In the first of a new series, we take a look at the New Zealand season to date.
As was reported at the time, Mark Richardson's innings of 306 against Zimbabwe 'A' was the longest ever played by a New Zealand batsman. He is also in fourth place on this particular list with his 212 not out for New Zealand 'A' against Sussex. These are the two longest innings by a New Zealander outside of Test cricket - a remarkable effort considering that Richardson only became an opening batsman at first-class level in March this year.
The longest innings by New Zealand batsmen in first-class cricket are:
Mins Runs
785+ 163 MH Richardson New Zealand v Zimbabwe 'A' Kwekwe 2000/01
704 259 GM Turner New Zealand v West Indies Georgetown 1971/72
685 180 JF Reid New Zealand v Sri Lanka Colombo 1983/84
671 212* MH Richardson New Zealand 'A' v Sussex Hove 2000
655 146* MJ Greatbatch New Zealand v Australia Perth 1989/90
647 251* CZ Harris Canterbury v Central Districts Rangiora 1996/97
636 170* AH Jones New Zealand v India Auckland 1989/90
625 222 IA Rutherford Otago v Central Districts New Plymouth 1978/79
610 299 MD Crowe New Zealand v Sri Lanka Wellington 1990/91
609 120* JJ Crowe New Zealand v Sri Lanka Colombo 1986/87
605 267* BA Young New Zealand v Sri Lanka Dunedin 1996/97
603 259 GM Turner New Zealand v Guyana Georgetown 1971/72
+ The time for Richardson's innings is still to be confirmed. Although the official scorebook gives 785 minutes, if this and the reported times of play are correct, New Zealand would have had to bowl their 19 overs at the end of the second day in 33 minutes!
Speaking of opening batsmen, New Zealand has already used an entire team of eleven since their season began in August. Nathan Astle has had five different partners in eight One-Day Internationals while injuries forced New Zealand to use as many as five openers in the two Tests against Zimbabwe. Ironically, Craig Spearman, who has looked more at home lower down the order, is the only player to have opened in both one-day and first-class games. The full list is:
One-day games:
Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Scott Styris, Chris Nevin, Stephen Fleming, Craig Spearman
First-class matches:
Mark Richardson, Matt Horne, Mathew Sinclair, Adam Parore, Craig Spearman
Interestingly enough, the New Zealand openers could field a reasonably balanced team in themselves. With Richardson's part-time left-armers as backup, an attack with Cairns, Vettori, Styris and Astle would be very useful. In addition, we have Fleming to captain the side and two wicket-keeper batsmen.
Roger Twose has been the mainstay of the New Zealand one-day batting lineup and has now raised his career average past the 40 mark - in impressive company indeed as the following table shows. The highest averages in all One-Day Internationals are (minimum 1000 runs).
Mat I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50
MG Bevan 145 129 44 4805 108* 56.52 5 32
Zaheer Abbas 62 60 6 2572 123 47.62 7 13
IVA Richards 187 167 24 6721 189* 47.00 11 45
GM Turner 41 40 6 1598 171* 47.00 3 9
SC Ganguly 149 144 13 5915 183 45.15 15 33
CG Greenidge 128 127 13 5134 133* 45.03 11 31
DM Jones 164 161 25 6068 145 44.61 7 46
BC Lara 173 169 15 6525 169 42.37 13 42
SR Tendulkar 253 246 22 9433 186* 42.11 25 48
Javed Miandad 233 218 41 7381 119* 41.70 8 50
L Klusener 99 85 28 2364 103* 41.47 2 13
DL Haynes 238 237 28 8648 152* 41.37 17 57
JH Kallis 108 105 18 3580 113* 41.14 5 25
RG Twose 69 65 10 2254 97 40.98 - 19
G Kirsten 140 140 14 5154 188* 40.90 9 33
GS Chappell 74 72 14 2331 138* 40.18 3 14
Since (and including) the 1999 World Cup, Twose's figures are even better and he has a high strike rate into the bargain. The highest batting averages in one-day internationals during that period are (minimum 500 runs):
Mat Runs Ave SR
AJ Stewart 14 638 58.00 68
RG Twose 33 1285 55.86 77
SC Ganguly 50 2405 53.44 81
DR Martyn 28 635 52.91 83
RP Arnold 27 833 46.27 76
MG Bevan 41 1321 45.55 68
L Klusener 46 1057 44.04 81
SR Waugh 41 1056 44.00 81
Just for the record, from the World Cup onwards, Saurav Ganguly has the most runs (2405) and most hundreds (9), Moin Khan (53) has played in the most matches and Abdur Razzaq (82) has taken the most wickets. New Zealand has played 33 one-dayers in that period with only Twose (whose 1285 runs are the most) and Nathan Astle being ever-present. Chris Cairns (31) has the most wickets in that time.
Finally, New Zealand's victory in the ICC KnockOut was their first ever success in a one-day tournament. It was the 30th tournament which they taken part in and the ninth time they had reached a final.
Previous finals (or finals series) which New Zealand have played in are:
1980/81 World Series (lost best-of-five 3-1 to Australia)
1982/83 World Series (lost best-of-three 2-0 to Australia)
1987/88 World Series (lost best-of-three 2-0 to Australia)
1987/88 Sharjah (lost to India)
1989/90 Rothmans Cup (lost to Australia)
1990/91 World Series (lost best-of-three 2-0 to Australia)
1994/95 Centenary Series (lost to Australia)
1996/97 Sharjah (lost to Pakistan)