Blackcaps vs South Africa: Test Series Stats
BLACKCAPS – BATSMEN
| INNS | NO | RUNS | HS | AVE | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | 4 | 0 | 309 | 176 | 77.25 | 542 | 57.01 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeet Raval | 4 | 0 | 256 | 88 | 64.00 | 613 | 41.76 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Henry Nicholls | 4 | 0 | 137 | 118 | 34.25 | 209 | 65.55 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| BJ Watling | 4 | 0 | 137 | 50 | 34.25 | 406 | 33.74 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mitchell Santner | 2 | 0 | 45 | 41 | 22.50 | 193 | 23.31 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colin de Grandhomme | 3 | 0 | 61 | 57 | 20.33 | 80 | 76.25 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Neil Wagner | 4 | 2 | 38 | 32 | 19.00 | 41 | 92.68 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tom Latham | 4 | 0 | 74 | 50 | 18.50 | 155 | 47.74 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Tim Southee | 2 | 0 | 31 | 27 | 15.50 | 37 | 83.78 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeetan Patel | 4 | 1 | 38 | 17* | 12.66 | 62 | 61.29 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Matt Henry | 1 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 12.00 | 17 | 70.58 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Neil Broom | 3 | 0 | 32 | 20 | 10.66 | 72 | 44.44 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jimmy Neesham | 3 | 0 | 26 | 15 | 8.66 | 53 | 49.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trent Boult | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.00 | 15 | 13.33 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ross Taylor | 1 | 1 | 15 | 15* | - | 27 | 55.55 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Another Test series down and this time Kane Williamson reassumed his role at the top of the hill. 309 runs at an average of 77.25, scoring them at a decent clip as well. Two centuries, 130 in Dunedin and then that magnificent 176 in Hamilton, which probably had the kiwis set up for a series tying victory until rain came along and ruined things. Crazy thing with Prince Kane is that he scored 1 and 2 in the second Test which no surprises the Blackcaps then lost. His lowest aggregate in a Test and he still averaged 77.25 for the series. Yeah, that’s our boy.
Important note: Kane Williamson’s career Test average after the Pakistan series had dipped to 49.12. A hundred against Bangladesh got it ever so slightly above 50 again before he sunk back to 49.89 after the game at the Basin. Then he scored 176 and it now reads 51.16. Get some!
Speaking of tons, Hank Nicholls scored his first one in Wellington, a superb counter attacking knock which got the NZers through to a decent total of 268 having hit the crease at 21/3. He scored 118 and nobody else passed Jeet Raval’s 36. Unfortunately he scored 12, 7 and 0 in his other innings. Apart from Kane, Hank was the only other dude to score a century for NZ in the series, with Dean Elgar’s work on the first day of the first Test South Africa’s only triple-figure effort.
This wasn’t really a series for big runs though. New Zealand’s 489 in the third match was the only score over 400 and that was backed by that big Williamson hundred. And also fifties from both openers, which was nice.
Jeet Raval made a habit of half-tonning. He averaged 64 without going over 88 in a go, that’s some proper consistency there. He started out with 52 in Dunedin, added 36 and 80 in Wellington (a Test in which NZ were bowled out for 268 and 171) before scoring 88 in The Tron. Now that’s pretty solid. What’s more is that in those innings he faced a respective 102, 83, 174 and 254 deliveries. That’s taking the shine of the bugger, alright. The earliest he was dismissed was in the 26th over.
Whereas Tom Latham, let’s just say it was refreshing to see him get that 50 in his last stint. 24 runs in three innings before that was a long way from acceptable, the lad dragging out that dry spell of form from the ODIs but thankfully getting a score before the summer window closed. In the first and third matches, Williamson came in and batted time with Raval and everything was fine: second wicket partnerships of 102 and 190… which was nice considering how abysmal our second wicket records were against South Africa. When that didn’t happen, we lost.
