Twose at it again and McMillan carries on towards a record
Roger Twose has featured regularly in this column and here is another angle which puts his achievements into perspective
Francis Payne
05-Nov-2000
Roger Twose has featured regularly in this column and here is another angle which puts his achievements into perspective. While he is one of the small number of players from any country to average over 40 in one-dayers (see column of 16 October) relatively few New Zealand batsmen have even been able to scale the giddy heights of an average of 30. Those who have done so are (min 500 runs):
Mat I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 GM Turner 41 40 6 1598 171* 47.00 3 9 RG Twose 75 70 10 2541 103 42.35 1 20 MD Crowe 143 141 19 4704 107* 38.55 4 34 AH Jones 87 87 9 2784 93 35.69 - 25 NJ Astle 121 118 4 3926 120 34.43 8 24 CZ Harris 165 138 45 2910 130 31.29 1 10 SP Fleming 139 133 13 3708 116* 30.90 3 22 BA Edgar 64 64 5 1814 102* 30.74 1 10 JV Coney 88 80 19 1874 66* 30.72 - 8
(Bevan Congdon scored 338 runs at 56.33 in 11 matches).
Points worth noting are that four of the nine players in the list are members of the current side while Jones and Coney (and previously Twose) achieved an average of 30 or more without scoring a hundred.
When Twose scored 90 in the fourth one-dayer at Kimberley it was his 20th half-century in One-Day Internationals (and third score in the 90s). He joined another New Zealand batsman, Andrew Jones, as the only two players to have scored as many as 20 fifties without making a one-day century. This record was short-lived, however, with Twose finally registering his maiden century at Cape Town just 13 days later. The players with most fifties but no century are now:
Fifties Andrew Jones 25 Graham Thorpe 18 Kim Hughes 17 Mudassar Nazar 16 Jimmy Adams 14 Tom Moody 10 Guy Whittall 10
This time last year, John Wright (149 games) had played more One-Day Internationals than any other New Zealander. Chris Harris went past Wright's mark in February against Australia while Adam Parore also went ahead of him in the final one-dayer against South Africa at Cape Town.
The players who have played 100 or more games for New Zealand are:
Matches CZ Harris 165 AC Parore 150 JG Wright 149 MD Crowe 143 SP Fleming 139 CL Cairns 136 KR Rutherford 121 GR Larsen 121 NJ Astle 121 RJ Hadlee 115 EJ Chatfield 114
Of current players, Roger Twose (75) and Craig McMillan (71) are closest to the 100 game mark.
Harris, incidentally, just missed becoming the first New Zealander to play in 100 successive One-Day Internationals. When he missed the second game against Zimbabwe through illness, it brought to an end an unbroken run of 94 games since the World Cup quarter-final at Madras in March 1996 (when he scored his only century).
Adam Parore had a run of 84 successive one-dayers until he was replaced by Chris Nevin for the final two matches against Australia last season.
While Craig McMillan has been out six times for a single run in his One-Day International career, he has never been dismssed for a duck in his 66 innings and is closing in on the all-time record for any player.
The following players have batted at least 30 times in one-dayers without scoring a duck.
Innings Kepler Wessels 105 Craig McMillan 66 Kumar Dharmasena 59 Peter Kirsten 40 Yashpal Sharma 40 Russel Arnold 32 Jack Russell 31
(Wessels played 54 innings for South Africa and 51 for Australia leaving McMillan with the all-time record for one country)
Amongst other New Zealanders, Jeremy Coney had just one duck in 80 innings and Geoff Howarth one in 65. Wasim Akram has the most ducks in One-Day Internationals (24 in 244 innings) while Adam Parore holds the New Zealand record with 11 in 135 innings).
Following 12 One-Day Internationals in succession and 14 in all since they left home in August, New Zealand now go in to Test match mode for the remainder of the year with three matches against South Africa and the Boxing Day Test at home against Zimbabwe.
New Zealand's one-day averages for the season to date find Roger Twose predictably topping both the batting averages and aggregates while Shayne O'Connor is the leading wicket taker and Glen Sulzberger, during his brief spell with the side, turns out to be the most economical of the bowlers. Interestingly, Scott Styris bowled the most overs (100).
Mat I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St SR RG Twose 14 13 1 730 103 60.83 1 6 6 - 83 CL Cairns 10 9 2 319 102* 45.57 1 1 4 - 90 CM Spearman 6 6 0 183 86 30.50 - 2 4 - 76 CD McMillan 14 13 2 278 78 25.27 - 3 2 - 80 CZ Harris 13 11 2 214 46 23.77 - - 4 - 70 NJ Astle 14 13 0 283 58 21.76 - 1 4 - 60 SP Fleming 14 12 0 243 85 20.25 - 1 5 - 63 AC Parore 13 11 4 134 30 19.14 - - 6 2 80 DJ Nash 1 1 0 19 19 19.00 - - 1 - 105 SB Styris 13 8 2 94 28* 15.66 - - 4 - 79 CJ Nevin 7 6 0 93 68 15.50 - 1 1 1 79 GP Sulzberger 3 2 1 9 6* 9.00 - - - - 60 DL Vettori 2 2 0 6 6 3.00 - - - - 60 DR Tuffey 3 2 1 2 2 2.00 - - 1 - 66 GI Allott 9 4 2 3 1* 1.50 - - - - 20 SB O'Connor 11 3 1 2 1* 1.00 - - 4 - 20 PJ Wiseman 4 2 2 12 12* - - - 1 - 30 BGK Walker 3 2 2 7 5* - - - 1 - 50
O M R W Ave Best Econ
PJ Wiseman 23 0 118 5 23.60 4-45 5.13
CD McMillan 17 1 86 3 28.66 2-41 5.05
SB O'Connor 74.4 4 398 13 30.61 5-46 5.33
DL Vettori 11 0 63 2 31.50 2-23 5.72
GP Sulzberger 22 0 102 3 34.00 1-28 4.63
NJ Astle 84 5 409 10 40.90 3-24 4.86
GI Allott 70 2 397 9 44.11 3-33 5.67
CZ Harris 99 3 470 9 52.22 2-39 4.74
CL Cairns 70.5 5 387 7 55.28 2-62 5.46
BGK Walker 24 3 114 2 57.00 2-43 4.75
SB Styris 100 3 487 7 69.57 2-53 4.87
DR Tuffey 17 1 112 1 112.00 1-48 6.58
Finally, despite the result of the final one-dayer, it at least leaves something for future New Zealand teams to aim for:
- A One-Day International win in South Africa (by coincidence the results in both 1994/95 and this season were 5-0 with one no result)
- An end to South Africa's 12-match unbeaten streak against New Zealand going back to Napier on their 1998/99 tour (3 no results in that sequence)