Iain O'Brien

Not good enough, simple as that.

I can say though, tonight, I was ‘balls out’ going for it, and I felt great. I’ll be going ‘balls out’ tomorrow too. I want this one; I really want to pull us back into the game. I love this ground, I love playing here, I want to do something special and I don’t want this one to get away from us.

I had got Butt in the first innings with a bouncer, which was going to be the base of the plan in the second innings. It worked. I got one just about perfect and Butt’s gloved it to Ross for the catch. I also picked up the other opener. It was last ball of the over; Farhat was on strike, Yousuf, the new batter, at the non-strikers end. Quite often, in this situation, you’ll bowl a bouncer to keep the new batter down the non-strikers end so that the next over is started at them. I went to Dan, who was bowling at the other end, and asked him if he wanted Yousuf, meaning do you want me to make sure it’s a ‘dot’ ball with a bouncer. He replied “I want you to give yourself the best opportunity to get him out; nick him out.” So I did. I nicked him out. I was happy making sure Dan could bowl to the new batter, I was even happier to have a wicket and Dan would still be bowling to the new batter.

If we can keep Pakistan to around 250, again, and leave us a chase of about 400 we’ll at least have the best batting conditions of the match. That’s the positive and we have to believe in every positive we can find.

Delayed start, soggy outfield, very quick lunch and we’re into it; day one of the second Test is underway. And a pretty engrossing day it was too!

We knew the outfield was going to be very wet as it was splashing a lot underfoot just walking on it when we went to train the day before. It was a lot better when we arrived this morning but still very wet and a bit splashy in places; hence the delayed start. The problem with the outfield, apart from being a bit slippery, was that it was quite wet through part of the run-up from the Northern end. Running through the soggy bits isn’t the issue; it’s the water that gets transferred from the bottom of your boots to where you are landing on the pitch that causes the problems. Eventually the pitch gets wet and becomes slippery. This can be quite scary - hitting the crease at a decent running speed and trying to keep a stable front foot while delivering the ball can become difficult. This did cause a couple of problems today, but it’s just part of the game and sometimes you have just got to get on with it!

Dan won the toss - I’ve written that a lot if you’ve followed these blogs. Tuffey, playing in his first Test in five years opened the bowling with Tommy. It is great to see Tower (Tuffey) back. He’s been working so hard and finally gets his chance back in the Fern.

The wind was blowing from the south - that’s the cold wind here at the Basin and it’s also not the common wind direction. This meant I would bowl from a slightly unfamiliar RA Vance Stand end and it’s fair to say it took me three overs to settle. The next three were a lot better and cost just three runs. Not having a decent bowl leading up to this match hasn’t helped me in finding my rhythm quickly, as well.

It’s just a quick one tonight before we head into tomorrow’s second Test match. As I’ve said in previous blogs, this Test is a special one for a few reasons. It will be the 50th Test match held at the Basin Reserve. The ground holds a very special place in my heart as it’s my home ground, where I’ve learnt how to play cricket, not just take part.

Tonight our caps were presented to us by a proud 93-year-old; he’s been to every Test match at the Basin. This kind of love for the game means a lot to us players. We love the game, but we also love to play in front of a crowd. No point more proven than last week in Dunedin where the crowd pulled us along and possibly shaped an amazing final day.

It’s been a tough buildup. We’ve not been able to get outside even once to train since we arrived in Wellington. This is not perfect, but it is also not the worst. It was a tired team that walked off the park last Saturday: the enforced lower key training sessions may well play a part in helping us stay stronger for longer. We’ve still been training, but you cannot train at the same intensity indoors as you can out.

I’ve just been out for a curry with a very good mate and feel really good; properly excited in anticipation of another Test at the Basin. Test wins at the Basin are special, they are celebrated differently to other Test matches; why? I don’t really know, but it is such a great ground to play at and that may have something to do with it. I’m not getting ahead of myself here, we’ve got some bloody hard work in front of us to achieve a win here, but we will be go full throttle from ball one.

Wellington, on a great day, is amazing. Today is a great day, and not just because it’s a great day in Wellington.

The first Test of the summer was a beauty. Whichever way it was going to go on the final day it was going to be an entertaining day of Test cricket and well worth the admission charge. And they turned out to watch. It was a great atmosphere right from the start of the day. It only got better and in that last session, when we needed four wickets and Pakistan needed 40 runs, the Dunedin crowd was the twelfth man out there with us on the park, fighting hard with us. It was amazing and I have never played in front of a crowd like that. With the intimacy of the ground and the closeness of the crowd, the 2,200 people that were there, made it sound and fell like 60,000; great job Dunedin and to those who travelled to be there for the last day (you boys who drove up from Queenstown, great job!!).

