Aotearoa vs South Africa First Test Debrief
For those too lazy to tap in, Aotearoa's cricketing depth evident in the delightful destruction of South Africa would have been a wee surprise. Although I have documented the wave of Blackcaps depth that is currently being surfed, I was still curious as to how that depth would perform and all these Blackcaps experiences feel as though we've been here before. We have seen various players score runs to start their Test careers, we watched from a distance as six players were swapped out between Tests against England last year resulting in a dominant win.
We have observed smaller nuggets like Daryl Mitchell pouncing on his opportunity to open at the T20 World Cup, or Ajaz Patel stepping in for his mandatory spinning Test series with confidence. Curiosity remains as we venture forward with this quasi-fresh Blackcaps Test group and yet we know this is a group, a squad, a whanau, a pool of players well equipped to do their job in Test cricket. This is not the past where Aotearoa struggled to whip up 11 quality players, this is 2022 and shit's changing for the better.
Like you, part of my curiosity was due to South Africa's promising signs. Everyone thought this would be a stiff challenge of two nifty seam attacks, two sporting rivals operating at their highest level. Upon reflection there needs to be some full steak and cheese reality here, which also applies to the White Ferns dominating India ahead of the World Cup; South Africa and India wahine did not have the luxury of lovely preparation.
India wahine went from being locked up to playing Aotearoa, in Aotearoa during the Aotearoa cricket season. 25-year-old Smriti Mandhana averages 41.70 in ODIs and is yet to play vs White Ferns because she was only recently released from her lock up. Big ups the White Ferns and let's understand the reality.
Same vibe here for South Africa. Coach Mark Boucher is being investigated for ideals rooted in history, among wider issues in South African cricket. On January 23rd, South Africa played their final ODI vs India in South Africa after their Test series wrapped up on January 14. In a smidge under a month, South Africa have traveled to Aotearoa and been locked up before playing another Test.
Slide back to the Bangladesh series. Bangladesh defeated Aotearoa at Bay Oval - so why couldn't South Africa do something similar? Bangladesh played a warm up game vs an Aotearoa 11 at Bay Oval days before the first Test. Not only were they graced with Aotearoa's most favourable conditions for Asian teams, they had a warm up game in those exact conditions.
The real battle for Aotearoa is what happens next. South Africa will be better prepared for the second Test, they don't have to leave Christchurch and their mana will ensure an improved performance. The second Test is also crucial in the World Test Championship as Aotearoa is now 6th and has clawed their way to a 2-2 record after losing Tests to India and Bangladesh. Should Aotearoa snare a 3-2 record, they will join India (5th), Pakistan (3rd) and Australia (2nd) as the only teams with 3+ wins.
That will put Aotearoa in the upper-tier and considering how this WTC cycle started, that's a fabulous place to set up shop ready to pounce on back to back WTC Finals.
No one should be overly surprised that local lads Henry Nicholls and Matt Henry were Aotearoa's best performers. Nicholls is a certified Test batter, averaging 50 in the Plunket Shield this summer as well as last summer. Nicholls has low key not played a lot of cricket recently and his last 10 games stretch back to September last year (T20I tour of Bangladesh), with these last 10 games now featuring four games at Hagley Oval.
Fair play as Nicholls has scores of 17, 44 (PS), 49* (SS), 0 and 105 (Tests) which is not pure Nicholls domination at Hagley. Tom Latham is the only batter with as much Hagley know-how as Nicholls in the Blackcaps, while Henry has been right there with Latham and Nicholls toiling away for Canterbury below the radar.
Henry's role has been tricky and may continue to be tricky. Henry sits behind three of Aotearoa's greatest seamers ever, plus the younger seamer who has exploded with Test wickets. This means sporadic game time and playing a Test every so often isn't ideal for lowering a Test bowling average. The combination of Henry being out of sight and (now) averaging 38.41 is why kiwi cricket fans haven't had the connection with Henry that is now being celebrated.
Here's a year by year breakdown of Henry's Test mahi...
2015: 10w @ 49.80avg.
2016: 7w @ 65.14avg.
2017: 8w @ 26.12avg.
2019: 3w @ 64.66avg.
2020: 2w @ 74avg.
2021: 7w @ 29.57avg.
2022: 9w @ 6.11avg.
What happened when Aotearoa swapped out six players from the Lord's Test vs England to the second Test in Birmingham? Henry took 6 wickets and Aotearoa won. Henry has now taken 15w in his last two Tests and hearty kiwi cricket folks can spot the casual by their thoughts on Henry because when out of sight, he was doing this...
2019/20 Plunket Shield: 17w @ 29avg.
2020/21 Plunket Shield: 13w @ 21.30avg.
2021/22 Plunket Shield: 21w @ 17.76avg.
Most importantly though, Henry's mana is lit. All Henry has done in the last five years is hold things down, support the lads and get better. Tim Southee and Trent Boult have found extra juice later in their careers thanks to a variety of tricks, moving the ball both ways via different methods. Southee appears to be swinging the ball both ways now, building on his ability to roll out an out-swinger then nibble deliveries back into a right-hander. Ol' mate Henry has been a sponge and watching him unleash his tricks was a pleasure.
As for Southee, he continues to make seam bowling fun to watch. Since the start of 2019, Southee averages 23.16. Southee has 13w in 2022 so far and is chasing his fifth consecutive year of taking 20+ wickets. While he did this between 2012-16, Southee played more than eight Tests in four of those years, six Tests in the other.
This current stretch features three years playing five Tests, plus eight Tests in 2019. With 13w in three Tests this year, Southee could hit the 30w mark in a calendar year for the third time in the last four years. Southee has four years with 30+ wickets in his career.
Tom Blundell's longform batting doesn't have any patterns, themes or trends. His Plunket Shield mahi is all over the place with 28.50avg in 2019/20, 34.23avg in 2020/21 and 17.33 this summer. Blundell has three 50+ scores in his last 10 games, the same number of ducks and wasn't overly dominant when dipping down to play SS/FT for Wellington. Blundell does have knocks of 57* and 96 in his last two Test innings and a 50+ score in four of his five years playing Test cricket.
Cameron Fletcher has a clear cricketing trend. Fletcher has averaged 70+ for two consecutive PS campaigns and commanded his call up - typical Blackcaps call up in tune with how Henry, Blundell and Will Young catch the vibe as squad members. Blundell's stuff is weird to process, Fletcher has simply been eating runs.
Watching Blundell play Test cricket makes me happy. When batting he low key resembles Kane Williamson with soft hands and snapping into pull shots. When keeping I barely notice he is there because he rarely makes a mistake and as I process this joy of watching Blundell play cricket, I'm drawn to how Blundell, Henry and Nicholls have all settled in as team-first troopers.
The world of sport is full of those who want more. More money. More points. More fake social media love. More T20 cricket. More complaining. More PR. More power. More influence. More, more, more.
This was a comprehensive team performance from Aotearoa. I'm left thinking about why the mahi of Blundell, Henry and Nicholls resonated with me - why did it feel so good to see these lads enjoy their mahi? The beauty of Aotearoa sport is evident in these three. The patience and no-dramas in waiting for an opportunity, maintaining mana and a positive vibe for the team throughout this process. Team-first mahi. Do your job. Happy to be there, ready to step up. Everything that the Niche Cache loves about Aotearoa sport was there.
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Peace and love.