Scott Styris gains another reward in spectacular six months

It's a long way from Karachi, Pakistan to St George's, Grenada but Northern Districts all-rounder Scott Styris will not have minded the 52 days wait he had to make his Test debut.

Circumstances and conditions in the West Indies were a lot more conducive to making a Test debut and Styris, who had his hopes dashed after the bomb blast outside the team's hotel in Karachi, certainly cashed in big time today.

His 107 represented the seventh occasion a New Zealand batsman had scored a century on debut. While that milestone may ultimately be of interest to New Zealanders only, Styris' feat will be forever recorded on the honours board at Grenada's Queen's Park (New) as the first Test century scored on the ground.

What is significant in terms of recent New Zealand cricket history, and especially the introduction of the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University, is that there has now been a cluster of players with Academy experience who have made centuries on debut. The system is making a difference.

Mathew Sinclair was the first, with his double century against the West Indies at the Basin Reserve in the last days of 1999. Lou Vincent was next, at Perth in December, and now Styris.

They joined Jack Mills in 1930, Bruce Taylor in 1965, Rodney Redmond in 1973 and Mark Greatbatch in 1988.

It was also the sixth occasion a century has been scored by a New Zealander batting at No 8 in the order. Taylor scored his two Test centuries there, while Richard Hadlee, Ian Smith and John Bracewell scored there as well.

Most importantly of all, from New Zealand's point of view, was that Styris' innings once again created a position of advantage from which the side should be able to control the fortunes of this match.

Having decided to bowl first, West Indies captain Carl Hooper needed a breakthrough, but it was never really forthcoming, even if Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan departed earlier than would have been wanted on the second day.

Styris had added 48 with McMillan, then 56 with Robbie Hart and 49 with Shane Bond, to ram home the benefits to be had from partnership building, even in the lower order.

It is a significant fact of recent New Zealand Test history, that the length of the batting has been one of the most consistent features of Test success. And when compared to many other nations, New Zealand continues to be well endowed in this department.

Styris has added more depth to the pool of Test cricketers available for New Zealand.

If the selectors were suddenly presented with a non-injured playing force, the job in front of them would be very difficult.

His advance is also the perfect completion to the season for him, if season is what the elongated period from October to June can be called. It started with Styris looking to get over a knee injury and to achieve that he began the season playing club cricket in Sydney.

Chosen for the VB Series in Australia, after scoring 119 runs, with a highest score of 84 not out for Northern Districts in the State Shield, he didn't feature often, but returning to State Championship play he had an outstanding summer scoring 662 runs at 44.13, which included a double century of 212 not out.

He backed that up with 28 wickets at 17.03.

Chosen for the tour of Sharjah and Pakistan, he then travelled to the West Indies and in the one-day series had scores of 85 and 63 not out, his two highest One-Day International scores, while he also produced the finest performance by a New Zealand one-day bowler with six for 25 off seven overs.

He's now played 45 ODIs and has 45 wickets at an economy rate of 5.06, and that figure would be the only negative of what has been a remarkable seven or eight months in Styris' career.

Of all the achievements, today's is probably the most satisfying and he should be flying home later this week having played a significant part in New Zealand's latest cricketing achievement, a series victory for the first time in the Caribbean.