BLACKCAPS Hosting Sri Lanka - First Test. Dunedin. Day Five.
WAGNUT
Ah the sweet taste of victory! After a win in Wellington, BLAKCAPS bowlers hit the limo and take a ride up Mount Victoria so does that mean that the bowlers get to party with any Scarfies left in Dunedin for the summer?
The bowlers deserve something, I'll make a few calls and see what I can do because the kiwi bowlers did the trick on day five taking Sri Lanka's remaining wickets. Subsequently, the bowlers made the polarizing Brendon McCullum look like Mr Smartypants as his early declaration was rewarded with a Test win.
Today's start of the show was none other than Neil Wagner. The benefits of having Wagnut in the team have been on display throughout this Test and it was fitting that Wagner's efforts in dismissing Angelo Mathews provided the key moment of day five as Sri Lanka's hopes faded with Mathews heading back to the sheds.
There's a couple days to explore in greater depth Wagner's influence on the BLACKCAPS, though I can sum it all up by saying that he simply offers something different. Yeah there's the two best swing bowlers in the world and Doug Bracewell who is on his way up as a nibbler, yet the fire of Wagner isn't seen in those three.
While Wagner got the key breakthrough, the fact that no BLACKCAPS bowler took more than 3 wickets is also lovely. This means that the bowling group/The Stable did their job collectively as opposed to relying on magic from an individual, epitomised by Trent Boult's resurgence on day five. Boult had been fairly quiet for much of this Test and when called on to do a job on day five Boult took the wickets of Rangana Herath and Milinda Siriwardana, firing the BLACKCAPS into touching distance of victory. Before this Wagner, Tim Southee, Doug Bracewell and Mitchell Santner had either chipped in with wickets or done a fine job in maintaining pressure; The Stable delivered where they largely failed in Australia.
As we saw in Australia, Test wins aren't easy to come by. This means that we must enjoy Test wins much like the players would as they understand how precious Test wins are. So go grab your vice of choice and salute the BLACKCAPS for a job well done.
Don't worry, there'll be many words about BJ Watling in the Test debrief.