The Stats From the Blackcaps’ 2016-17 Home Summer of Test Cricket
The kiwi summer of cricket is over, folks. No point donning the whites and heading down to the nets in hope of a few throw-downs, that baggy cap is gonna have to be stored away down the back of the wardrobe. All those clever sledges you came up with, they’ll have to wait until springtime at least. Best give that beloved slab of willow one more loving rub with the linseed oil because you won’t be seeing it again for a long time. Winter is coming.
Already as large parts of the country are ravaged by wet weather it seems like ages since the Blackcaps were last in action. It wasn’t, they finished off their home summer a week ago. The consensus seems to be that it was a largely successful summer as well, though that's often the case when we play at home and if we’d only gotten that last day of the South African Test series in then it could have been a lot more successful than it was. So it goes with the ol’ kiwi summers, aye?
Started with rain and ended with rain. Pakistan had their tour match called off due to bad weather (plus an earthquake, you might remember) and then they were immediately into the big stuff as Colin de Grandhomme made up for a washed out day one in Christchurch with 6/41 on debut, helping bowl Pakistan out for 133. Jeet Raval then also added 55 and a few wickets from Neil Wagner (who passed 100 Test wickets in the match) set up an eight wicket win, backed by Kane Williamson’s 61.
Again rain had a say in the second Test at Hamilton, but 6/80 from Tim Southee in Pakistan’s first innings of 216 (after the Caps had managed 271 being sent in) and a second innings 102* from Ross Taylor set up a 138 run victory and a series sweep, the Cappies taking nine wickets in the last session as Pakistan collapsed to defeat.
Disappearing for a while to Australia for a Hadlee-Chappell hiding, the Blackcaps resumed their home schedule with Bangladesh touching down in Aotearoa for two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s. It was a perfect sweep. Tom Latham scored 137 in the first ODI as New Zealand set their visitors 342 to win and they didn’t get close, before Neil Broom scored big runs in each of the next two games. The T20 series was highlighted by a Colin Munro century at Mount Maunganui followed by 94* from Corey Anderson in the final twenty over match (as well as some cheeky wickets for Ish Sodhi) and that was that.
Then the Tests. Electing to field first at the Basin, New Zealand came in to bat facing a 595 run deficit after Bangladesh had finally declared, Shakib Al Hasan’s 217 the top mark there. But 177 to Tom Latham anchored a mark of 539 in reply and after Trent Boult helped skittle the Tigers for 160 in their second attempt, Kane Williamson stepped up with an unbeaten century to lead the kiwis to victory. Bangladesh with the highest ever first innings total in a losing cause.
The second Test was a little more convincing. Tim Southee took 5/94 as Bangladesh scored 289 on day one, then Henry Nicholl’s 98 gave NZ a 65 run lead. Day three was washed out but with Bangladesh again failing in their second attempt, the Blackcaps won it by nine wickets. Southee took his 200th Test wicket in the match, something only Hadlee (431), Vettori (361), Martin (233) and Cairns (218) have ever achieved before (though Boulty is closing in with 190).
Australia dropped by for some more ODIs in the wake of that stuff, Marcus Stoinis doing frightening things at Eden Park in a game the kiwis would narrowly get away with before Napier’s game was rained out. So with the Hadlee-Chappell trophy on the line, Ross Taylor stood up to score 107 at Hamilton and a brilliant 6/33 from Trent Boult clinched the trophy with a 24 run win.
Finally it was South Africa’s turn and that meant it was also their turn to have a tour match abandoned due to rain. Only a T20 against a NZXI but still. Hashim Amla scored 62 in the international T20, SA setting 185/6. Then Imran Tahir tore through the NZers with 5/24 and that one was lost.
The proceeding One Day series was a thriller, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock scoring runs but then Jeetan Patel turned up and turned QDK into his bunny before Martin Guptill scored an already legendary 180* in Hamilton. Ross Taylor added a hundy earlier on in the series too. The first four games were split and then… well, the Blackcaps got annihilated, bowled out for 149, losing by six wickets with 17.4 balls remaining. Bugger that.
