As the final wicket fell at Hagley Oval, Trent Boult getting Zafar Gohar caught off a big slog that went straight up in the air, the Blackcaps completed their Test summer with four wins from four. It put them to the top of the ICC Test rankings for the first time ever. It also put them in a great position to qualify for the Test Championship Final at Lords later in the year. Lots of lovely successes to savour... one of the most impressive being that with the win in Christchurch the Aotearoa Test Cricket Team have now gone four years and seventeen matches in a row undefeated at home. Only four draws in those seventeen games and three of those were in the first six – in other words the Blackcaps have won ten and drawn one of their last eleven home Tests.

South Africa were the last team to win a Test on these shores. They got us in Wellington in March 2017. Faf du Plessis won the toss and chose to bowl first, having the kiwis 101/5 on day one before Henry Nicholls and BJ Watling put a century partnership together. Nicholls went on to score 118... but nobody else passed fifty and we were bowled out for 268 late on the first day. JP Duminy somehow took 4/47 for his best ever Test bowling figures. In response both South African openers went cheap (as well as the nightwatchman) but from 94/6 the South Africans rallied to 359 for a solid lead, with Temba Bavuma (89) and Quinton de Kock (91) doing most of the damage before Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel wagged the tail. Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme got three wickets each. The Blackcaps were then absolutely terrible in their second innings with Jeet Raval’s 80 the only score of note with Keshav Maharaj taking 6/40 in a total of 171 which left the Proteas with 81 runs to win and they did it with eight wickets to spare. No Trent Boult or Ross Taylor in that game, which remains the most recent Test that Jimmy Neesham has played. Kane Williamson scored 3 runs combined. Tom Latham didn’t get to double figures in either innings. It was a rough one and draws in Dunedin and Hamilton on either side of that loss gave South Africa the 1-0 series victory.

That last paragraph was 251 words about the Blackcaps losing at home and they will be the last 251 words in this piece about the Blackcaps losing at home (251 is also Kane Williamson’s highest Test score). Since then this is what they’ve done...

1. DREW vs South Africa (Hamilton)

2. WON by an innings & 68 runs vs West Indies (Wellington)

3. WON by 240 runs vs West Indies (Hamilton)

4. WON by an innings & 49 runs vs England (Auckland)

5. DREW vs England (Christchurch)

6. DREW vs Sri Lanka (Wellington)

7. WON by 423 runs vs Sri Lanka (Christchurch)

8. WON by an innings & 52 runs vs Bangladesh (Hamilton)

9. WON by an innings & 12 runs vs Bangladesh (Wellington)

10. WON by an innings & 65 runs vs England (Mount Maunganui)

11. DREW vs England (Hamilton)

12. WON by 10 wickets vs India (Wellington)

13. WON by 7 wickets vs India (Christchurch)

14. WON by an innings & 134 runs vs West Indies (Hamilton)

15. WON by an innings & 12 runs vs West Indies (Wellington)

16. WON by 101 runs vs Pakistan (Mount Maunganui)

17. WON by an innings & 176 runs vs Pakistan (Christchurch)

A couple wild trends in there... one is the obvious one that we never played Australia at any point, though we did smoke India and England who are the other two teams in Test Championship final contention. Another is how many innings victories there are there – eight of them, which is hard to even comprehend considering that New Zealand has only won 31 games by an innings margin in its history. More than a quarter of them have come in home Tests in the last four years. Meanwhile that 423 run win over Sri Lanka is the biggest win by runs that NZ has ever had and it’s not even close.

And, yes, you probably already guessed it but this is New Zealand’s longest ever home undefeated streak. This sort of sustained dominance just doesn’t happen ordinarily – way back in the day it took Aotearoa 26 years to win our first ever Test, at the 45th attempt. Let alone the ratio of wins to draws that we’re talking about. Here’s the list of best NZ home undefeated streaks:

• 17 games – March 2017-Present (13 wins, 4 draws)

• 13 games - March 1987-March 1991 (3 wins, 10 draws)

• 13 games – March 2012-December 2015 (7 wins, 6 draws)

• 12 games – March 1983-February 1987 (6 wins, 6 draws)

• 10 games – February 1979-March 1982 (3 wins, 7 draws)

• 9 games – February 1964-March 1966 (9 draws)

• 8 games – March 1997-March 1999 (5 wins, 3 draws)

Yeah righto that’s all incredible but we wanna know who’s been doing the damage in that time, right? Let’s start with the batsmen and there’s one man who stands above all else and you will not be the tiniest bit shocked to see who it is.

Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls are the two blokes to have played in all seventeen matches. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor have only missed one match each (which gives you an idea what an incredibly stable top five we’ve had over this time and that’s absolutely gotta be a huge part of the puzzle) with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Neil Wagner all playing 15 games. BJ Watling has played 14. That’s already eight players who have had as overwhelmingly consistent place in this eleven during our most prosperous run of home results ever. On the other end of the scale, Ish Sodhi, Neil Broom, and Jeetan Patel have each only played once while Todd Astle and Will Young have two appearances.

Okey doke, time for the showpiece. Kane Williamson: 22 innings for 1708 runs at an average of 85.40. Seven centuries which is a tinge short of tonning up once every three innings. Have a geeze at the complete unfiltered list of his scores across this stretch of time...

176 (SA), 1, 43, 54 (WI), 102, 22, 0 (ENG), 91, 2, 48 (SI), 200*, 74 (BAN), 51, 4, 104* (ENG), 89, 3, 5 (IND), 251 (WI), 129, 21, 238 (PAK)

That’s the world’s number one Test batsman for ya, folks. Kane Williamson has scored more Test runs in the last 17 home matches than all but thirteen NZ batsmen have in their entire home careers (and four of those thirteen are in the current side, Williamson included). Williamson’s overall average in Tests in Aotearoa is 65.31... of all others with at least ten Test innings in NZ there is nobody even within ten runs of that average (next is Ross Taylor at 54.37). Three double centuries in his last 12 home innings... there are only three other blokes with three double tons for the Blackcaps in their whole damn careers. You really do run out of superlatives.

