10 Kiwi Dream dream dreams...
Wasim Akram gives M D Crowe a verbal high-five: "I have bowled to both Tendulkar and Lara and I have found Lara more attacking. Tendulkar has a tighter technique, no doubt, but Lara can single-handedly win the game for his team...If you are asking me who the best batsman I have bowled to is, then it's not Tendulkar and not Lara as well. It's Martin Crowe... he was an amazing batsman." Hogan, you rule - no wonder I had your Test run aggregate as my PIN number for a decade. Back in 1990, Crowe was forced to add a grille to his safety armoury for the first time in his career as he faced Waqar and Wasim on their bottle-cap infested patch. He did OK though, with the highlight being an epic 554-minute 108 at Lahore. Crowe has scored more runs than any other NZ batsman against Pakistan.
Coney and Chatfield in Dunedin, 1985: In one of the nation's most thrilling Test matches, 278 was the target and the six-and-a-bit finest hours of Jeremy Coney were upon us. Self-confessed curmudgeon Ian David Stockley Smith departed and at 217/7 it was all but over, even before Cairns was KO'd by Wasim Akram to effectively make it 217/8. The recalled Bracewell B was back in the pavilion 11 runs later, and NZ still needed 50 to win with the most notorious batsman in NZ cricket history wandering meekly to the crease: E J Chatfield in the world's baggiest vest. By tea, seven had been crossed off. In the final session, Coney was dropped on 97 from the first ball and the tone was set. As the Wisden Almanac described: "Chatfield showed such willingness to take the strike that in their unbroken, match-winning stand of 50 he had 84 balls to Coney's 48. Coney reached his second Test century and Chatfield made his best Test score, his runs being almost outnumbered by his bruises." Legends.
Thomson and Young mow down 324: This was a face-saving win for New Zealand having already lost the Test series. Blonde-maned horse-lover Shane Thomson joined grocer and wicketkeeper-cum-opener Bryan Young with NZ teetering at 4/133. Crucially, Mark Greatbatch and Andrew Jones were back in the dressing room. But the two ND team-mates set about forging one of the most memorable partnerships in NZ Test cricket history, hitting maiden tons, and leading the charge to a brilliant win. It also gave anorak wearers the country over a mouth-watering record: NZ's highest-ever fourth-innings total to win a Test. (It is a travesty that the efforts of these two players in compiling this magnificent partnership have since been undermined by allegations against players of dubious repute. The Commission of Inquiry's report here makes for fascinating reading.)
What did this squad do in 1996: Germon, Astle, Cairns, Doull, Fleming, Greatbatch, Harris, M.Hart, Larsen, Morrison, Parore, Patel, Spearman, Vaughan, Young? Extraordinarily, it drew a Test series 1-1 in Pakistan, led by Germon with the one and only moustachioed cricketing genius Steve Rixon pulling the strings as coach. Fleming led the batting averages, and Doull the bowling averages after a magnificent haul of 8/85 in the first Test win. That victory at Lahore was the first on dusty Pakistani soil since 1969.
Rodney Redmond: One Test match vs Pakistan. Apparently. RE Redmond c Mushtaq Mohammad b Pervez Sajjad 107 (145balls). RE Redmond c Intikhab Alam b Wasim Raja 56 (84 balls).
Mathew Sinclair (aka He Who Shall Not Be Named) plunders: At Lancaster Park in 2001, Mathew Sinclair hit 254 runs in two innings and was not dismissed in an extraordinary display of batsmanship. His 50 in the second innings was his first half century in Test cricket - although by that stage he had two 200s and a 150 to his name. Before the Test his average was 38 - and after it had soared to 52.
Macca goes mental in the Tron: I remember being tucked up in a corner booth at Lovelocks in Wellington "reviewing" some documents out of the corner of my eye, and watching Craig McMillan go berserk as Younis Khan was thrown the ball for one over. Six balls later he was on the receiving end of a world record run harvest from one over in Test cricket (it is now #3 on the all-time list)...Ball 1 Reverse sweep to third man boundary, 4...Ball 2: Reverse pull to cover boundary, 4...Ball 3: Pull behind square leg, 4...Ball 4: Reverse pull over backward point, 4...Ball 5: Smash over long-off, 6...Ball 6: Slap to point boundary, 4. Ah Lid that over of degradation at Hamilton 4 4 4 4 6 4 had blokes in pubs raving about you for years. Well one bloke at least.
