BLACKCAPS BATSMEN

Oh what beautiful numbers. What wonders to behold. Five different players scored tons in three Blackcaps innings and of that immense top seven, all but one with averages above 40, five of them improved on those averages in this series. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor are always a great place to start and each of them tonned up in that final innings to guide New Zealand from a precarious place to the comforts of safety. Hundred number 21 for Kane and hundred number 19 for Ross... and it was also the ninth time that the pair have put on 100+ runs in a partnership. Both also scored an additional fifty in the series so excellent stuff from the two legends.

For Williamson it’s a swift return to his normal standards of greatness after scoring just 24 runs in three innings in Sri Lanka. Here he had 159 runs in three innings, bit of a contrast. Prince Kane averages 59.84 when batting in Aotearoa and 60.13 in all Tests when captaining. He has multiple centuries in each of the last three years (and in five of the last six) and averages an absolutely sizzling 74.02 in the 31 Test match victories that he has been a part of – which, limited to those who’ve batted in at least 15 Test victories, it’s an extremely small list above him full of some of the greatest of all time...

It’s almost pointless to keep listing accolades because he’s just on a whole other planet... but it’s also really fun so let’s keep going. Here are the best batsmen in Test cricket over the last five years...

1. Steve Smith (AUS) – 84 INNS | 76.08 AVE | 22 100s

2. Kane Williamson (NZ) – 66 INNS | 65.78 AVE | 13 100s

3. Virat Kohli (IND) – 90 INNS | 63.78 AVE | 21 100s

4. Cheteshwar Pujara (IND) – 82 INNS | 49.58 AVE | 12 100s

5. Ross Taylor (NZ) – 60 INNS | 49.44 AVE | 14 100s

Tongues out for Rossco. Must be his turn now.

There was a very crucial milestone for Taylor on that last day as he passed 7000 Test runs. Only Stephen Fleming has more with 7172 of them (in twenty more innings). There’s a very good chance that Ross can get the 151 runs he needs to surpass the man who captained him on his Test debut in the upcoming series against Australia and while it’s extremely likely that Kane Williamson overtakes him one day, it’s a delightful thing that Rossco will get to hold the record at least for a while. Williamson is at 6322 by the way, in fourth place behind Brendon McCullum’s 6453. Also shout out to BJ Watling (3539) and Tom Latham (3478) who each rose up into the top ten in this series, overtaking Bevan Congdon and John Reid – each of whom were once number one on the list.

Ross Taylor averages 54.68 since Kane Williamson took over as captain. The only nation he doesn’t have a hundred against is South Africa (incredibly he’s never passed fifty against them in 13 innings... and we don’t play them any time soon either thanks to the way the Test Championship is structured). Also on the cards is Stephen Fleming’s NZ record of 55 scores of 50+. Williamson has 52 and Taylor has 51 so they’re neck and neck in that race. And of course Taylor will play his 100th Test match presumably in the first Test against India later on in the summer. He’s at 96 right now.

And Tom Latham. Sliding up the charts with another ton, that’s his eleventh in Test matches and his first against a non-Asian team that isn’t Zimbabwe... although that’s as much down to the teams we’ve been playing than anything. We haven’t played South Africa or Australia or the West Indies since 2017 which is just prior to when Tom Latham truly stepped it up as a Test match opener. He was showing signs of it in 2017 but since then... yeah wow.

• Tom Latham in 2017: 11 INNS | 457 RUNS | 45.70 AVE | 1 100s | 2 50s

• Tom Latham in 2018: 12 INNS | 658 RUNS | 59.81 AVE | 2 100s | 2 50s

• Tom Latham in 2019: 8 INNS | 525 RUNS | 65.62 AVE | 3 100s | 0 50s

And with a hundred here he keeps up a streak of having tonned up in four straight series.

Tom Latham has five centuries in his last eleven Test innings. Who has scored more Test runs over the last 12 months? Nobody and it’s not even close. Tom Latham has over a hundred runs more than Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli and in fewer innings too, in fact the only person in the top eleven with fewer innings than Latham is Steve Smith whose average is still lower and he has two fewer hundreds and 161 fewer runs. Tom Latham has five hundreds in the last twelve months and nobody else even has four. Right now he’s one of the best kept secrets in Test cricket but a strong series in Australia and that’ll no longer be the case.

