Aotearoa vs South Africa Second Test Debrief
After losing to a rampant South African squad, Aotearoa's Blackcaps finish the Test summer 2-2 and yeah it's a bit weird. How about that South Africa mana though? Not quite Australia in terms of a sporting rival but close and as Australia look beyond Aotearoa with the Ashes, South Africa are a fun foe. Until conditions change, the thing I'm learning is how niggly the arrival/adapting process is for sporting tourists and South Africa's bounce back is a clear example of hearty mana.
Aotearoa tour England for three Tests in June and England then host SA for three Tests. SA are 3-2 (60% wins) in the World Test Champions and Aotearoa is 2-3 (38.33% wins). England are 1-6 down the bottom of the ladder and England have their own issues which could lead to an Aotearoa/SA Viking raid or England defending their turf with mana. We'll learn more about Aotearoa and SA with how those tours wind up.
Crazy times in the world. As above so below. What to make of that Test, Test series and Test summer? Mind-blown emoji.
I can't go past this...
Tom Latham: 3inns, 16 runs @ 5.33avg.
Will Young: 3inns, 11 runs @ 3.66avg.
Every other Blackcap had more runs than Latham and Young vs South Africa. Only five batters in the series scored less than 20 runs and the other three were SA seamers who each played one Test (Genton Stuurman, Lutho Sipamla, Duanne Olivier). Tim Southee scored 26 runs in the series while Kyle Jamieson scored 40 runs and his Test batting dips from 49avg in 2020 featuring a 51*, then 17.50avg in 2021 and 10avg this year. This came with Neil Wagner and Matt Henry enjoying nifty knocks.
But why can't the bowlers do better at batting when it matters?
If everything else were honkidory then I'd explore that idea. It's not rational to discuss bowlers batting when the two openers were Aotearoa's worst batters. Start with the blokes who are their to bat, the blokes who both averaged 40+ in four Tests of WTC prior to this series. Latham had a century and two 50+ scores in 7inns, Young had four 50+ scores in 7inns.
Knocks from Wagner, Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell and Daryl Mitchell were enjoyable. They were required. More knocks from these lads, plus Jamieson or Southee would have been fabulous to help draw or win the second Test. For whatever reason this was the Test where Latham nicked one down the leg-side and after a decent sample size of this opening combo flourishing, it all vanished for this series.
They will be eager to improve, while we hope that's just a one of those weird sporting shenanigans - the opposite of Luteru Talylor taking a wicket with his final moment of Test cricket.
May this also serve as a reminder of Williamson and Trent Boult's importance. I celebrate the pool of depth for Aotearoa cricket and this comes with an understanding that when two of Aotearoa's greatest are absent, Aotearoa slides a smidge down from elite. Elite wins competitions and the WTC winning team featured four of Aotearoa's greats (Taylor and BJ Watling included) who are now absent so check the vibe accordingly.
The beauty of this depth is that the floor remains high, while the ceiling of potential falls slightly. Tap into some positivity and Aotearoa is well equipped to flow with the rigours of international cricket, while staying competitive. Easier match ups are on the horizon like an Aotearoa sunrise. Plunket Shield cricket will be followed by the Kiwi County Tour and I'm hoping many Blackcaps Test players prepare for the England series with County Championship gigs; Will Young hit back to back hundies for Durham last year.
Williamson will return, Boult will return. Both have major implications on team selection and pondering such combinations will speed up a long afternoon. There's a nugget within all of this that complicates matters even further and pondering this takes us deep into the mangroves, perhaps too deep.
Ajaz Patel leads Aotearoa's well equipped spin unit. Summer started fresh off Patel's beautiful Mumbai mahi (low key up their with Taylor's wicket) and the selection of a spinner was again the talking point. Aotearoa's northern regions generally offer the most spin and Bay Oval is the spinniest of them all, an arena where Mitchell Santner was the star. Bangladesh enjoyed the luxury of a warm up game at Bay Oval and they rode that wave into their Test victory.
Spin vibes noted. Aotearoa knew the vibe and selected Rachin Ravindra. All good. Vibes noted though.
Hagley Oval is not spinny. Hence Daryl Mitchell replaced Ravindra for the second Test vs Bangladesh (Taylor took his wicket with spin yo) and Mitchell then played as a batter for the SA series, with de Grandhomme keeping Ravindra out of the team. Aotearoa dominated the first Test vs SA with seam and the SA seamers were solid, while Aiden Markram was deployed as a spinner with 2 cheeky wickets.
Those wickets were cheeky, but SA used Markram to spice it up. Then along with a low key flex of their seam unit depth, SA selected Keshav Maharaj. Correct - the same Keshav Maharaj who took the most wickets of all bowlers in the 2017 tour of Aotearoa. The same lad who now averages 22.10 in Aotearoa, well below his career average of 32.88. The only other nations where Maharaj averages below 25 are lands of spin: Sri Lanka and West Indies.
Of course, Christchurch is all about seam. But Maharaji looks at a tour of Aotearoa through the same lens that Patel looks at a tour of India? Weird, super weird like Latham's dismissals.
This was the second Test in a couple weeks at the same venue. Regardless of whether the same deck was used or not, this is step tahi in seam dominant conditions embracing a splash of spin. Combine Maharaj's fetish for Aotearoa with the unique factor of playing back to back games at Hagley Oval and seamers who were supremely accurate and/or suddenly over 140km/h consistently (post lock up fatigue noted) and SA were the better bowling group.
In the two losses this summer there have been slight misreads of conditions and team make up. The reason not to whip up a fuss about this is that it's all rather tricky, niggly to assess and kinda just straight up weird. In hindsight I reckon Patel would have been useful at Bay Oval and especially for a back to back Hagley Oval Test, then again I can't argue to shake up the bowling unit that just rolled SA in the first Test.
It's complicated as I don't want to lean too far either way. Stay mellow here folks. I'd advise not to reflect or react too much with this Test defeat and the 2-2 summer. As above so below. Don't go too deep into the world's antics when we can zone in on ourselves, how we share aroha and mana. Zone in on Plunket Shield to see how the Blackcaps Test troopers bounce back. Celebrate the return of ODI cricket and a Netherlands team featuring hearty kiwis Logan van Beek and Max O'Dowd. Embrace the Wahine World Cup and learn women's cricket nuance.
Flush the dunny and keep it grooving.
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Peace and love.