Rain ruined the last day of the first Test in Dunedin. It probably didn’t make a difference. Dean Elgar and Kane Williamson traded tons and we didn’t even get to the fourth innings. We did see some wickets for Keshav Maharaj though. We saw even more from in the second Test (6/40 in the second innings), despite 118 from Hank Nicholls. But de Kock and Temba Bavuma’s partnership took the game away from New Zealand who were bowled out for 171 while Maharaj got busy. Lost that one easily. Meaning that in the final Test they were playing to save the series and a tour hat-trick for South Africa and they were doing so with Ross Taylor, Trent Boult and Tim Southee all injured.
They almost did it. Williamson scored a superb 176 for a big first innings lead and South Africa were still in deficit with only five wickets left when day five, again, was flooded and drowned. Day one saw water too. There you go. It began as it finished and in between the Blackcaps won a bunch of games… except against South Africa.
But it’s the Test matches that really count and four wins outta seven with only one defeat was a decent effort. Shoulda got that fifth win and a draw against South Africa but… blame the rain dogs. Obviously the sub-continent threats of Pakistan and Bangladesh were very different to the threat of South Africa, just as the threat of a Southee and Boult bowling attack is different to a Patel and CDG attack. Jeet Raval established himself as a Test opener, Tom Latham was rocks and diamonds, important players were injured, Prince Kane kept scoring runs throughout. Here are the stats from the Blackcaps Summer of Test Cricket.
BLACKCAPS BATSMEN
| INNS | NO | RUNS | HS | AVE | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ross Taylor | 7 | 2 | 342 | 102* | 68.40 | 443 | 77.20 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Kane Williamson | 11 | 1 | 588 | 176 | 58.80 | 911 | 64.54 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Jeet Raval | 12 | 1 | 493 | 88 | 44.82 | 1111 | 44.37 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Tom Latham | 12 | 1 | 466 | 177 | 42.36 | 881 | 52.89 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Henry Nicholls | 11 | 2 | 361 | 118 | 40.11 | 675 | 53.48 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| BJ Watling | 9 | 2 | 269 | 50 | 38.43 | 721 | 37.31 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mitchell Santner | 5 | 0 | 163 | 73 | 32.60 | 394 | 41.37 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Colin de Grandhomme | 9 | 1 | 206 | 57 | 25.75 | 227 | 90.75 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Neil Wagner | 8 | 2 | 104 | 32 | 17.33 | 153 | 67.97 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tim Southee | 6 | 0 | 100 | 29 | 16.67 | 108 | 92.59 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trent Boult | 4 | 3 | 16 | 7* | 16.00 | 52 | 30.77 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Henry | 2 | 0 | 27 | 15 | 13.50 | 28 | 96.43 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeetan Patel | 4 | 1 | 38 | 17* | 12.66 | 62 | 61.29 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 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 |
| Todd Astle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 5 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Remember when Todd Astle played that one Test against Pakistan and got a duck while only bowling four overs? Probably not, no. Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme and Mitchell Santner all had digs at that all-rounder spot over the three series and none of them did nearly enough with the bat. Neesham played two Tests against South Africa never topped 15. CDG did nothing other than hit a few sixes to polish off a win against Bangladesh (call it “match-winning” if you really wanna spin it, sure) but only really looked capable with that 57 in his last effort in the middle. It was the opposite of his explosive start as a Test bowler.
There’s nothing to say about Neesham’s batting other than that he’s a lot better than his scores this summer. Case and point: a few impressive innings in the One Dayers. CDG scored his runs at a strike-rate over 90 which is crazy, only Tim Southee and Matt Henry can top that and they faced fewer deliveries combined. Although CDG was also the only dude with multiple Test ducks this summer, yikes. Mitch Santer? 73 against Bangladesh batting at eight and then a 151-ball 41 at six against South Africa, those were his best knocks. Not the worst. Not a top six batsman’s stuff either.
Forget the bowlers, other than Neil Wagner who showed he can swing the willow on his day (and Boulty who only got dismissed once - good for the average). Focus instead on BJ Watling who so often ties that lower order together. His runs are hard-earned and only three kiwis faced more deliveries this home summer. Just the one fifty but he also had a 49 and a 49*, the poor joker. A pedestrian strike-rate even lower than Santner’s too.