Nothing much to say about Hank Nicholls. He only batted twice with scores of 41 and 16, having also not passed fifty in three innings in Sri Lanka prior but before that he scored three hundreds and four fifties in the space of ten innings so just a quiet one from Hank. No dramas. Also nothing much to say about the lower order who hardly had much to do with the bat.

Top run scorer in the series? That would be BJ Watling. 205 and 55 in his two innings. An intimidating 665 deliveries faced. He broke records with that double ton at the Mount, taking the Blackcaps from a place of trouble to complete and utter control of the match. But we’ve already written about that and you can read it all right here.

Just as Jeet Raval’s current slump has already been written about. Ol’ Jeet only faced 91 deliveries and scored 24 runs from three trips to the middle. But while this is getting more drastic for him, it’s also part of a lingering trend. In Raval’s first 14 innings in Test cricket he faced at least 39 deliveries on 12 occasions, more than 80 on nine occasions, and more than 100 on seven occasions. Since then he’s faced at least 39 deliveries on nine occasions out of 21 innings, more than 80 on five occasions, and more than 100 on three occasions. That’s what his job is, to blunt the new ball and get New Zealand into the innings. If he can average 35 and bat twenty overs more often than not than that’s great – remember who comes in at three and four after all. Right now his numbers aren’t too far under than... but only because of that start to his career. When you split it out things get ugly.

• Jeet Raval pre-2018: 15 INNS | 623 RUNS | 44.50 AVE | 0 100s | 5 50s | 94.47 BF/INNS

• Jeet Raval since 2018: 20 INNS | 475 RUNS | 23.75 AVE | 1 100 | 1 50 | 57.50 BF/INNS

And even then that second group of numbers is skewed by his 132 (220) against Bangladesh back in February. Since then he’s had scores of 3, 33, 4, 0, 19, 5, 0. This as a Test match opener. Five Test matches in a row in which he’s failed to pass fifty at all and only even got to 20 once. In six career innings against England he averages 8.16, with his top score the 19 he got in the Mount Maunganui game. Safe to say he needs a rather massive tour of Australia to get things back on track. Oddly, both Latham and Raval have considerably higher averages when they start at the non-striker’s end, not facing the first ball of the innings.

Which leaves a bit of CDG and Mitchell. Shots to Daryl Mitchell for getting a halfie in his first crack at this level, he now has the second highest Test average by a New Zealander ever. Rodney Redmond famously scored a hundred and a fifty on debut then never played again back in the 70s, he averaged 81.50. Mitchell slides in next at 73.00. Then Tom Blundell pops in with a cheeky 65.72 after two matches. Obviously it’s a pisstake not to qualify that stat with a minimum number of innings or whatever but it’s a great sign for the Blackcaps that Blundell and Mitchell have both come into this unit in recent times and scored immediate runs.

As for Colin de Grandhomme, like, say what you will but he’s found his role in Test cricket. He only batted once here but a patient 65 (by his standards) nudged his career batting average up over 40, meaning that six of the top seven all average above that mark as things stand. Compared to England who only had Joe Root with such numbers. CDG also has a bowling average under 30 which is extremely all-roundery and even if you take out that big haul on debut with the ball and point out that he’s kinda trending the other way, likely to settle in the early/mid 30s eventually, his batting average is going in the other direction. CDG’s last five innings read: 71no, 76no, 23no, 83, 65. Four fifties and a not out from his last five knocks. Other than a bad tour to the UAE he’s been consistently scoring runs ever since he smacked that hundy against the West Indies in December 2017. His first five Tests he scored 149 runs at 21.25. His next 14 he’s scored 952 runs at 48.17.

