Blackcaps vs South Africa Second Test Debrief
The New Zealand vs South Africa Test series ended with a sigh of relief and dose of gratitude for Kane Williamson. Aotearoa's Blackcaps are still first in the World Test Championship, sliding out to a winning percentage of 75 after three wins and a loss in their four games. That vista would look a lot different and the vibe of Blackcaps cricket would have flipped had South Africa pounced on strong positions in the second Test in Hamilton, yet the kiwis were staunch in not letting the tourists grab an upset result.
South Africa formed partnerships with the bat across both innings and snared key wickets on a Seddon Park pitch that offered seam and spin. Forget how the cricketing world views this South African group and zone in on what we, as kiwi sports lovers know about South African sports; they are tough, competitive and skillful.
South Africa flashed their mana at Bay Oval and then delivered over longer phases in Hamilton in a niggly challenge for the Blackcaps. South Africa won sessions, New Zealand won Tests. There is no better bloke to help a team win Tests than Kane Williamson and when his team needed him the most, in the final innings with a sneaky fragile batting line up chasing 267 to win, Williamson steered Aotearoa to victory with 133*.
You will find plenty of stats about Williamson and all sorts of ways to measure Williamson's greatness. All of which dances around Kane Williamson being the best batter ever. That comes with a splash of New Zealand 'lounging on a grass bank watching some cricket' bias and that's the point; we are from Aotearoa and we think Kane Williamson is the best batter ever.
Three centuries in this series are linked with a century in Bangladesh for this WTC cycle. Williamson averages 69.7 in Aotearoa and a fabulous 42.1avg at 'away' venues which is bolstered by 68 at 'neutral venues. Outside of Aotearoa Williamson averages 45.4. The craziest thing about Williamson is that he made a freakishly swift comeback from a major knee injury with scores of...
World Cup: 78*, 95, 14,
Tests in Bangladesh: 104, 11, 13, 11
T20Is vs Pakistan: 57, 26*
Tests vs South Africa: 118, 109, 43, 133*
Not only did Williamson return to international cricket within eight months of rupturing his ACL, he has scored lots of runs. Not only has he scored lots of runs, he has done so in all three formats across India, Bangladesh and Aotearoa. Here are Williamson's career stats for New Zealand...
Tests: 55.9avg/51.4sr
ODIs: 48.64avg/81.38sr
T20Is: 33.96avg/123.64sr
Williamson's international averages are better than his First-Class, List-A and T20 markers. In a series where Rachin Ravindra and Will Young were the only other Blackcaps to score 50+ runs in an innings, Williamson rolled out three centuries. Now we dip into the 'what's happening around Williamson?' bucket which offers good and bad wrinkles.
The win in Bangladesh featured Glenn Phillips elevating his mahi to lead Blackcaps for runs in both innings. Ravindra's double-hundy at Bay Oval was crucial for Blackcaps along with Williamson's two centuries at different tempos. New Zealand needed a bloke to grind with Williamson in their pursuit of victory and while no batter aside from Williamson scored more than 40 runs in the first innings, Young was the only other bloke to scored more than 30 runs in the second innings.
Slide back to the second innings at Bay Oval where Williamson was the only kiwi to score 30+ runs. That wouldn't have been good enough to win the second Test as South Africa were in a groove and the Seddon Park deck offered more assistance to their entire bowling unit. Young's innings of 60* will probably get lost in the shuffle of Blackcaps storylines but it was a winning innings and it was his seventh 50+ score in 14 Tests.
Young still averages a smidge below 30 though (29.47) which doesn't seem like a fair reflection of his talent, especially as he averages 40+ in ODIs, FC and LA cricket. Young was only playing because Daryl Mitchell was out injured and with a trio of spinning all-rounders in the mix, there are far too many 1st 11 combinations available to ponder right now.
Squeezing one of the best pure batters in Aotearoa into the 1st 11 meant slotting Young in as an opener and opening the batting in Test cricket is difficult, as we are seeing with Devon Conway and Tom Latham. Conway's slump is the most concerning Blackcaps thing right now and that hasn't changed from the preview to this series. Scoring 47 runs @ 11avg in Aotearoa isn't ideal and Conway's mahi against South Africa is aligned with his WTC campaign; 94 runs @ 11avg.
Latham's not doing much better on 144 runs @ 18avg in the WTC, yet the case can be made that Latham is doing the basic job of a Test opener. Latham faced 222 deliveries in this series while Conway faced 117 and this is a similar equation in the WTC as Latham's faced 352 deliveries to Conway's 262. Latham is at least grinding through the opening stanza.
