Gut wrenching end to peculiar series

The one-day series was a strange one.

We didn't play well in the first one-dayer in Taupo, and when the higgledy-piggledy Duckworth-Lewis formula was applied it made a difficult target nigh on impossible. Ominously, Andy Flower and Heath Streak made important contributions for the Zimbabwe side.

Flower is a bit of a cricket freak in that he's the linchpin in terms of their batting, then he keeps wickets all day long as well. Constantly wearing gloves is no barrier to his success however, as he topped the 2000 averages for Test batsmen, racking up 1045 at an average of over 80. For the record, Cairnsy was our best (ranked fifth).

The second game at Wellington saw a complete turn around as we bowled well, fielded superbly and then batted aggressively to leave Zimbabwe in our wake.

Skippy had a great game, diving around like a maniac in the covers and putting the African attack to the sword when he and Nestle opened the innings. I was stoked to see Scotty Styris club away agriculturally.

He was unlucky to swing like a rusty gate at one too many and get bowled for 48. Once again Macca got amongst the Zimbabweans with the ball (2 for 30 off eight), he's steaming in these days, getting it through at about 125 km/h and no longer tumbling over in the delivery stride.

That last game at Eden Park was a real tough one to watch. The Zimbos were dead and buried but those two wily old campaigners Andy Flower and Heath Streak just kept chipping away at our bowlers and smacked enough boundaries to snatch the series from our grasp. I felt for Macca on that last ball as earlier he had batted brilliantly, walloping their bowlers all over the ground, and getting us up to a very competitive 273.

After a pretty quiet Christmas in the Waikato, I managed to sneak in a bit of TV viewing of the Boxing Day Test and I thought we had the upper hand until the weather intervened to ruin what could have been a very interesting game of cricket.

In the first dig, Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle demonstrated their class with bat in hand, and Chris Martin bowled well to take a five-for on a pitch which was devoid of much life for the seamers. I thought the Wiz was very unlucky not to score a wicket - his drift and flight deserved reward.

Flem copped some flak for his 5th day declaration but you should never hand another side a Test victory on a plate. Personally, I thought the Zimbabwe chaps should have had a crack as it was never likely that the Black Caps had enough time to snare 10 wickets in two sessions.

One of the other highlights was seeing a mate of mine snare an immaculate catch on the boundary at the Basin, and walk away (in his brown and tan 1981 NZ uniform) with a thousand bucks for his trouble. As Ian Smith said on the TV commentary, it really was "quite superb".

I know the boys will be absolutely gutted at drawing the Test and then losing the one-day series 2-1, but I am sure we'll be fired up for the Sri Lanka and Pakistan series later this year.

With a bit of luck I'll be involved too. I have been playing for the Northern Districts Second XI as a batsman and I am feeling pretty good. I cracked a few runs in our game against Otago at Taupo last week, and I am hoping to be able to bowl in the next few rounds of the Shell Cup if I get selected. Cairnsy didn't look 100% at the Taupo one-dayer but maybe he'll be back for a run later in the season too.

I am looking forward to whatever lays around the corner and I cant wait to get back into the big time.