And then there’s Mitchell Santner. A graceful 126, his first Test hundred and his third in first class cricket. Despite all the talk of him as a batsman, and having begun his career batting at six (inexplicably), he’d only twice scored fifties in 23 previous innings. The key for him, as well as getting back into the flow of things after missing all of the 2018 Test calendar with injury, has been the growth of CDG, allowing Santner to slide down to eight in the order. At six he’s underqualified. At eight he’s overqualified. And it’s early days, only six innings in that position, but he’s averaging 45.66 coming in at eight. Perhaps he’ll do a Dan Vettori and continue sliding upwards in the order but if Santner’s coming in at eight then the batting order’s got no worries.

ENGLISH BATSMEN

He was due, that’s for sure. Joe Root’s 226 at Hamilton was a bit of a masterclass and considering the pressure he was under as captain of this team and having not really delivered in the Ashes as anticipated, it was a much needed statement from the bloke too. Prior to that he only had one hundred in his previous 22 innings, with nine single figure scores in there. Prior to being named captain he was averaging 52.80 with the bat but since then his numbers have been slipping, this double ton raising up back up to 42.66 as captain. That’s a pretty large difference right there... although part has also been having to bat at first drop where he averages 38.12, while at four (where he prefers to be and where he’s now settled back into) his average is 50.58.

Part of getting him back to number four was the trade-off of bringing in another top order fella and that’s where this English batting lineup had trouble. Dom Sibley was coming in off of some huge runs and even more extensive time at the crease in the last county season for Warwickshire. He’s 24 years old and had never played a Test before this tour. Zak Crawley came in to bat six in the second Test and that was his debut. He’s 21 years old. Ollie Pope is also 21 years old and had played two previous Tests, not to mention that the poor lad was asked to wicketkeep in the second Test. Joe Denly is older, in his 30s, but had only played eight Tests prior to this series and has still never scored a Test hundy. And the guy holding it together was opener Rory Burns and he’d only played 12 Tests before coming here as well. He scored his second Test hundy in Hamilton and also added a solid fifty in the first innings.

There was that stat about Joe Root being the only guy in the English lineup averaging more than 40 with the bat. Of course that’s the case when most of them have barely played Test cricket, certainly not enough to have figured out the ways to be successful at it. Those that weren’t immediately fresh to the scene were coming off the Ashes too so yeah that’s hardly an uninhibited stage to score bulk runs early in your career either.

So it all looks a bit messy behind Root and Burns. Ben Stokes had one brilliant innings but he threw away what would have been a lovely century, while Denly and Pope each had a big fifty to fall back on too. England have made a big effort to realign their batting order with traditional Test match skill-sets but it was the kiwi fellas who showed more application at the crease, particularly in that first Test. Remember the circumstances when Ross Taylor joined Kane Williamson out in the middle in that second Test weren’t a million miles away from what England faced in their final innings at the Mount... only the Blackcaps batted on long enough that they didn’t give the English top order a chance to get settled late on day four and Santner picked up three quickies to allow Neil Wagner to do the damage the next day. This English batting order is a work in progress for sure.

And as for their tail, damn. England went from 277/5 to be 353 all out in the first innings of the series. They then basically only had one partnership from Curran and Archer which saved them from doing worse in the second innings, going from 121/5 to be 197 all out that time, granted whilst batting mostly for time rather than runs. Then in the second Test they had that massive 193 run partnership between Root and Pope for the sixth wicket but as soon as one fell, the other followed, and from 455/6 they were quickly all out for 476. Turning to the slog too early and not giving themselves enough of a lead to be able to bowl for a win on day five. Shout out to Stu Broad in particular who somehow managed to score fewer runs than he took wickets in this series and he didn’t exactly take bundles of wickets either.

BLACKCAPS BOWLERS

Neil Wagner, what a guy. In a series which saw 2257 total runs scored at an average of 44.25... Wagnut took 13 wickets at 19.84. He had a fiver in each of the two games, taking 5/44 in the second innings of the first Test to lead the Blackcaps to victory on the final day and ripping through the English lower order in the second Test to limit their lead and eventually help lead to a series-clinching draw. Wagner’s career numbers are up to 187 Test wickets at 26.98. Having not played in the Sri Lanka tour, he’s taken a five-for in each of his last four Tests and has multiple wickets in his last eight innings bowled in. His last five Tests he has 33 wickets at an average of 16.36. This bloody guy, seriously. Unstoppable. Irrepressible. Incredible.