The McMillan performance was part of a comprehensive and heart-warming shellacking of Pakistan at Hamilton. After Tuffey and Martin ransacked them on Day 1 for 104 (26.5 overs). With Day 2 consigned to cards and text messages, Richardson and Bell piled on 181 for the first wicket and just 112 overs later NZ led by 303 and declared. In the second innings, Jimmy F and Tommy Martin were outstanding claiming 4/26 and 3/38 respectively. In the late March sun, Franklin claimed a caught and bowled to end the match with NZ victorious by a whopping innings and 185 runs (our second most massive win ever) and even the series 1-1.
Chris Pringle, swinger: "Pringle was an average medium-pace swing bowler, and all of a sudden he got it to reverse swing and he was having a great time. It took us an hour into the Faisalabad Test to get into a huddle in the drinks break and start working on it. We used the bottle tops. Pringle got seven wickets before lunch." That's Martin Crowe talking about The Zinc King's contribution of 7/52 in the first innings rout of Pakistan for 102 in just 40 overs.
The best 10th wicket partnership ever: Hastings and Collinge's incredible last wicket stand of 151 back in 1973 is still sitting pretty as the best in the history of Test cricket. It has been equalled - by Pakistan's Azhar Mahmood and Mushtaq Ahmed no less - but never beaten. Bloody magnificent. Joseph Romanos described the effort in The Listener back in 2004: "When Collinge joined Hastings, New Zealand needed one run to avoid the follow-on. The pair eventually took the New Zealand total to a statistically satisfying 402 and Collinge was 68 not out when Hastings was dismissed for 110. The bat looked like a toothpick in the hands of 1.92m Collinge, but he wielded it well, playing some spanking drives."
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That Macca over was awesome, still remember that.
Never realised Akram considered Crowe the best batter he ever bowled to though, thats a pretty big comment to make with the greats he bowled to.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall so to speak in the huddle of the NZ team when they were working on the ball with the bottle tops. Controversy at its finest.
Sorry to be irrelevant to this fine piece of blogging but would anyone know where I can stream NZ v Pakistan on the net? Im living in london for 3 months and they aint airing it on sky.
That pat on the back for MD Crowe from Wasim is some compliment. Timmy mac wont be having pleasant dreams about that yorker first ball. Also I see young southee is putting his hand up for re-selection: 12/3 off 15 last i looked. Good lad.
Would someone please tell Martin Guptill to put the hook/pull away.
Anyone remember how MAC was out in that innings in Hamilton? Denied a century off a reverse hook to be brilliantly caught one handed by Waqar on the boundary. Would have been 6 and our fastest test century if I recall correctly.
Southee ended up with 8/27 from 25 overs. No seamer may err in Dunners, less he be dropped. The same goes for Elliott, he needs runs in the 2nd innings or he will be gone.
Plenty of people putting their hands up on the domestic front, centuries today for Papps, Myburgh, Haig and Broom. Admittedly none of these guys have a show of making the side, nor Harris who may also notch a ton. Merchant has continued his good form with an 88 however and could be knocking on the door.
Andrew Jones - 6 ODI fifties in a row against them. God, I miss him.
that school kid won a prize the other week for creating a shirt that tells you if you're slouching. could he possibly tweek one for martin guptill so when he goes for the illfated badly played hook he's given an electric shock through the box!
guy: What a magnificent piece of innovative thinking
One thought from yesterday, enjoyed the combo of McMillan & Crowe. Odd seeing Macca in a suit, perhaps he is wearing Stubbies bottom half and jacket/shirt/tie on top.
However, the radio commentary reached a new low with Garth Galloway boning on about getting someone one to tape Coronation St for him as he was going to be home late. Awful, awful, awful.
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I recall well that 1996 series. Most memorable was Justin Vaughan opening the batting. A good test win was followed by a shellacking where (my memory is fuzzy), Mohammad Zahid? ripped us apart. Another great Pakistan memory was Chill Blain and Danny Morrison's partnership at the Basin when Danny got his highest test score - 42. He may have been a bunny, but imagine Chris Martin scaling such heights.