Tom Blundell is also battling the form demons with 20 runs @ 10avg against South Africa and 34 runs @ 5avg in WTC. The good news is that Blackcaps bowlers are alright with the bat, but it's far from ideal that they are better than Conway and Blundell right now. Latham's in this mix too as Neil Wagner, Kyle Jamieson, Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry all have higher WTC averages than Latham, Conway and Blundell. Big ups Latham though as he has a slightly higher average than Tim Southee - who is well ahead of Conway and Blundell.
Blackcaps World Test Championship Stats
Batting
Kane Williamson: 542 runs @ 77avg/51sr
Rachin Ravindra: 301 runs @ 75avg/56sr
Glenn Phillips: 224 runs @ 44avg/88sr
Daryl Mitchell: 181 runs @ 36avg/53sr
Tom Latham: 144 runs @ 18avg/40sr
Will Young: 96 runs @ 96avg/46sr
Devon Conway: 94 runs @ 11avg/35sr
Tim Southee: 88 runs @ 17avg/74sr
Kyle Jamieson: 60 runs @ 20avg/43sr
Mitchell Santner: 38 runs @ 19avg/69sr
Matt Henry: 37 runs @ 18avg/100sr
Tom Blundell: 34 runs @ 5avg/45sr
Neil Wagner: 33 runs @ 33avg/122sr
Bowling
Ajaz Patel: 14w @ 23avg/3.5rpo
Mitchell Santner: 12w @ 17avg/2.4rpo
Glenn Phillips: 11w @ 19avg/3.1rpo
Will O'Rourke: 9w @ 10avg/2.8rpo
Kyle Jamieson: 8w @ 22avg/2.6rpo
Rachin Ravindra: 6w @ 19avg/2.3rpo
Matt Henry: 6w @ 20avg/2.3rpo
Tim Southee: 6w @ 47avg/2.9rpo
Neil Wagner: 2w @ 37avg/3rpo
Will O'Rourke made his Test debut in Hamilton and finished with 9w @ 2.8rpo. This makes O'Rourke the leading wicket-taker for Aotearoa in this series and he is the leading wicket-taker for Blackcaps seamers in WTC. O'Rourke showcased his ability to move the ball off the seam against South Africa and while he's a tall lad who hits pesky lengths at decent pace, it is the seam movement that commands attention.
Conway's out of form and he is vulnerable on both edges. O'Rourke attacks both edges from his seam movement and this was on display in his best spells where he zipped past both edges of various batters, as well as in his wickets. O'Rourke nipped one back into the lefty Neil Brand for an lbw and followed up the next day with a delivery that nipped the other way, into the right-handed Shaun von Berg.
The comparisons to Kyle Jamieson (and Henry Shipley) are obvious, but these two tall seamers offer different skills. Jamieson relies more on swing, hooping deliveries into right-handers/away from lefties with the ability to bowl balls that don't swing and sometimes those deliveries move in the other direction. O'Rourke's natural angle is into righties but who knows where the ball will go once it hits the deck.
Most importantly Jamieson and O'Rourke take wickets. Here are their FC, LA and T20 stats...
Kyle Jamieson
FC: 22.2avg/2.8rpo
LA: 32.3avg/5.3rpo
T20: 25.5avg/8.4rpo
Will O'Rourke
FC: 25.3avg/3.1rpo
LA: 19.6avg/4.8rpo
T20: 23.4avg/7.8rpo
Now doesn't feel like the right time to think too deeply about Blackcaps cricket. This series was about getting the job done and as draws against this South African team would have been upset results, simply getting wins was most important. This comes with lots of quirky bits that deserve mention...
Conway's in a slump, but it would be tricky to drop him for Tests against Australia and Blundell has also earned some selection mana. Dropping these lads would be a hefty change in how Blackcaps operate as well. Phillips is third for Blackcaps runs and wickets in WTC. Phillips is one of three spinners who have 10+ wickets for NZ in WTC and they are the only lads with 10+ wickets. The best bowler vs South Africa was a debutant in O'Rourke and Southee just finished a Test series in Aotearoa as the worst Blackcaps bowler.
There is an abundance of talent that complicates matters. Mitchell was replaced by Young and Young scored runs. Now there are two tall funky seamers in the Blackcaps Test mix. Blackcaps can deploy two spin options without taking anything from their batting line up and this can become three spinners with Santner if required. The troopers in Southee, Henry and Wagner won't be chillin' ahead of the Aussies series as they will want to get better.
Building a Blackcaps 1st 11 Test team now requires more insights into conditions and which lads suit Aotearoa's playing style as well as the opposition. Most importantly there is immense competition for spots in the 1st 11 and while blokes may not be able to emulate Williamson's production, they better be scoring runs or taking wickets (maybe both) to secure 1st 11 selection.
That didn't matter so much against South Africa. 13 different players were used and the Blackcaps won two Tests, although it was never a dominant affair and that's what New Zealand sports fans would expect when playing against South Africa. Job done and now we get into the nets as fans ahead of an enticing series against Australia.
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Peace and love.