Kiwi success opens record books early

In the first of a new series, we take a look at the New Zealand season to date

16-Oct-2000

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)

New Zealand