Blackcaps in Australia: Test Series Batting Stats
BLACKCAPS BATSMEN
Yuck. That’s disgusting. This kind of filth needs a parental warning or something. But then we knew these statties weren’t gonna be up to much because we watched those games, we lived the humiliation, we saw the Blackcaps bat six times over the series and put up totals of:
166 all out (55.2 overs)
171 all out (65.3 overs)
148 all out (54.5 overs)
240 all out (71 overs)
256 all out (95.4 overs)
136 all out (47.5 overs)
For context, Australia batted first in each Test and scored 416, 467 & 454 so the Blackcaps were on the back foot for the entirety of the series with the exception of that early wicket that Trent Boult took in Melbourne (his only wicket of the series). For a brief few minutes on Boxing Day the kiwis were on top... and then Australia put up partnerships of at least 60 runs for each of the next five wickets and by the end of all that it didn’t matter that we got through the tail pretty swiftly, they’d already done the damage because the Blackcaps batsmen were so awful. So awful that New Zealand fielded on every single day of the series.
We sorta oughta start with Kane Williamson. As the captain and marquee player on what was a marquee tour for the Blackcaps, he started in furious conditions trying to see off a hoofing pink ball in the night session in Perth and then it just went downhill from there. He scored 57 runs in four innings at an average of 14.25 (before missing the third Test with illness). With centuries against every Test nation that he’s played against – and at least two tons against every team he’s played more than four times – Williamson is usually unfazed by the big occasion. And it’s rare that he’s kept in lock for an entire series... the only other time since January 2013 that he’s failed to pass fifty at least once in a Test series was against Sri Lanka a couple months back. Kanos bagged an unbeaten hundy and another fifty in three innings against England in between those two but in the ICC Test Championship this is what he’s done so far...
7 INN | 81 RUNS | 34 HS | 11.57 AVE | 0 100s | 0 50s | 2 0s
That’s... odd. Very odd.
Unfortunately he had a lot of company there in Australia. Henry Nicholls was only four runs better off than Williamson in his own four innings, with a top score of 33. This was his first time touring Australia and it showed. A guy averaging above 40 in Test cricket wouldn’t ordinarily be under any pressure but Nicholls might be because in Aotearoa he has 4 centuries at an average of 46.25... but away from home that slips considerably. In away Tests he averages a mere 24.16 from 13 innings (Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India & Sri Lanka) with a top score of 76... although that doesn’t include the neutral ground trip to the UAE where he scored a hundred in 2017. Add that into the mix and the numbers even out a bit more... but it’s still one that he’s gotta prove.
Hank Nicholls in NZ: 28 INN | 1110 RUNS | 162* HS | 46.25 AVE | 4 100s | 6 50s
Hank Nicholls overseas: 19 INN | 501 RUNS | 126* HS | 27.83 AVE | 1 100 | 2 50s
Just to add to it all, these are his last nine Test innings:
42, 26, 15, 41, 16, 7, 21, 0 & 33
Nine innings without a fifty, the longest drought of his Test career.
Tom Latham’s reputation apparently doesn’t stretch as far as it should because he rocked up to Aussie with the host media seemingly unaware that this is a fella who has averaged 50.45 as a Test opener across the last three years, a better average than any other opener on the planet with more than 10 matches in that time. But then most of his hundreds have come against sub-continent opposition so of course Australia weren’t to know. This series was his chance to hammer home what a world class fella he is... and he didn’t take that chance.
There were two battling efforts where he lasted 130+ deliveries for scores of 50 and 49 but other than that he didn’t score 20 in his other four innings. Hints but only hints of his ability. He can be quite rocks and diamonds like that, to be fair... the difference here is that his big innings were only around that 50-run mark whereas usually he goes huge once he gets himself in. That 50 in Melbourne was the first time Latham has been dismissed between 50-100 since November 2018. The previous five times he’d reached that milestone he’d gone on to score triple figures.