Rain ruined the first and third games, with both of the final days a washout. The Cappies might have been in a position to chase a win in Dunedin with four more wickets to take, a second innings to bat and 191 runs behind. They were definitely in a place to chase the Hamilton game with South Africa down by 95 runs with only five wickets left. Stink, bro. The game that wasn’t affected was the game we got smashed in, losing by eight wickets on the third day, and that was the game that Williamson struggled in. NZ were 13/2 and 26/2. In came Neil Broom at four with Ross Taylor out (having added 15 unbeaten runs to his average)… gone for a debut duck. Broomy scored 20 and 12 in his other two attempts so he’ll be hoping for another chance next summer to add to that career average of 10.66. Worse than Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel and Neil Wagner this series.
Jimmy Neesham also didn’t score any runs in his three bats, while Colin de Grandhomme looked to be swimming out of his depth until a nicely composed 57 in Hamilton, hitting five fours and two sixes but also nursing the ball around well for singles and twos. That’s his top score in Tests, a feat that Jeet Raval and Henry Nicholls also achieved. Mitch Santner couldn’t turn his much needed spell at the crease into a fiddy like Latham and CDG did but his 41 in his last bat, coming in at six, will give him some confidence too – he lasted 151 deliveries (although was bowled off a no-ball in there).
Oh and BJ Watling spent some time in the middle as well, scoring 50 in Test #1 and getting a couple other starts as well. Funny thing is he scored exactly the same number of runs, 137, as Nicholls did but faced close to twice as many balls.
SOUTH AFRICA – BATSMEN
| INNS | NO | RUNS | HS | AVE | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faf Du Plessis | 5 | 2 | 198 | 56* | 66.00 | 472 | 41.94 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Quinton de Kock | 5 | 1 | 210 | 91 | 52.50 | 311 | 67.52 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Morne Morkel | 3 | 2 | 49 | 40 | 49.00 | 69 | 71.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dean Elgar | 6 | 0 | 265 | 140 | 44.16 | 651 | 40.70 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Temba Bavuma | 5 | 0 | 189 | 89 | 37.80 | 407 | 46.43 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Vernon Philander | 4 | 2 | 70 | 37* | 35.00 | 146 | 47.94 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hashim Amla | 6 | 1 | 153 | 50 | 30.60 | 353 | 43.34 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| JP Duminy | 6 | 1 | 104 | 39 | 20.80 | 227 | 45.81 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kagiso Rabada | 3 | 0 | 47 | 34 | 15.66 | 66 | 71.21 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Theunis de Bruyn | 2 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 6.00 | 38 | 31.57 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Keshav Maharaj | 3 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 5.00 | 48 | 31.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen Cook | 4 | 0 | 17 | 11 | 4.25 | 65 | 26.15 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Bit weird when Morne Morkel’s your third best average with the bat, though he did that on the back of a couple not outs. And also that 40 which took the game away from NZ in Wellington, sticking around for way too long for the last wicket with Vernon Philander (partnership = 57). That after Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma had put on 160 for the seventh wicket, from pairing up at 94/6. Safe to say that one got away… as did deserved hundies for de Kock (91) and Bavuma (89).
That fitted the theme for the South Africans, who had nine half-tons in Aotearoa and only one century. New Zealand had six 50s and three 100s, by contrast. Hey but who won the series, right?
Dean Elgar was the top run getter for SA and he did most of that damage in the first Test. 140 in the first innings backed by 89 in the second, top scoring both times, he batted for a total of 772 minute in that match. Work it out, that’s nearly 13 hours of willow-wielding. He must’ve been exhausted because he followed that up with scores of 9 (22 mins), 17 (75 mins), 5 (13 mins) and 5 (21 mins). Still had an average of 44.16 for the series and the 651 deliveries faced were more than anyone else, beating Raval’s 613. BJ Watling was the only player with at least 50 runs in this series with a lower strike rate too.
Occupying the crease was something that South Africa did really well. Apart from QDC, all of their batsmen scored at a S/R under 50 – that might’ve been something they could have improved on but then they also had a habit of losing early wickets here so they were often trying to offset the ol’ collapse. The reason for that was Stephen Cook who scored 17 runs in four innings as an opener – even worse than Tom Latham was doing after two Tests but while Latham salvaged a fifty in Hamilton, Cook was dropped. And his replacement, Theunis de Bruyn… got a duck in his first Test innings and then got run out colliding with Hashim Amla for 12 in his second bat.