We won; but you already know that. It was amazing; but you already know that too. I can’t really explain the feelings that are still running through me now, but what I can tell you, if I could bottle this, save it up somehow and tap in to it when times are tough, life would be so much better. I just feel amazing. I feel like I’ve always wanted to feel from playing this game. I’ve been a part of a winning Test team before, but to have played a big part in a win when things were really against us is just absolutely amazing. Just remember Pakistan needed 55 with five wickets left. The odds were really stacked against us at that stage.

I woke this morning to a lot of noise outside. It was either raining very heavily, a tidal wave was coming, or there was a gale coming through. It was the later and that meant a tough day at the office for me. I bowl into the wind, that’s one of the jobs I have made my own. It is something I have prided myself on and if you’ve read a lot of my blogs you’ll know this; if you haven’t; when I was starting out for Wellington I picked the worst job in the team and I made myself good at it. There’s always a vacancy for the worst job in the work force. Doing that job has meant tough days at the office, but it does mean that I’m at the office, and I really do like my office!

I was 2 not out overnight and was looking forward to sticking around with the bat as long as possible. I’ve made a goal for myself every time I go out to bat to face 50 balls. If I do that the partnership should be up around the 50-run mark; even if I’ve only scored 10. Batting with Bondy was going to be fun, we were going to take every run on offer, and I knew he was pretty keen on hitting a couple of big balls! I was pretty happy too that Asif and Gul were not at full pace; they looked pretty tired from the day before.

I’m done, I’m pretty well knackered. And to be fair to my team mates I’m going to have to do this writeup tomorrow.

We didn’t get off the park until 7:40 pm, back to the hotel at 8:30; straight to see the massage therapist and then out for some food. I’ve just got back and it’s 10:40 pm. I have to sleep. Sorry.

It was a tough day, a whole lot of good and one bit of bad; and that bit of bad lasted a little too long for our liking!

I’ll do a whole run-through tomorrow night and cover off my batting (13 not out) and my bowling (the two halves of it), and also a great comeback by one great bowler!

Too right you’re going to hear about it; apart from making a couple of cups of coffee and a toasted sandwich, I didn’t do too much else today.

The sun was out again when I pulled the curtains open, looked like another good day for cricket down here. The forecast wasn’t too great with rain due in later on. I got the late bus to the ground, straight into the shed and threw my batting gear on quickly and headed out to the nets for a hit before warm-ups started proper. I hit it ok, got a few balls out of the middle, ducked a few short ones, played Saqlain Mushtaq really well and was feeling really good. It was a quick run back to the shed, gear off and out to the middle to start warm-ups with the team.

Captains meeting done and dusted, massage finished, food done, blog and sleep to go before we head into the first Test of the summer against Pakistan, here in Dunedin.

This is a home series for Pakistan; Dunedin is about as far away from home they could find themselves climatically. I can’t believe I’ve just used the word ‘climatically’. It was very cold when we got here on Saturday, it has warmed up a bit, but when the wind comes in the temperature certainly drops a lot!

We’ve trained the last two days and trained well. It’s a good feeling when you look around the nets and field seeing the boys all going well; hitting the planned areas in the nets, taking our catches (slippers and outfielders) and showing the intensity that we’ll need to bring on game day tomorrow.

In our captains meeting our guest that handed out our Test Caps was Richard (Dick) Taylor, 1974 Commonwealth Games gold medalist in the 10,000 meters. This was a very special one for us. A Kiwi legend that put so much into one event, against a great field, and came up trumps! It was an honour to have him in our presence and have him present our caps.

It’s been a while... missed me??

Well, let’s kick this off with a bit of a catch up. I’ve been back in New Zealand for about three weeks. I’ve really enjoyed being back, catching up with friends and actually being able to get into the gym to build some strength as opposed to just doing ‘maintenance’ work. In saying that, I was very disappointed to not go to the UAE for the one-day and Twenty20 series. Still, I’ve made the best of a situation I wasn’t too happy with.

It feels like I was just here yesterday. I’m sitting in Frankfurt Airport waiting for a connecting flight. I wasn’t here yesterday or even been here before but just seven days ago I departed the UK for South Africa, going via Munich Airport, and this airport feels exactly the same.

It’s 6.30am, I got off the plane at 5.45am. I’m a bit tired. I managed to get a bit of sleep on the 9 hr flight from Johannesburg but not enough to make up for the previous night’s lack thereof.

The night before last, we lost the Champions Trophy. We weren’t good enough, sure we were the underdog, but it still would have been great to have made the match closer. Australia deserved to win; they are the deserved winners of the 2009 Champions Trophy.

Dan (Vettori) was ruled out of the match early although not many of us knew anything. His hammy had been bad in the semi-final vs Pakistan and probably shouldn’t have played that one; so the final, after doing a little more damage to it in his Man of the Match performance against Pakistan, was out of the question; although we all knew how much he wanted to play.