Tagged with: The Wildcard
The demands on the modern cricketer are pretty hefty. Bouncing around the world from team to team, from format to format, from domestic to international, from red ball to white ball. Expected to smoothly transition between all of them and perform at a high level throughout.
We’ve already taken a peek at the bowlers so it only makes sense that the beautiful batsmen would get their turn in the sunlight. Four years of fours and sixes and run outs and raised bats.
There’s a lot of water goes under the bridge over a four-year World Cup cycle. Four years ago Mike Hesson and Brendon McCullum were only just getting used to their new roles as national heroes and a passionate public had only just forgotten the initial struggles of that leadership combo.
2018 was a brilliant year for the Blackcaps in Test cricket. Three series all won. Seven matches with only one defeat (four wins and two draws). All super competitive series which required crucial contributions from all number of players, from established batting veterans to previously uncapped spinners.
For the first two Test matches over in the UAE, Tim Southee had his feet up in the stands with a good book or perhaps a cup of tea as the brains trust of the Blackcaps decided he was the odd man out in a seam attack that needed to be shrunk to accommodate an extra spinner for the conditions.
This is what the heavyweight division is all about. This is what we’ve been desperate to see for the last ten years and probably longer. Two absolute champions, one a current belt holder and the other without a belt but with the lineal title, embracing in the ring after twelve rounds of absolute brutality.
There’s a regular old tale in cricket that left-handed batsmen are just better to watch. A flowing cover drive rarely looks as good as when it’s being dispatched as if through a mirror.
It was almost the Miracle of Malahide. Ireland’s first ever Test match and after being bowled out for 130 and forced to follow on, they somehow recovered to set Pakistan a half-decent target as Kevin O’Brien scored a superb 118 in the second innings.
Richie Benaud used to have a small list of rules for cricket commentary. One of the all time great voices, mimicked and parodied almost as much as he was beloved, when Richie The Great Man spoke, people listened.
It’s lovely to see the Blackcaps winning these days. There were some tough times in there, we’ve had to do the hard yards to get here. Third innings collapses, pathetic death bowling, complete battlers filling out the team, Shane Bond’s injured back… times were tough.
The Blackcaps’ last day of Test cricket was on March 29. Their next day of Test cricket is on December 1. Thanks to the odd lack of a winter tour that’ll make it 246 days in between consecutive Test matches for New Zealand.
This is boxing, it doesn’t matter how well you win a round; unless you get that knockdown it’s still 10-9 on the scorecard. Ultimately, unfair though it may have been, that’s why Manny Pacquiao lost his belt.
Would Colin de Grandhomme have done worse? Would Jeetan Patel have offered something? Do we need to rethink the all-rounder situation? Is this all too many questions for an excerpt?
There’s always a bit of debate with national team selections, it’s all part of the fun. But the Blackcaps over the last twelve months or so it feels like everyone’s had something to moan about.
41 year old Wladimir Klitschko, trying to regain the crown he wore for a decade as the finest heavyweight in the world, up against Anthony Joshua, the finest of the next generation of fighters. What more could you want?
There are win-now approaches and there are build-for-the-future approaches and then there’s the Lesson Blackcaps (Lesson = Larsen + Hesson), where players are dropped without explanation, others are recalled for tenuous reasons and nobody seems to really know where they stand outside a few main heroes.
Contrary to common media opinion, Martin Guptill does not go out and score ODI tons because he thinks it’ll get him back in the Test team… he scores ODI tons because he’s one of the finest ODI batsmen on the damn planet.
It’s only one innings but it means that in his last four games now, Tom Latham has yet to get to double figures with the bat. Scores of 7, 0, 0 and 2.
Do you remember the days of good old fashioned death bowling? You know, thumping yorker after thumping yorker, dig that one out you muppet! Six in a row and that’s all it takes.
An 18th title for Roger Federer, a valiant effort from Rafael Nadal, five gripping sets lasting into the night... yeah, this was a good one.