Faf du Plessis, el capitano, was a dude who summarised that. Like Raval, he thrice passed fiddy without getting a ton. In fact du Plessis’ top score was 56*, a pretty important one there as he took South Africa into a decent lead in Dunedin to stave off any chance of a team crumbling on day four of Test uno before rain had the final say. He scored 52 in the first innings there too. Then there was another grinding half-ton in Hamilton of 53, which ended when Tom Latham went on ahead and did this…
Faf was not out on 15 when the cricket ended too, facing 51 balls there and successfully blocking things out with de Cock for close to 12 overs with five wickets already down and a solid deficit from the first knock before rain again washed things out the next day.
Quinton de Kock got ripped on by Jeetan Patel through the ODI series. Jeetan once again picked up his wicket in the first Test, twice in fact, getting him caught out for 10 and bowled for 4. He then scored 91, 90 and 15* for the rest of his hit-outs. Should’ve got a hundy out of that but so it goes. His stats against Jeetan in his last three bats? 63 off 82 with 7 fours and 2 sixes. Whatever it was it seems he figured it out.
Elsewhere Bavuma had a solid series, scoring runs at number six. Perhaps a little slow for the position in the order but he came in at some tough times. His two fifties he came in at 79/5 (after a nightwatchman) and 148/4 (thanks to Mr Elgar). As for Hashim Amla, it was probably the last time we’ll see the great man in Aotearoa but he wasn’t at his best. A 38* on the way to that eight wicket win in Wellington got him a little form after Neil Wagner had twice got him out in Dunedin and he added to that with a 50 in Hamilton before CDG castled him. JP Duminy also struggled here, Wagner getting him a few times as he averaged a poorly 20.80 – way down on Jean-Paul’s career mark of 34.21… which isn’t all that great either. He only got one score in Australia in November, 141 at Perth as he and Elgar set up a wonderful Test victory, and he scored 155 against Sri Lanka at Jo’berg in his last Test before coming to NZ. But his place is far from settled there.
Add in some handy contributions from the tail and there you go. Who needs AB de Villiers?
BLACKCAPS – BOWLERS
| OVR | MDNS | RUNS | WKTS | BBI | BBM | AVE | ECO | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trent Boult | 47.4 | 16 | 98 | 5 | 4/64 | 5/98 | 19.60 | 2.05 | 57.2 |
| Matt Henry | 35.0 | 6 | 113 | 5 | 4/93 | 5/113 | 22.60 | 3.22 | 42.0 |
| Colin de Grandhomme | 63.0 | 17 | 149 | 6 | 3/52 | 3/72 | 24.83 | 2.36 | 63.0 |
| Neil Wagner | 118.2 | 20 | 385 | 12 | 3/88 | 5/145 | 32.08 | 3.25 | 59.1 |
| Jeetan Patel | 102.0 | 30 | 266 | 7 | 2/22 | 4/157 | 38.00 | 2.60 | 87.4 |
| Tim Southee | 33.0 | 9 | 115 | 3 | 2/98 | 3/115 | 38.33 | 3.48 | 66.0 |
| Mitchell Santner | 49.0 | 14 | 100 | 2 | 1/24 | 1/31 | 50.00 | 2.04 | 147.0 |
| Jimmy Neesham | 27.3 | 4 | 123 | 2 | 1/34 | 1/54 | 61.50 | 4.47 | 82.5 |
Yeah alright then, who had Tim Southee and Trent Boult splitting Tests for the first couple, not even playing the third and us still picking up wickets? Boult was great in the first match as he nabbed 4/64 as South Africa were bowled out for 308, sending down 12 maidens in 32 completed overs. That’s superb stuff and although SA’s second knock was an abbreviated one given the rain that hit, he added another one (Stephen Cook, caught Watling bowled Boult for 0) to milk the figures. With that he had the best average of the entire series, narrowly edging Keshav Maharaj, but a leg injury meant it was also the last part he’d play.
As for Southee, he came in to replace Boult for the second after being dropped for the first and picked up where Boult left off by dismissing Stephen Cook, but he couldn’t quite limit the runs like Boult did and other than Cook’s two wickets the only other one he grabbed was the nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada. Then he hurt his hamstring and was out of the third.