What certainly didn’t help matters were the dramas at the other end with Jeet Raval in that first Test and then getting a brand new partner who’d never opened before in Tom Blundell for the next two. Raval scored 1 and 0 in Perth so those opening partnerships were non-starters (1/1 and 6/1). With Blundell it got a bit better as they put on 23 runs (Blundell) and 31 runs (Latham) in Melbourne but that’s only good in comparison to what happened in the first Test. In Sydney there was a 68-run partnership off the top which was then followed by Jeet Raval coming in and adding 31 of his own runs to have the Blackcaps 117/1... but then they still got bowled out for 256 and would have had to follow on if Australia had been interested in that. They might just not realise the follow-on rule exists, come to think of it. They had three chances to enforce it and never bothered once. Oh yeah and then in the second innings both openers were out at 4/2. It was that kind of series.
Jeet Raval obviously had a nightmare and in his last 15 Tests he has now scored 520 runs from 24 innings at an average of 21.66 with only two scores above fifty. In his last 7 Tests he has scored 109 runs from 11 innings at an average of 9.90. An average innings length of 30 deliveries. His slump has been going on a long time now and for the Blackcaps to be so unprepared for the prospect of dropping him that they chucked in Tom Blundell who’d never opened before in first class cricket was inexcusable. But that’s where we are, folks.
Blundell’s ton at the MCG was legendary. First ever NZer to score a Test ton at the ground (although there are a couple first class ones) and it was particularly memorable for how dogged he was in basically ignoring the offside as a scoring option entirely. Blundell also scored a hundred on Test debut against the West Indies so he’s a bloke who loves a challenge. His Test average is at 51.33 after seven innings and would’ve been more if he’d been a bit more selfish and played for that red ink in Melbourne where he was the last man out trying to go for a whack off the part-time spinner. He didn’t do a whole lot else (although there was that decent start in Sydney) but it was enough to earn top run scorer status for the kiwis this tour, the only guy to score a hundred for the Blackcaps (with only four other scores past fifty).
Nobody cares about the lower order since they were coming in under the pump every single time and therefore did what lower order batsmen do in that situation and crumbled. Australia’s lower order wasn’t up to a whole lot either, to be fair. Mitchell Santner’s 27 was the top score for New Zealand from 8-11 and Australia’s best was 30 for Mitchell Starc. Nothing drastic whatsoever...
NUMBERS 8-11 FOR NZ: 22 INN | 149 RUNS | 27 HS | 9.31 AVE | 4 0s
NUMBERS 8-11 FOR AUS: 15 INN | 148 RUNS | 30 HS | 13.45 AVE | 1 0s
So there you go, we actually outscored them across the bottom four batsmen in the order (admittedly at a lower average with more innings). That’s a consolation... right?
The glamour from Mitch Santner’s maiden ton against England has pretty much disappeared now, he was dismissed three times in the single figures here from four innings and never really looked comfortable against the quick stuff. Chuck his bowling figures of 1/250 into the equation and it was a shocker from ol’ Mitch on this tour. Catching the bug for the third Test might have been a bit of a convenient one in the end. Meanwhile Colin de Grandhomme did as CDG does and scored at the quickest strike rate of any NZer who faced at least fifty deliveries, also adding a half-ton to his tally. New Zealand’s tied third top score this series, in fact.
