Williamson and Nicholls Shine at the Basin

 New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Second Test, Basin Reserve, 17-20 March 2023

Scorecard

This was the 2,500th test match since it all began in Melbourne 146 years ago, and in New Zealand, at least, the format has never been so vibrant or appealing.

The most remarkable match that any of us have seen was followed just two weeks later in Christchurch by only the second occasion on which test-match victory was obtained off the last possible ball, as Kane Williamson hurled himself ahead of the throw to record the most valuable bye in cricket history.

When Ian Smith tailored his bespoke “by the barest of margins” description of the end of the Game of Which We Do Not Care to Speak in 2019, he could not have imagined that it would become an off-the-peg expression for use at home in the following few years.

Domestic cricket has been infected by the tension trend; Wellington’s games with Northern Districts this season have been won by one wicket and lost by two runs. Has any other ground staged games with one-wicket and one-run margins in the same season?

This test match was not a classic, but it contained much good cricket, almost all of it played by the home team. It was, even more than most cricket matches, full of statistical oddities. One of these was that it was first time since 1996 that New Zealand had selected a team with no left-armer as part of the attack. Dan Vettori, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner are the three main reasons for the sustained period of ambidextrousness and it was the latter's absence that ended it. Just as he was at the Basin against England, Wagner was crucially involved at the end of the Christchurch game, where he ignored injuries that would have put most of us in a wheelchair to complete the winning bye. He says that his test career is not over, and we all hope that he is right.

Doug Bracewell, cousin of Michael, son of Brendon, nephew of John, replaced Wagner, his first test appearance since 2016. There are a number of reasons for the long sabbatical, one being the unprecedented strength of New Zealand’s pace bowling in this period, another a run of injuries, some sustained in the early hours. A deceased cockatoo was also complicit.

Bracewell D also became the sixth player in the team with a double L in his name, but this may be mining the seam of statistical obscurity a little too deep.

The Basin Reserve pitch has sometimes been described in these columns as an early celebration of St Patrick’s Day, so, with the test match starting on that day, it was no surprise that something with the hue of an algae-covered pond was revealed when the covers were removed. We should all have learned by now that green pitches in New Zealand are fierce-looking dogs that roll over to have their tummies rubbed at the first opportunity. Sri Lanka learned this the hard way. An attack that had looked capable in Christchurch appeared to take the view that winning the toss had handed them a fistful of chips that could be cashed in simply by turning their arms over; in fact, great precision was required to extract any help that the pitch held within it.

Rajitha and Fernando were erratic in length; Kumara was more consistent, but only inasmuch as he was always far too short. There was also the wind, which Devon Conway described as the strongest he had experienced in his six years at the Basin. The quicker bowlers from the southern end will have felt as if they were marking time as they ran in, while for the spinners controlling flight was akin to taming an eagle. Later in the match Michael Bracewell tossed one up only for the gale to take it from its line on the stumps past the return crease for a wide.

Neither of New Zealand’s openers could blame the pitch for their fall. Tom Latham, on 21, pulled a catch straight to the only deep fielder.

Conway was in top form, his driving through the offside a thing of beauty, accounting for a good proportion of the 13 fours that contributed to his 78. Just when he looked booked in for a big score, Conway came down the pitch to off spinner Dhananjaya de Silva, but didn’t quite get there. The bowler took an athletic return catch.

Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls were now together. At the start of the test season there was criticism of Williamson with foolish phrases such as “if he can be bothered to turn up” bandied about. Now free of the elbow injury that weighed him down for a while, he has produced scores of 132, 121 and, here, 215 in successive test matches, each of which were the foundation of a New Zealand victory. His average in winning test matches is higher than any except Bradman’s (which is almost 50 higher, of course). Already New Zealand’s leading test runscorer, Williamson passed 8,000 runs at the Basin.

Conversation turned to whether he, or Martin Crowe, is our greatest batsman (acknowledging that Bert Sutcliffe and Martin Donnelly both have their advocates). Crowe, for all his technical correctness, was part nature and part art, while Williamson is more science and engineering. Let us not forget that engineers also produce things of beauty, as Williamson did here, playing with the ease and smoothness of Sinatra crooning a classic. 

Henry Nicholls is not the Last Chance Saloon’s best customer. That must be Zak Crawley. But he has been there so often that they know his tipple  and have it waiting for him as he walks through the door. With Young and Phillips both challenging his place, Nicholls joined Williamson aware that he had to produce something notable to ensure that this was not his last test match.

He was dropped by debutant keeper Madushka on six, a chance similar to the critical miss of Williamson in Christchurch that brought about Dickwella’s exclusion here. Nicholls was also dropped on 92, a return catch to Jayasuriya, but had already restored his reputation by then. Dropped chances are outside a batter’s control, but they are a test of resilience under the sort of pressure that Nicholls found himself, and he passed emphatically. He was harsh on the short bowling that Sri Lanka persisted with, and accelerated as New Zealand pushed towards a declaration. He reached 200 from 240 balls, the first time that two New Zealanders had made double hundreds in the same innings. 

The third-wicket partnership was worth 363, two fewer than Williamson’s world-record sixth wicket stand with BJ Watling against the same opponents at the Basin in 2015, and 11 more than the one they beat: Watling and McCullum’s against India here the previous year. The New Zealand record for the third wicket remains 467 by Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones, again against Sri Lanka at the Basin, in 1991. 