The thing that made Southee drop-able was the emergence of Neil Wagner over the last year or two. He was the top wicket-taker for the New Zealanders, taking 12 of them at an average of 32.08. It was a heavy workload for him as always but a wicket every ten overs is very decent, especially when he never really took apart a team, with best innings figures of 3/88. He spread the strikes out but they kept on coming. He picked up JP Duminy three times and got Amla and Elgar twice each.
Then we had Colin de Grandhomme, unexpectedly thrust into the second Test team to open the bowling with Tim Southee (who’d have picked that six months ago?) where he did a commendable job. CDG keeps things simple, nipping the ball around slightly but keeping a regular line and length and that’s reflected in the series economy rate of 2.36 runs per over. A maiden over in better than every four overs. So while the strike rate was four balls worse than Wagner, his average was eight runs better and he also dealt in Amla and Elgar’s wickets.
- Dean Elgar against Colin de Grandhomme: 19 runs and 3 wickets
- Dean Elgar against everyone else: 246 runs and 3 wickets
Spare a thought for Matt Henry now. With 4/93 in the third match (adding another 1/20 in the second innings) he tied his career best figures – yes, tied them – and dragged his career average back under 50, gratefully. 48.50 to be specific after those numbers ballooned out with series figures of 2/292 in Australia last year. In that light, his 5/113 here is absolutely fantastic. Get him playing against South Africa every week: he averages 22.60 against them, 68.00 against Pakistan, 42.33 against India, 42.50 against England and 146.00 against Australia. But he hasn’t played more than twice against any of them so these are small sample sizes that’d easily be solved with a cheeky 3/50 or whatever.
We can pretty much ignore Jimmy Neesham’s overs, he leaked runs and he wasn’t exactly potent either – then again he played two Tests as a batting all-rounder so it wasn’t his job to hold down an end or anything. His series average of 61.50 is marginally better than Steve Smith’s career batting average of 61.05, so effectively anyone Neesham bowled against here turned into Steve Smith. Granted while the numbers don’t look pretty for Jimbo, the two wickets he got were big ones. He had Faf out hooking for 52 in the first Test and nicked out Quinton for 91 in the second. Partnership-breaker.
Thus we come to the spinners. Jeetan Patel seems to have snuck ahead of Mitch Santner as the numero uno based on his getting the nod in Wellington when they picked just the one tweaker. Based on the stats here, that’s fair enough too. Santner only took two wickets, with comfortably the worst strike rate of anyone not named Vernon Philander. The RPO is fantastic but even those two wickets were really lucky. One was Latham’s miracle catch and the other was Temba Bavuma getting bowled by a defensive shot that rolled back onto his stumps as he tried to kick it away. Gotta be more threatening than that, sorry to say.
As for Jeets, he was pleasantly able to limit the runs as well instead of getting worked around for singles all day (30 maiden overs was a series best) although he never got more than two wickets in a stint. He might have if they’d been able to play the last day with his two big wickets of Amla and Duminy (it seems like everybody got them out) giving him 2/22 with a fifth day pitch to bowl on (for what that’s worth in Aotearoa). He started off draining Quiton de Kock but you’ve already read how that story changed – shout out for getting rid of Morkel for 40 that time. Also got Elgar out for 89 which was a huge wicket at the time. Dunno if he showed he can bowl a team out like our seamers are capable of but he did a solid enough job for what he was asked to do.