But he’s far from alone. Five hundies for Hank Nicholls is really something, particularly with that conversion rate. Weren’t there folks calling for him to be dropped a few months back? And of course there’s Tom Latham reliably loading up on the runs from the top as well. At a time when there aren’t a huge amount of world class openers in Test cricket he’s right up there. He of course had that stretch against Sri Lanka in late 2018 where he scored 264not, 10, 176 & 161 all in a row... but even aside from that he’s done the opener’s job and face at least 50 deliveries in 15 of 24 innings, faced 100+ in 10, 200+ in 4... and for that huge double ton he batted an immense 11 and a half hours facing 489 deliveries.

Ross Taylor goes without saying. He’s got a very tidy strike-rate as well... the only thing that gets ya off-guard there is that he’s not taken the most catches. Tom Latham pips him 22 to 20 (BJ Watling meanwhile has 70 catches and zero stumpings in that time). Four of the top five average 50+ over this stretch which is amazing enough on its own but check out the surprise package of Colin de Grandhomme! Yeah mate. CDG has more runs than BJ Watling across the streak with the same amount of hundreds and almost double the strike-rate. Contrary to popular belief about the fella, he’s only been dismissed for less than twenty ONCE in those 15 innings. The hundred coming against the West Indies.

Very useful lower order numbers from Mitchell Santner with the bat. Small sample size theatre for Daryl Mitchell but a big fifty and an unbeaten hundred in his first four Test innings is supreme... similar tale for Kyle Jamieson. We’re only six Tests into his career but a batting average of 56.50 and a bowling average of 13.27 has him on pace to be the greatest all-rounder in the history of the sport so no pressure there. WG Grace’s ghost will be following intently. Note also that Trent Boult, Neil Wagner, and Tim Southee all average in the roaring twenties and number eleven Boult is the only one of them without a fifty.

A couple other sneakier points... Neil Wagner has the most ducks over the streak. He’s got three of them, the poor bugger. Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, and Tim Southee are next on the list with two each. As for sixes hit, well of course that’s Colin de Grandhomme with his 22 big bangers. That’s more than double anyone else with Mitchell Santner and Neil Wagner providing some lower order power with 10 apiece. Every batsman to have scored 100+ runs across the streak has hit at least one six.

Now it’s the time for the bowling audit and the most striking thing here, apart from Jamieson’s average, is how incredibly similar the stats are for the three frontline seam veterans. 75 wickets, 75 wickets, 72 wickets. All with averages in the low-mid 20s. Trent Boult is actually the clear bronze medallist there, he’s only got three five-fors while the others including Kylo all have at least four. Jamieson has the only match with a 10-wicket haul which is another indication of how well they share the treats.

Although they might share them but they only share them amongst each other. The other striking thing is the lack of spinning relevance, even if nobody’s gonna be shocked by that. We don’t even pick a spinner half the time these days and based on these numbers that’s entirely the right call. Having said that, when the spinners have gotten a go they’ve done better than you’d think. Santner’s average here is way above his career mark. Todd Astle and Jeetan Patel only got minimal windows to do anything but they did each take spare wickets... can’t say that for Ajaz Patel or Ish Sodhi but five different spinners in four years tells a story of its own anyway – and that doesn’t even include Will Somerville who hasn’t played a home Test. Kane Williamson is exempt from bowling status, naturally... it’s been five years since he last bowled more than five overs in a Test innings anywhere in the world.

Daryl Mitchell’s average is an outlier, that’s for sure. He’s averaging 75 with the bat and somehow still falls under that all-rounder marker (of batting ave > bowling ave). Colin de Grandhomme’s doing a job as the fourth or fifth seamer with 20 wickets @ 34.85 and an economy rate that’s so cheap it’d bankrupt most small businesses. Matt Henry’s numbers are better than expected too... although nothing compared to Kyle Jamieson who has surged past him in the seaming stocks. Here’s a stat for ya...

• Boult/Southee/Wagner/Jamieson: 258 wickets @ 21.91 average

• Everybody Else Combined: 49 wickets @ 40.32 average

Not hard to see where the damage is being done.

Now, there is a sneaky asterisk to all of this and that’s the Blackcaps’ away form. In fact you can barely even call it form because over the last four years our away Tests have been at an absolute minimum. There was that brilliant 2-1 win over Pakistan in the UAE in that time but since then there’s been a tied series in Sri Lanka and then the 3-0 hiding at the hands of Australia. And that’s it. There was no winter tour in 2017 and obviously there was no winter tour in 2020 either although in an alternate universe we’d have played Tests in Bangladesh around that time (and some limited overs stuff against the West Indies, Ireland & Scotland). Eight away Test matches in four years. Fewer than every Test playing nation other than Zimbabwe, Ireland & Afghanistan. India have played 23 away Tests in that time, Sri Lanka have played 22, England have played 20 (and counting). We have played 8.

Curiously we’ve used 19 different players in those 8 Tests, with only BJ Watling, Tom Latham, and Ross Taylor playing all eight of them. Compared to 21 players in 17 Tests at home and that includes single games for Neil Broom and Jeetan Patel who are now retired from the format. That’s the next level now. Winning Test matches away from home is the ultimate challenge for any great cricket team... tell ya what, a couple games in England in the middle of the year sounds like a lovely opportunity to stretch this home form out into the big wide world, doesn’t it?

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