Wickets were hard-earned throughout these two matches and an injured Trent Boult never quite got it going, taking just one from 37 overs. Which is four more overs than Matt Henry bowled for the same reward in the second Test as his replacement. For Boult, no dramas. We know what he’s capable of and he wasn’t at full capacity here. He’s still averaging under 25 with the ball since the start of 2018. But Henry, getting one of his rare opportunities to play, won’t be too happy with seeing Joe Root take him and the rest of them to task in Hamilton. This was only his second Test match since March 2017 but in those two he has 3 wickets at 64.67 and his career Test bowling average is closing in on a half century, sitting at 48.46 as it stands. He’s in the squad for the Aussie games but with all the clamouring for Lockie Ferguson to get his Test debut you definitely can’t judge Matt Henry too harshly but you also can’t say he advanced his case at all. Which is a tricky consequence for having played on a pitch that didn’t offer a huge amount of assistance. But then that’s Test cricket, you’ve gotta find a way.

Trent Boult only taking one wicket had a bit of a sneaky consequence as Tim Southee put 7 of them away, including 4/88 in the first innings of the first Test, to take him to 258 career wickets thus overtaking Boult’s 255 in the process. Third all time for New Zealand behind Richard Hadlee (431) and Dan Vettori (361)... but then you already knew that. Southee got through a lot of overs here so the series average wasn’t anything special (though he keeps his career mark under 30 – fingers crossed it’s still that way after Australia) but he played his part – most notably in getting Ben Stokes out all three times. Yeah, get in!

Things didn’t start too great for Mitch Santner as he only bowled a mere six overs in the first innings of the series. But then the fella went and smacked a maiden Test century with the bat and still glistening from that knock he picked up three crucial wickets late on the fourth day to put the Blackcaps in a commanding position on their way to a Test victory. He removed Burns, Sibley, and nightwatchman Leach all in a short space of time. He then bowled a tankload of overs the next day for no wickets but 3/53 does still set a new career best for him in an innings.

Which... is a bit of an issue still, but first the opportunities. Because Santner hasn’t always had the reps, the six over spell in that first innings of the series is something he’s not entirely unused to so for him to get 40 overs and then 35 overs in the subsequent two... those were the first two times he’s bowled even twenty overs in an innings since we went to India in 2016 and just the fourth and fifth times he’s bowled 30+ in his 20 Test matches. Prior to this the most overs he’d bowled in a Test match innings in Aotearoa was 22.0 against Sri Lanka in the second match of his career. Getting this kind of workload was a rarity for the bloke, a rarity for any spinner in New Zealand in fact. Recall that the first wicket he took this series ended a streak of more than a hundred consecutive wickets by kiwi seamers in Aotearoa – had to go back to Todd Astle the last time England were here for the last kiwi spinner to take even a single scalp.

But yeah, to come out of it still not having ever taken more than three wickets in a first class innings is a bit of a worry. Santner’s career average is 39.31 and that actually went up here despite what feels like a breakout series for him, largely thanks to his prowess with the bat (although that’s the main reason he was picked, to be fair). His RPO was only a shade over two and he dotted up 24 maiden overs all up, including 19 out of 40 overs in that final innings of the first Test when England were trying to bat out for a draw. That’s pretty useful in itself and if he can keep scoring runs and fielding like a champ then it’s arguable that with the pace attack that the Blackcaps have at their disposal then all the spinner needs to be able to do is get through cheap overs but bear in mind we do have Australia next up and a wicket every twenty overs probably won’t cut the proverbial mustard over there.

