Guest post: The Economist's ODI Team of the Decade
The Economist, a calculator- and Excel-toting regular viewer and commenter on Sideline Slogger, has taken on the onerous task of selecting his New Zealand teams of the decade from 2000-2009. We'll build up to the Test XI on Friday, but here is his second effort, zeroing in on the original pyjama format: one-day cricket. Note that he starts with a default XI then tweaks based on his own subjective assessment of the players and the overall team.
The default ODI XI is:
Nathan Astle 4009 runs at an average of 36, 35 wickets at an average of 47
Stephen Fleming (c) 4876 runs @33
Lou Vincent 2413 runs @27, 1 wicket @ 25
Brendon McCullum 3387 runs @29, 191 catches/stumpings
Craig McMillan 3643 runs @30, 33 wickets @37
Scott Styris 3369 runs @33, 120 wickets @33
Jacob Oram 2094 runs @24, 136 wickets @31
Daniel Vettori 1455 runs @17, 215 wickets @31
Kyle Mills 589 runs @16, 162 wickets @26
Daryl Tuffey 160 runs @7, 96 wickets @32
Shane Bond 239 runs @16, 138 wickets @21
Chris Harris (12th man)
The other contenders to consider on the BATTING side:
Chris Cairns makes a compelling case. His 2193 runs at an average of 31 is good and his strike rate of 90 is outstanding. Of the top seven in the team above, the strike rates range from McCullum's 88 to Vincent's 70.
Ross Taylor is averaging 35 at a good strike rate of 81.
Chris Harris's batting can't be considered on its own, but an average of 27 and strike rate of just 63 mean his bowling figures will need to be exceptional.
Peter Fulton is averaging 33 - okay, but not enough to displace any of the current team.
Roger Twose, despite playing just 37 ODIs this decade, averaged 43 with a very good strike rate of 80.
Jamie How (average 34, SR 70), Martin Guptill (average 41, SR 82), Jesse Ryder (average 35, SR 94), and Grant Elliott (average 44, SR 76) present cases of varying degrees but have all scored less than 1000 runs and have the potential to be present in the team of the 2010s.
On the BOWLING side:
Cairns averages 32 with the ball but is let down by a runs-per-over rate of 5.1, given the RPOs of the six genuine bowlers in the team range from 4.0 to 4.8.
Harris averages a high 43 with the ball although he makes up for this with the second-best RPO of any bowler (4.2, behind only Vettori).
James Franklin's average is also high at 38, and an RPO of 5.1 doesn't help his cause.
Andre Adams has a favourable average of 31 but his RPO of 5.2 is one of the worst.
Michael Mason averaged 32 with the ball, and with an RPO of 5.1. In fact, his bowling looks similar to Cairns (his batting doesn't, of course).
There are no other WICKETKEEPERS worth a mention.
Vincent is the obvious weak link in this side and Cairns' strike rate of 90 will add real value to the side. I'd like to find room for Twose - most likely at the expense of McMillan - but don't believe he played enough in the qualifying period to make the cut. Without Twose, others may also prefer to have Taylor ahead of McMillan.
THE ECONOMIST's New Zealand ODI Team of the Noughties: Astle, Fleming (c), B McCullum, McMillan, Styris, Oram, Cairns, Vettori, Mills, Tuffey, Bond and Harris (12th man).
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Twose for McMillan. Without that glorious Chappell-Hadlee Series that left a pretty sweet taste on the palette, McMillan was way too inconsistent at ODI level. Including him in a team of the decade makes me openly weep. 43 games or not, Twose was much more consistent. Plus he had the added bonus of walking to the crease under the strains of the theme from Braveheart. Taylor's played more this decade than Twose, so if Twose misses the cut, I'd put Taylor in. Enough bowlers to cover McMillan's couple of eventful overs. Good team, well done celebrity guest host.
My XI: Astle, B McCullum, Fleming (c), Taylor, Twose, Styris, Oram, Cairns, Vettori, Mills, Bond and Harris (12th man).
Assuming Cairns, Oram and Bond are all in their pomp and that Vettori will also bowl ten, I choose to drop Tuffey in favour of another batsman. In this case, Twose. I'm sure Styris, Astle and Twose could produce ten varely tight overs between them.
McMillan is unlucky to miss out.
Nice work Senor Eco. I like the look of your side, as you have I'd stick with McMillan over Twose. That's got nothing to do with stats but just because I'd rather watch him bat. Actually Taylor is better than both players but for some reason McMillan fits the period better. I'd bat Cairns higher than Oram as well.
Econ,
It would be interesting to know if that team you named ever played an ODI and if so, what the result was.
Agreed with the earlier posts, I think you have one bowler too many. With 136 wickets at 31, Oram can be a more than useful 5th rather than 6th bowler, especially with Syris and Astle both in the side as well. I'd add Taylor to the middle order.
Think Twose also deserves a spot over McMillan, due to averaging over 56 in 25 games in 2000, including 203 runs at 68 in the Champions Trophy win. Cricinfo is brilliant at making people sound intelligent/like a train spotter!
Would also like them to have a game against the alternate NZ ODI team of the decade:
Richardson (4 matches, 42 runs at 10.50, strike rate of 43) Cumming (13 matches, 161 runs at 13.41, strike rate of 53) Flynn (16 matches, 167 runs at 15.18, strike rate of 57) Broom (16 matches, 201 runs at 15.46) Hopkins (14 matches, 56 runs at 8) Canning (4 matches, 52 runs at 17, 5 wickets at 40.60, RPO of 5.97) Bradburn (4 matches, 3 runs at 3, 2 wickets at 61.50) Brooke Walker (11 matches, 10 runs at 10, 8 wickets at 52, RPO of 5.71) Thompson (1 match, 0 wickets, RPO of 10.50) Penn (2 matches, 0 wickets, RPO of 7.80) Hamilton (2 matches, 1 wicket at 143, RPO of 7.94). 12th man: Wisneski (1 match, 0 wickets, RPO of 6.47)
T - McMillian used to walk out to "return of the Mac" which was also pretty inspiring.
I would stick with this team, except would bring Ryder in for Fleming and drop Tuffey to probably bring in Harris in. With Bond, Mills, Oram and Cairns we have enough pace and Harris brings some batting and fielding to the team.
As an aside, I would have Astle, Cairns, Vettori, Harris and Bond in my all time New Zealand One Day side.
So where are the Black Caps going to slot Vincent in? He looks in ominous touch in the T20s. You'd have to fancy he can take that form into the ODI arena. Could he be the answer at 5 or 6 in the test side?? Just goes to show that cricket is a mental game, get your head right and the rest falls into place. Nice one.
Interesting that both Dr Z and Jez have jettisoned Tuffey - certainly in terms of the number of bowlers available in my team, we could get away with one fewer specialist, and Mills' and Bond's figures are superior. When I think of Tuffey and ODIs, two thoughts spring to mind:
1: A penchant for getting a wicket in his first over.
2: *That* 14-ball over in Auckland, possibly caused by too many milkshakes the night before.
I have no problem with two of Harris, Taylor, and Twose being brought in for McMillan and Tuffey - it's a pretty close-run thing. However, Dr Z, I do have an issue with you leaving out Styris. He may have the prettiest face in world cricket, but if you look at his individual match performances, I would say he's been one of the "matchwinningest" ODI players we've ever had (probably behind only Astle and Martin Crowe, in my opinion).
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I'd slightly tweak your team Econ:
Astle, McCullum, Fleming, Taylor, McMillan, Cairns, Oram, Harris, Vettori, Mills, Bond
Gee that's a lot of fire power.