TOP SCORES BY BLACKCAPS THIS SERIES:
Tom Blundell – 121 (210) in Melbourne
Ross Taylor – 80 (134) in Perth
Glenn Phillips – 52 (115) in Sydney
Colin de Grandhomme – 52 (68) in Sydney
Tom Latham – 50 (144) in Melbourne
Tom Latham – 49 (133) in Sydney
BJ Watling – 40 (106) in Perth
Kane Williamson – 34 (70) in Perth
Tom Blundell – 34 (105) in Sydney
Colin de Grandhomme – 33 (65) in Perth
Henry Nicholls – 33 (52) in Melbourne
Jeet Raval – 31 (58) in Sydney
Mitch Santner – 27 (46) in Melbourne
Todd Astle 25* (63) in Sydney
Colin de Grandhomme – 23 (21) in Perth
BJ Watling spent a long time out in the middle in Australia, facing 353 balls which was second most to Tom Latham for the Blackcaps. He was only the fifth top run scorer though, scoring at a strike rate of 29.74 runs per hundred deliveries. Surprisingly he only took five catches behind the stumps across six innings too, as the outside edges of those Australian bats refused to play along and the Blackcaps then resorted to short-pitched assaults instead. It was crazy how the two teams seemed to be playing on two vastly different pitches, such was the difference between them. Crushingly both CDG and Watling’s Test batting averages have dipped back under 40 thus ruining a great stat. De Grandhomme did pass 1000 Test runs on this tour, however. And he got to 20 on four occasions which makes him the only NZer to do that this series.
It would be rude not to find one shining positive from this series and there was one positive that shone down with heavenly brightness upon the Sydney Cricket Ground. No, not Glenn Phillips’ debut fifty although that was a goodie too. Makes him the 49th player to score a fifty on Test debut for New Zealand (current guys in the same boat: BJ Watling, Jeet Raval, Henry Nicholls, Tim Southee, Daryl Mitchell just a couple weeks ago, and also Kane Williamson and Tom Blundell who both scored hundreds on debut). With a duck in the second innings Phillips also becomes the 51st man to get a duck on debut for NZ (Nine men got pairs on Test debut for NZ: KC James, FT Badcock, CG Rowe, LA Butterfield, BP Bracewell, KR Rutherford, CM Kuggeleijn, JEC Franklin, MR Gillespie). Tom Latham also got a quacker on his debut so some good company there too.
But no, the heavenly brightness was to celebrate Ross Taylor surpassing Stephen Fleming’s record runs total for Aotearoa. A massive achievement for one of the all time greats of the sport in this country... although he only just got there. He needed 150 runs coming into the tour, scored 80 at the first pop... and then only just scraped through with a two run lead before he was out for the final time. But it doesn’t matter how you get there when your entire career is a testament to the achievement.
Ross Taylor also surpassed Stephen Fleming for the most ODI runs for New Zealand a little while back, so he’s now got both of those records in his pocket... at least until Kane Williamson catches up, which you’d figure he will with time on his side. But that’s why it’s important that Rossco gets there now so as to savour it in for a while. This is a record once held by his mentor Martin Crowe and if you’ve got a few minutes, you’ve gotta watch his presser where he talks about the significance of this one...
The other thing to say about Ross Taylor is that he’s batting as well as he ever has. Three scores of 22 in this series don’t do that much justice outside of being a Richie Benaud tribute but under Kane Williamson’s captaincy Ross has averaged 51.61 from 44 innings with 6 centuries and another 9 fifties. His next Test will be his 100th, a milestone that only Daniel Vettori (112), Stephen Fleming (111), and Brendon McCullum (101) have reached before him. Best leave the last word to the fella he just surpassed...
AUSSIE BATSMEN
They may not know how to pronounce his name in Australia but they sure know who Marnus Labuschagne is now. He debuted in 2018 over in the UAE and took a little while to find his footing, but since coming in as a mid-Test substitute for a concussed Steve Smith during the Ashes at Lords back in August these are his Test innings...
59, 74, 80, 67, 11, 48, 14, 185, 162, 143, 50, 63, 19, 215 & 59
The last six of those were against New Zealand, the two 150s were against Pakistan, the rest against England. Since that Ashes nod he has scored 1249 runs in 15 innings at an average of 83.26. He has more hundreds in that time than scores under fifty. His overall average drops to a pathetic 63.43 when factoring in his first five Tests which is a shade better than Steve Smith’s 62.84 so s’pose they’d better start rethinking the old ‘Best Since Bradman’ tag across the ditch.
Smith and Warner were actually contained fairly well by the Blackcaps. Not compared to the rubbish that their own batsmen served up but Smith didn’t ton up during this series in five innings which is nice and Warner hadn’t even passed fifty until his sixth knock when he launched into 111no, the bugger. Smithy didn’t score a hundred against Pakistan either despite being unstoppable over in England prior. Here’s a stat for ya...
