
I have created a group on facebook regarding the return of the 3 stripe cable knit jumper. Feel free to join.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=174658201291&ref=mf
Franklin is still in contention apparently. Could play for Broom, N McCullum or Butler as will bolster the batting. I'd like to see the cut of Watling's gib and matches don't get more meaningless than a T20 against Pakistan, in Dubai. If Vettori's shoulder needs a rest, he need not play either.
Broom looked all at sea versus the Pakistan spinners, it wasn't like he came in needing to whack it around from the outset and got out attacking, he just got beaten going back when he should be coming forward. From what I've seen Watling does not look like a T20 batsman, would have been nicer to give him a few ODIs but we might not have much of a choice.
Good article Holden. I think Scotty's been run out in three of his last five innings if you include the Champion's League thingamajig
StS - you're very gung-ho about Southee being in the test side, but I for one am not sure he should get another chance quite yet. For me if Bond plays it's Bond, O'Brien & Martin (the domestic matches on at the moment confirming the latter two are still going strong, plus they are the deserving incumbents), and if Bond doesn't play it'd be a scrap between Tuffey and Southee. I find it hard to go past big Daryl in home conditions. Never fear - Southee will get his chance soon enough, considering how old (and injury prone) the four other bowlers mentioned are.
Just on Tim Southee's performance in the ODI series, I don't want to be down on the kid, as he is our future, but I don't think his performance was anything to write home about. He bowled some line and length and the Pakistani batsmen played some dreadful shots. For me TS looked little different to Oram. I really want to see him swing the ball like when he first appeared on the international scene. To be fair to him Abu Dhabi didn't offer much to any of the pace bowlers. Hopefully back in NZ he can get his swing back but at present I don't think he justifies outing one of Chris Martin or IOB from the test team.
Tim needs to get closer to the stumps, it's as simple as that
Yes I agree Jez that he seems to be drifting wider and wider which makes the outswinger tough. He also doesn't have quite the seam position he had when I first saw him. He used to bowl with a very upright seam, I wonder whether the severe tonkings he came in for from the Indians on the tiny NZ grounds have affected the way he is bowling?
Just on another matter, check out this link from another great NZ blog, very funny...
http://sportreview.net.nz/2009/10/28/get-player-power-call-now/
Woman felt sex life was on trial
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Sonny Bill Williams under pressure to face top pro
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Man dies two days before 27th wedding anniversary
From the annoying to the dangerous
Guinness' all time greatest game ending
Cash for jaunts but not to help deaf MP
Auckland, Wellington expensive for expats
Woman dies after stolen car crossed centre-line
I'd have to agree with the Broom selection, time is almost up you would suspect! Also Pig is officially an allrounder so you do have to cut him some slack on the batting front...mind you getting run out all the time just shows me how long he has been away from the setup and the lack of communication between batting partners (i haven't seen the actual runouts, but most run outs are down to communication) There has been talk Bond wouldn't play the first test, can't work out why not, anyone have any ideas?