And who topped the batting averages? None other than Ross Taylor. An unbeaten hundred, his 16th in Test matches to tie Martin Crowe's record (which was then overtaken by Kane) as well as a pair of halfies. Rossco passed 6000 Test runs and that career average of 47.10 remains completely outstanding. Just a shame about the injuries that limited him to pretty much four and a half Tests. Scores of 11, 37, 102*, 40, 60, 77 and 15* - goes well with two ODI hundies also.
Six combined centuries and seven combined ducks for the team. Woulda been pleasant to level that out but whatever, meanwhile there were 17 half-centuries. Jeet Raval had a lot to do with that conversion rate being where it is, he passed 50 five times in his first dozen Test innings, including a fifty on debut, but he never went past that 88 versus South Africa. Supremely consistent though. Raval was trapped in front on 2 against Pakistan in Hamilton and that was the only time he scored less than double-figures. As a Test match opener those are some sexy numbers (not that there’s anything much sexy about Test match openers, just stating the facts). Seven innings with at least 83 deliveries faced… hence how he got himself up to 1111 balls over the whole Test summer - Dan Vettori only faced 7787 in his entire career. Would imagine there were a fair few leaves amongst Raval's. Average of 44.81 through seven matches. Lots to like there.
On the other hand, Tom Latham was all over the show despite an average of 42.36 all up, which will shock a few fans to know given the struggles he had against South Africa. Most of that was in the shorter form stuff though. In the Tests he had five scores under ten, including a golden duck against Pakistan, but also scored an 80 against them and had a 177, a 68 and a 41* against Bangladesh. Then 50 in his last innings of the summer. He was blatantly out of form by the end of it but it goes to show you widen the lens and things weren’t actually that bad. Heaps of runs in there, only Williamson and Raval scored more.
Plus, you know...
Henry Nicholls got runs too. He played all seven home Tests (for comparison India played 13 home Tests in their season, starting with the three matches against the Blackcaps) which might have been tough to pick at the beginning of things. A career average of 31.94 is nothing flashy but Hank was in the 40s for the home season. Top score of 30 against Pakistan, followed by a 53 and a 98 against Bangladesh, then a flowing counter-attacking 118 against South Africa. He ended the summer with a golden duck, joining Tom Latham in tonning up and first-balling over these Tests, so the numbers are dulled a little more than they should be. Our best six batsmen (in ability, not in order, cheers BJ) all averaged at least 38. That’s bloody decent, you know.
And now we come to the captain. Kane Williamson scored half of NZ’s summer Test centuries. There is no stopping him, averaging 58.80 and striking at a good clip as well. 588 runs in seven Tests, three hundreds and two fifties in 11 innings – oh and this includes that second Test vs SA where he scored 2 and 1 for his lowest ever aggregate of runs in a match. He bookended that failure with hundreds. What a player, what a man.
BLACKCAPS BOWLERS
| OVR | MDNS | RUNS | WKTS | BBI | BBM | AVE | ECO | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colin de Grandhomme | 157.5 | 42 | 309 | 16 | 6/41 | 7/64 | 19.31 | 1.96 | 59.2 |
| Trent Boult | 169.3 | 41 | 497 | 22 | 4/64 | 5/76 | 22.59 | 2.93 | 46.2 |
| Tim Southee | 209.0 | 59 | 662 | 27 | 6/80 | 8/140 | 24.52 | 3.17 | 46.4 |
| Neil Wagner | 266.3 | 47 | 824 | 31 | 4/151 | 6/116 | 26.58 | 3.09 | 51.6 |
| Matt Henry | 73.0 | 16 | 181 | 6 | 4/93 | 5/113 | 30.17 | 2.48 | 73.0 |
| Jeetan Patel | 102.0 | 30 | 266 | 7 | 2/22 | 4/157 | 38.00 | 2.60 | 87.4 |
| Mitchell Santner | 102.0 | 23 | 260 | 6 | 2/36 | 2/62 | 43.33 | 2.54 | 102.0 |
| Jimmy Neesham | 27.3 | 4 | 123 | 2 | 1/34 | 1/54 | 61.50 | 4.47 | 82.5 |
| Todd Astle | 4.0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | - | - | - | 3.00 | - |
| Kane Williamson | 4.0 | 0 | 22 | 0 | - | - | - | 5.50 | - |
Remember when Todd Astle… oh no wait, already done that one. Williamson also settled for only four overs even after getting wickets in the limited overs games. But all that did was convince the team they could get away with two spinners (as if that ever should’ve been in doubt) thus Jeetan Patel came into the team for the South African series and quickly resumed getting Quinton de Kock’s wicket, as he specialised in during the ODIs. Didn’t really thrive elsewhere (and QDK figured him out eventually) but that average is about ten runs better than his career mark was before he got the recall. Also Mitch Santner’s numbers with the ball were pretty awful everywhere except for his RPO. A strike-rate of over a hundy! 13 combined wickets for the spinners in 204 overs – and Santner played in all three series. He got two wickets in each of them. Two Pakistanis, two Bangladeshis and two South Africans.