STEVE SMITH IN THE 2019 ASHES:
7 INNS | 774 RUNS | 211 HS | 110.57 AVE | 3 100s | 3 50s
DAVID WARNER IN THE 2019 ASHES:
10 INNS | 95 RUNS | 61 HS | 9.50 AVE | 0 100s | 1 50 | 3 0s
STEVE SMITH EVER SINCE:
7 INNS | 254 RUNS | 85 HS | 36.28 AVE | 0 100s | 2 50s
DAVID WARNER EVER SINCE:
8 INNS | 786 RUNS | 335* HS | 131.00 AVE | 3 100s | 0 50s
Not that it felt like either one of them was ever going to get out during this series and it was always a shock when they did. David Warner now has five hundreds against New Zealand in 19 innings and in very Latham-esque fashion he’s tonned up every time he’s reached fifty against us. Smith only has 2 tons and 5 fifties when playing the Blackcaps so we can take solace that his 58.23 average against us is technically below his career average.
If all this is a bit too much for you and you still need a gilded stake to destroy David Warner with, there is one stat that might help you...
DAVID WARNER IN AUSTRALIA:
75 INNS | 4484 RUNS | 335* HS | 65.94 AVE | 18 100s | 12 50s | 2 0s
DAVID WARNER AWAY FROM AUSTRALIA:
80 INNS | 2760 RUNS | 145 HS | 34.50 AVE | 6 100s | 18 50s | 7 0s
That includes 3 innings for a total of 39 runs in Aotearoa. What a useless guy.
Elsewhere Joe Burns, Travis Head, and Matthew Wade were all under a microscope for their performances considering the pressure that’s always on Australian cricketers to hold their spots with the competition for places that they have. Travis Head was great, he tonned up in Melbourne to top score in Australia’s highest score of the series, his second Test ton and he added another fifty to that as well. It’s a bit hard to cash in when all the runs have already been scored before you come to the crease at 6 but after a sloppy Ashes series and only getting one innings in two Tests against Pakistan, that hundred was just what he needed to show.
And to prove that other point, Travis Head batted at six here, same as BJ Watling. The next men in were Tim Paine, who has never scored a Test hundred and missed a great chance to do so here, and Colin de Grandhomme who is a bit of a pivot for the Blackcaps before the lower order fellas emerge (depending on what your opinions of Mitchell Santner are but his numbers here were of lower order production value). These were the scores at the loss of the fifth wicket for each team across the series...
Australia: 301/5 | 160/5 | 284/5 | 168/5 | 331/5 | N/A
New Zealand: 97/5 | 98/5 | 58/5 | 161/5 | 163/5 | 38/5
Joe Burns was decent. A golden duck in the Boxing Day Test was unflattering but every other opening partnership was for at least 39 runs as he complimented David Warner nicely and mostly protected Labuschagne and Smith from the new ball. The average is a bit mud, largely thanks to the lack of the one big score that would’ve changed that but he still faced more deliveries than any Blackcaps batsman in this series.
As for Matthew Wade... similar story but batting in more comfortable situations. In five innings he scored between 12 and 38 in every one of them, his career average at a very modest 31.30, and if any player is in danger of losing their spot from this unit then it’s probably Matty Wade... even though he managed to bury his self-awareness deep enough to get chippy at the kiwi batsmen from in close under the helmet alongside his mate Tim Paine, who always has a lot to say for somebody who has only scored two first class hundreds and he’s 35 years old. Test average of 31.66 from 31 matches. He improved on that rate largely on the back of that 79 which he scored... but what he’d have given for a hundred there. He’s a quality gloveman and a very good captain so not likely to be dropped any time soon. His sledging is overrated, not nearly as witty as people seem to think he is... although his best yarn for saved for Labuschagne on the final day of the series. Sledging your own teammates, now that’s a man with full commitment to the life.
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