As for Colin De Grandhomme and Daryl Mitchell, they did what they were there to do. CDG got both openers out in the first innings in Mount Maunganui and then picked up the key wicket of Joe Root in the second innings whilst being typically stingy in the runs column. Mitchell wasn’t able to get his first career wicket on debut but then nobody else other than Neil Wagner seemed to have an answer on that pitch either so can’t really blame him. He got through 22 overs largely against Joe Root on a supreme day so plenty to learn there for a guy whose bowling is probably the main area he needs to improve upon in order to get more opportunities like this one. We know he can swing the willow and he’s a great death bowler in white ball stuff so just gotta keep studying that CDG textbook of nipping them away and catching the edge. Also, Kane Williamson bowled one over. Just the ninth time he’s put the ball in his own hand across his last 27 Test matches so even before the action got cited (all cleared, no worries) he wasn’t keen on that option. His last Test wicket was against Australia in February 2016 when he got Nathan Lyon out as a nightwatchman.

ENGLISH BOWLERS

All the chat coming in was about the threat of Jofra Archer. Well, Jofra took 2 wickets in 82 overs. One in each game: BJ Watling caught behind for 205 with the Blackcaps hitting out a little on the brink of the declaration, and then he also got Mitch Santner out caught on the boundary in the next game. It’s not like he was terrible... the 24 maiden overs speak to that... but it’s a reminder that this fella is very young in his Test career and this was his first proper international tour outside of England or Ireland in any format and first time bowling with a shiny red Kookie in his hands too.

Jofra Archer in the 2019 Ashes:

4 MAT | 156.0 OVERS | 22 WKTS | 20.27 AVE | 2.85 ECO | 42.5 SR | 6/45 BBI

Jofra Archer in Aotearoa:

2 MAT | 82.0 OVERS | 2 WKTS | 104.50 AVE | 2.54 AVE | 246.0 SR | 1/75 BBI

The wilting numbers weren’t as dramatic for any of the other seamers. Stuart Broad picked up 4/73 in the first innings at Hamilton after going wicketless in the first Test (33 overs), the only English bowler to get four-for in this series. A little odd from Broady who tends to do very well in Aotearoa, twice getting six-fors. On three previous tours here he’d taken 30 wickets at 26.76 with a strike rate of a wicket ever 54.1 balls. Here that average was in the 40s and his strike-rate in triple figures so there you go. Though pretty clearly we weren’t talking about typical kiwi green seamers here.

Sam Curran did alright, picking up three wickets in each Test with his bustling lefties. Top wicket taker for the English in fact. And Chris Woakes was basically the only bowler to extract any real assistance from the wicket in Hamilton as he came in at the expense of a frontline spinner and got the wickets of Williamson and Taylor in the first innings and Latham in the second. So... either Sam Curran got those three out in that game or they tonned up. Make of that what you will.

Curran and Woakes both have very tidy bowling averages in the early 30s... but they suffer from the same drama which is a massive disparity between home and away form.

• Curran at home: 19 wickets at 20.94 average & 40.0 strike-rate (7 matches)

• Curran away: 8 wickets at 56.12 average & 98.3 strike-rate (6 matches)

• Woakes at home: 70 wickets at 23.45 average & 44.4 strike-rate (19 matches)

• Woakes away: 22 wickets at 54.86 average & 110.0 strike-rate (13 matches)

And old mate Ben Stokes somehow got through 53 overs on a bung knee but only took two wickets and wasn’t up to much, some useful short stuff on the final day notwithstanding. As for the spinners, there were three of them that got a go and they were the three English bowlers with the highest runs per over against them. Jack Leach only took two wickets with figures that make Mitch Santner look like Muttiah Muralitharan and Joe Root was always vulnerable to the loose delivery. Joe Denly also rolled the arm over for 12 relatively uneventful part-time overs... though at least while he was bowling he didn’t have to worry as much about his fielding. Catching in particular.

Nah Jack Leach is the interesting fella there. He took 12 wickets at 25.83 in the Ashes a few months back but that form must have been left unclaimed at customs because he took 2/153 in the first Test and was dropped for the second. He also played a Test in Christchurch in 2018 the last time England were here, his Test debut actually, with match figures of 2/113 as the Blackcaps recovered from 162/6 to bat for almost sixty more overs to save the Test (and win the series). Not really the best impression to leave behind... at least we got to see some of his legendary nightwatchmanship. Not much of it, granted.

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