Tempting tastes dished up when India visits New Zealand

Indian tours of New Zealand have always held a special attraction, and have produced some startling cricket since the summer of 1967/68 when the first tour took place.

By that stage New Zealand had twice toured the subcontinent and been on the end of some heavy treatment, especially the Indian spin bowlers operating in their own conditions, both climatic and pitch-wise.

But the contrast of New Zealand's general reliance on fast-medium pace bowling, the flashing and wristy strokeplay of the Indian batsmen, and the adaptability of India's spinners has always made the contests in this country intriguing.

There is something about the country with the greatest population in the cricket world taking on the country with the smallest. And given that, New Zealand hasn't done too badly over the years.

Some scintillating cricket has been seen and while the New Zealand conditions have not always been the most conducive to Indian players, there have been some fine demonstrations of skill.

And it is doubtful if there have been any more exciting Test matches played than the Boxing Day classic, the first Boxing Day Test, at the Basin Reserve in 1998/99.

Centuries to Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin for India, superb swing bowling on the first morning by Simon Doull for New Zealand, and outstanding lower-order application for New Zealand by Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori, and then in the second innings, the memorable stand that ensured New Zealand's victory by Craig McMillan and Chris Cairns. The Cairns innings was the first truly international knock in Cairns' career laced with controlled aggression.

In 1989/90, there was the never-to-be forgotten moment, for New Zealanders at least, of Richard Hadlee taking the wicket of Sanjay Manjrekar to become the first bowler to secure 400 Test wickets, and this after he wasn't originally named for the Test match.

That was the same series in which the youthful prodigy Tendulkar, 16 years old at the time, made a highly-impressive 88 at Napier's McLean Park in what was a rain-affected match.

There was nothing dreary about the third Test of that series in Auckland however. New Zealand batted first and on the verge of disaster as the ball moved all around the place on a sultry morning at Eden Park. However, Hadlee and wicket-keeper Ian Smith combined in one of the great rescue missions, Smith especially scoring his second Test century on the ground and playing a magnificently aggressive innings for 173. There wasn't a punter who left the ground unhappy that day.

In the second innings Andrew Jones backed up Azharuddin's effort in scoring 192, by reaching 170 not out in the second innings.

When the Nawab of Pataudi led the first Indian side here, he had in his midst an outstanding off-spinner in Erapalli Prasanna. He took 24 wickets in the four-Test series at an average of 18.79. India won the series 3-1, but their batsmen never really dominated, and Ajit Wadekar scored his side's only century of the series. Although it must be admitted that Rusi Surti managed to get out for 99 when caught by Mark Burgess from fast man Gary Bartlett's bowling. New Zealand had just taken the new ball, and when on 98 Surti had given the New Zealanders two chances, neither of which was taken.

But where the Indians were superior was in the consistency of their scoring.

New Zealand did have the satisfaction of a comprehensive victory in the second Test at Lancaster Park where captain Graham Dowling, who had scored 143 for New Zealand in the first Test, set a New Zealand Test record with an innings of 239, breaking Bert Sutcliffe's mark of 230, also against India, set in Delhi in 1955/56.

Backing his effort with the ball were his pace men, Dick Motz in the first innings and Bartlett in the second - they took six wickets each.

It was another fast man who launched his career in 1975/76, after it had sputtered and stuttered through the previous four summers, Hadlee. He took 10 wickets in a match for the first time with a game-strangling seven for 23 in India's second innings.

Prasanna's skill still hadn't declined, however, as his 11 wickets in the first Test at Auckland once again accounted for New Zealand, his second innings eight for 76 being the Indian record in New Zealand and, in fact, the best by either country's bowlers here.

The tour of 1980/81 was made in the aftermath of New Zealand's first exposure to the World Series phenomenon in Australia, in which India had also played. Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar led a team that featured in another exciting series, which New Zealand won after bowling out India cheaply at the Basin Reserve.

The third Test of the series, at Auckland, was notable for the fact that highly-popular opening batsman John Wright, would finally achieve his maiden Test century. The man who is now India's highly-successful coach didn't mind scoring runs against India's bowlers. His 110 there, was backed up by his career highest 185 in Christchurch in the same match as Hadlee took his 400th wicket. Then he took advantage of the time available to score 113 not out in the draw at Napier in the second Test.

But, when talking of Indian masters who have made it here, it is hard to go past the efforts of Rahul Dravid on the last tour here. He must be looking forward to resuming his contact with Westpac Park in Hamilton, as he achieved the double of a century in each innings last time, 190 and 103 not out. And just to show that it wasn't all one way traffic, Cairns scored 126 in the same match.

Batting and bowling statistics from India-New Zealand Test history:

New Zealand:

Most runs: Graham Dowling 964 (48.20), Bert Sutcliffe 885 (68.08), John Wright 804 (61.85), Mark Burgess 725 (30.21), Bevan Congdon 713 (31.00), John R Reid 691 (49.36), Glenn Turner 583 (38.87), Stephen Fleming 503 (38.69), Ian Smith 439 (43.90), Mark Greatbatch 404 (81.08).

Hovering: Craig McMillan 379, Chris Cairns 377.

Most wickets: Richard Hadlee 65 (22.97), Bruce Taylor 29 (22.97), Dion Nash 23 (29.78), Danny Morrison 23 (33.87), Richard Collinge 23 (29.61), Lance Cairns 22 (20.45), Dayle Hadlee 22 (21.14), Dick Motz 22 (32.45), Chris Cairns 19 (36.74), John Bracewell 19 (30.37).

Hovering: Daniel Vettori 14.

India:

Most runs: Sachin Tendulkar 891 (63.64), Mohammad Azharuddin 796 (61.23), Nawab of Pataudi 666 (35.05), Sunil Gavaskar 651 (43.40), Chandu Borde 613 (55.73), Gundappa Viswanath 585 (39.00), Farokh Engineer 584 (30.74), Rahul Dravid 560 (62.22), Vinoo Mankad 526 (105.20), Vijay Manjrekar 507 (84.50).

Hovering: Sourav Ganguly 409.

Most wickets: Bishen Bedi 57 (19.14), Erapalli Prasanna 55 (20.13), Srinivas Venkataraghavan 44 (22.82), Anil Kumble 41 (23.39), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 36 (27.14), Subhash Gupte 34 (19.68), Javagal Srinath 33 (27.70), Narendra Hirwani 32 (23.69), Kapil Dev 25 (34.56), Arshad Ayub 21 (13.67).