Yasir Shah barely did anything in the one Test he played here but Shakib Al-Hasan was Bangladesh’s top wicket-taker with six in two matches in that series and Keshav Maharaj, he took 15 of the buggers in three Tests. Opposition spinners were pretty incisive, ours were pretty economic. At least others were out there getting scalps though.
Like Neil Wagner. Now tied for eighth all-time in wickets for the Blackcaps, he has 130 of them in 32 matches. Never doing better than 4/151 in an innings during the kiwi summer, he nonetheless took 31 wickets which was more than anyone else. Southee and Boult might have caught him had they been fit, Wagner still deserves huge credit. Being ready and available is kind of his calling card – he’ll bowl the tough overs and never dip below full effort - and he was rewarded for that with wickets in every innings except the first and the last of the summer – where he bowled a combined ten overs. Only got to four wickets once in a frame but he took three of them in seven of the fourteen bowling efforts that the Blackcaps had. Eight if you’re including that four-for. Repeating that: Neil Wagner took at least three wickets in eight of 12 bowling innings for NZ.
Jimmy Neesham got a couple handy wickets. Colin de Grandhomme got 16 handy wickets. He started with 6/41 on debut vs PAK and then struggled with series figures of 1/150 against Bangladesh but CDG responded when others got hurt to put in a decent stint in the South African series. Six wickets there at an average of 24.83. Nobody thought he’d be in this position at the start of the summer so fair play to the lad for clasping an opportunity. Normally he’ll be a long distance away from opening the bowling again, he’s shown he’s a useful alternative though.
Shout out to Matt Henry as well who had an abysmal tour of Australia not long ago and that seemed to damage his international stocks some. He did okay against Pakistan for no real reward (38 overs at 1.78 RPO but only one wicket) before he dropped out of the XIs for Bangladesh only to get back in for the final Test vs SAF and he responded with 4/93, equalling his career best figures. A summer average of 30.17 drags down that overall mark for him too, which needed doing. The strike-rate’s a little below average but then the strike-rates are dominated by the two opening bowlers, lads who have been known to tear through visiting batting line-ups on their familiar soil.
No fives for Boult. Trent had to settle for consistent wickets instead. Only took five wickets combined in each of the Pakistan and South African series but he did so at an average of under 20 on both occasions (missing a Test in each). Minor injuries don’t help but Boult took wickets whenever he played. As for the Bangladesh series he was still impressive with 12 wickets at 26.91.
A wicket every 46 balls has him around the same point as Tim Southee. Southee also missed a couple Tests, left out of the first South African one before being injured for the third. It was dramatic stuff when that dropping happened – his previous two series he’d taken 11 wickets at 30.36 (Bangladesh) and 13 wickets at 16.38 (Pakistan). There were five wicket bags in each of them – highlighted by his 6/80 against Pakistan that made for the second best numbers any Blackcap could hustle with the ball this summer – CDG first, of course.
No shocker that Wagner got through the most overs. He’s a workhorse and he also played every Test. Likewise de Grandhomme’s strength is keeping that ball in a good area and asking the batsmen to play patiently so his runs-per-over of under two is what he needs to do, whether he’s taking wickets or not (but ideally when he’s taking wickets). Still, it was Tim Southee that topped the maidens chart (woof, woof), despite going for more runs on average than any of the other frontline bowlers. Those out-swingers sometimes fly past slips, you know?
Also this was a summer where spin became a genuine option – Patel playing alongside Santner a couple times. Southee even got dropped to make room for both of them once. Yet it was four seamers who comfortably topped the bowling charts in every category. Eh, maybe next summer.
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