SOUTH AFRICA – BOWLERS
| OVR | MDNS | RUNS | WKTS | BBI | BBM | AVE | ECO | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keshav Maharaj | 114.5 | 26 | 299 | 15 | 6/40 | 8/87 | 19.93 | 2.60 | 45.9 |
| Morne Morkel | 89.1 | 16 | 294 | 11 | 4/100 | 5/132 | 26.72 | 3.29 | 48.6 |
| JP Duminy | 25.3 | 3 | 107 | 4 | 4/47 | 4/51 | 26.75 | 4.19 | 38.2 |
| Kagiso Rabada | 100.0 | 21 | 311 | 8 | 4/122 | 4/122 | 38.87 | 3.11 | 75.0 |
| Vernon Philander | 87.0 | 28 | 203 | 2 | 2/67 | 2/67 | 101.50 | 2.33 | 261.0 |
| Temba Bavuma | 2.0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | - | - | - | 3.50 | - |
| Dean Elgar | 1.0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | - | - | - | 13.00 | - |
Whereas Keshav Maharaj can definitely rip up a batting line-up (our one, at least). He took 5/94 in Dunedin to ensure that Kane Williamson’s 130 didn’t do too much damage, just annihilating the lower order of the Blackcaps (he got Raval, Nicholls, Watling, Wagner and Boult) and took a cheeky 2/47 next time he bowled, in the second Test at the Basin Reserve. Of course he didn’t have so many wickets to take on that occasion because JP Duminy had popped up with four of them – easily the dumbest part of the series for New Zealand was letting a part-timer get rid of their lower order. Duminy bowled Nicholls for 118 and then picked up Watling, CDG and Wagner all on the cheap on the way to 4/47. So that’s 6/94 between them in an innings, the first one at the Basin, where the Blackcaps were rolled for 268 (after passing 200 with only five wickets down).
South Africa then forged a 91 run lead and bowled the Caps out for 171 in the second. Duminy only got three overs for no effect but guess who took 6/40? That’d be Mr Maharaj with his second five-for of the tour. Morne Morkel took the first three wickets to have NZ at 64/3 and then Maharaj got busy to remove Nicholls (7 runs), Neesham (4), Raval (80), Watling (29), CDG (0) and Southee (4). Match figures of 8/87 – his best in Test matches. Needless to say his 15 wickets at 19.93 comprised the best bowling effort of any player on either team, especially in conditions where the local spinners (like Jeetan in his home city of Wellington) didn’t quite thrive.
- Maharaj & Duminy: 140.2 overs | 406 runs | 19 wickets | 21.36 average | 44.3 strike-rate
- Patel & Santner: 151.0 overs | 366 runs | 9 wickets | 40.66 average | 100.7 strike-rate
And that’s including the fact that those two spinners didn’t do a whole lot in Hamilton (usually the best spinning pitch in NZ – blame the weather). Maharaj bowled 50 overs for 2/118 figures. He was damaged largely by having to bowl so much to Kane Williamson, who worked him around nicely… and despatched him once over the top for half a dozen. Kanos also went wild on Duminy when he came to the crease to roll the arm over, putting him to the fence and keeping him from finding a rhythm. 0/38 from six overs there of JP.
The biggest story was probably Vernon Philander though. You’d go a long way to find someone who watched him bowl here that thought he did a poor job and yet he only took two wickets all series. As many as Jimmy Neesham, fewer than Tim Southee managed in 33 overs. And Philander played every game. The RPO is lovely at 2.33, even better than CDG’s own and in 24 extra overs. Sure, his pace was down, but that doesn’t explain it all. It explains some of it maybe but not all.
Both of his wickets came in the first NZ innings of the first Test. Latham was nicked out behind and then Patel was picked up as the nightwatchman. From that point on it was a drought. The second two Tests he bowled 60 overs for no wickets, conceding a shade over two runs an over but without reward in the most important column. There was a moment late on day three of the last Test when he thought he had one yet despite the cartwheels from Mitch Santner’s off stump, Vernon had overstepped the crease. He did become the fourth South African to pass 1000 runs and 150 Test wickets though, that’s worth something.
Ignoring three part-time overs from Bavuma and Elgar (the latter was a gamble that didn’t pay-off – Raval nearly lobbed one to mid-wicket but he hit boundaries on either side of that chance, with Williamson adding another for a 13-run frame), we’re left with Morne Morkel. A man who had not played a Test match since January 2016 and he did a fine job. Picked up at least two wickets in every innings and bowled with the pace and bounce we expect from a healthy Morne. Occasionally that cost him some runs but he was always a weapon. Of bowlers that bowled at least 40 overs here, Maharaj and Morkel’s averages were considerably better than anyone else.
Probably how South Africa did the business, aye?