Lance Cairns

New Zealand

Full name Bernard Lance Cairns

Born October 10, 1949, Picton, Marlborough

Current age 68 years 345 days

Major teams New Zealand, Central Districts, Durham, Minor Counties, Northern Districts, Otago

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Relation Son - CL Cairns

Explore Lance Cairns's performance

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	6s	Ct
Tests	43	65	8	928	64	16.28			0	2	28	30
ODIs	78	65	6	987	60	16.72	941	104.88	0	2		19
First-class	148	226	25	4165	110	20.72			1	23		89
List A	130	114	10	1885	95	18.12			0	9		37

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	43	72	10628	4280	130	7/74	10/144	32.92	2.41	81.7	5	6	1
ODIs	78	75	4015	2717	89	5/28	5/28	30.52	4.06	45.1	2	1	0
First-class	148		31722	12544	473	8/46		26.52	2.37	67.0		24	5
List A	130		6856	4384	167	5/28	5/28	26.25	3.83	41.0	5	1	0

Career statistics

Test debut	Australia v New Zealand at Adelaide, Jan 26-31, 1974 scorecard
Last Test	Australia v New Zealand at Perth, Nov 30-Dec 4, 1985 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	New Zealand v Australia at Dunedin, Mar 30, 1974 scorecard
Last ODI	West Indies v New Zealand at Bridgetown, Apr 23, 1985 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class span	1971/72 - 1984/85
List A span	1972/73 - 1988

Profile

Coming from Spring Creek, a Marlborough hamlet, Lance Cairns was the rawest of cricketers. The first Test he saw was the first one he played in. He had no idea that his awkward wrong-footed delivery was not the orthodox bowling action. But soon Cairns' ability to bowl big inswingers, and batsmanship born of broad shoulders and a good eye, made him a crowd-pleasing match-winner. He carried a wooden club, rather than a bat, with cutaway shoulders and bearing the name Excalibur - a massive blade that carved six sixes in one memorable one-day international against Australia at Melbourne. And one Christchurch day when New Zealand were waiting for Lancaster Park to dry out, Lance Cairns was bowling on the outfield to a classy 14-year-old - the Chris Cairns who in a decade or so would surpass his father's famous deeds.
Wisden Cricinfo staff

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