That was the world record until surpassed by Sangakkara and Jayawardene’ 624 against South Africa in 2006. How Sri Lanka could have done with those two great players now. Even so, with Karunaratne, Mathews and Chandimal all with test averages around or above 40, we expected getting them out for under the follow on of 381 would be tricky.

Two wickets were lost in the 17 overs left on the second day after the declaration. Matt Henry showed how the new ball was best used on this pitch with a probing line and length to induce an edge from Fernando, then Conway took a spectacular catch at point to dismiss Mendis, Doug Bracewell’s first test wicket for six years.

The first session of the third day saw two quick wickets rewarding proficient opening spells from Southee and Henry, though Mathews could have left the one that he edged to Blundell. For the rest of the morning Karunaratne and de Silva demonstrated that serenity could arise from the application of a little technique and patience, and there seemed no reason why Sri Lanka should not work steadily towards at least batting for long enough to make the enforcement of the follow on out of the question.

But the common sense that had characterised the morning was swept away with the lunchtime leftovers, starting with Chandimal giving Michael Bracewell the charge, and Blundell an easy stumping, In Bracewell’s next over, de Silva also ventured down the pitch only to chip an easy catch to Southee close in at mid wicket. The inevitable foolish run out was added to the mix, a desperate Karunaratne holed out at long on as he ran out of partners and soon enough Sri Lanka had lost their last six wickets for 65 since lunch. 

Michael Bracewell became, somewhat improbably for one who was only an occasional bowler three years ago, the first New Zealand spinner to take three wickets in the first innings of a home test since Bruce Martin took four in successive games against England in 2013.

With a six-man attack, the first innings done in 67 overs and rain predicted for the fifth day, Tim Southee enforced the follow on. Had Sri Lanka’s second innings been their first, they might well have come out with a draw. The control and discipline, which had been largely absent apart from the Karunaratne/Chandimal partnership,now spread across the order.

It was too late for there to be tension, however, particularly after the forecast improved and a fifth day was guaranteed. For the spectators the rest of the game was like watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies that are put together just over the hill from the Basin. We knew how it would end, but it took an interminable time to do so. 

Again, two wickets fell before the close. Fernando flicked a loose catch to square leg. Karunaratne reached his second half century of the day before becoming the first of five successive Sri Lankans to fall for the fatal allure of the short-pitched delivery, Conway taking a very good catch on the square legside boundary as it came to him out of the sun. 

Mendis and Mathews both went tamely in the first quarter of an hour of day four, and we started making plans for an afternoon at leisure. However, Chandimal (again) and de Silva batted with excellent judgement and considerable flair before the former top edged to fine leg just before lunch. 

Madushka was resolute in a sixth-wicket partnership of 76, and appeared to have shepherded his partner to a deserved century, but de Silva, two short of a tenth test hundred, toe-ended a lap-sweep to give short leg an easy catch. He was bereft, but got a standing ovation anyway. Crowds are generous when they know that a win is in the bag. 

The last three wickets resisted for an admirable yet irritating 35 overs, showing grit and technique. The short ball had worked well for New Zealand, but a few more at the stumps in this period might have hastened the end as the Sri Lankan tail was better at the leave than their brethren higher up the order. 

If Tim Southee is to remain New Zealand’s captain, the ICC will have to consider including Google Earth into the DRS system to ensure that the ball is in the same picture as the bat. He blew his reviews on some notable non-events, the worst of which was for a caught behind that the unsighted leg slip appealed for, supported by neither the bowler nor the keeper. He is one for 23 in terms of successful appeals. 

There was also the wind, which freshened to the extent of the camera operators having to abandon their positions on the scaffolding at the southern end of the ground, returning us to 1970s one-end coverage. I half-expected Jim Laker’s voice on the highlights, telling us what a thrillin’ innin’s we were watching. 

Two slip catches completed the game as we went into the extra eight overs. New Zealand have now gone six years without losing a home series, and recent performances against Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka have restored our faith to some extent.

That concludes my cricket season 2022-23. A great test match and a good one will be treasured in the memory. I hope that the fixture list offers more opportunities to watch for domestic first-class and 50-over matches next season, when we have Australia and South Africa visiting for test matches.  

Early Adventures in the Plunket Shield 2022

Wellington v Northern Districts, Basin Reserve, 18-21 October 2022

Wellington v Canterbury, Basin Reserve, 26­-28 October 2022

The early-season blogger faces a perennial challenge when reporting the first games at the Basin Reserve: how to convey the sheer greenness of the pitch. Peter Jackson’s movie studios are nearby. Having limbered up on Tolkien, are they applying their CGI artifice to Wellington’s cricket blocks, producing a verdance that nature cannot match?

As we have established before, a surface of that hue is not necessarily as pernicious as it would be in England. Northern Districts made 225 batting first in the season opener, and that was the lowest total of the match. The case for the pitch’s defence became more shaky for the second game, in which Wellington’s aggregate total was their lowest in 116 years of the Plunket Shield. However, their innings were punctuated by Canterbury’s 338 for eight declared, with a century for Tom Latham and a fifty from Henry Nicholls. Throw in Matt Henry’s seven for 44 in the match and it becomes clear that this was a pitch that sorted the wheat from the chaff with considerable efficiency.

I was able to be present for only one session of each match. For the Northern Districts game it was pre-lunch on the fourth day. ND started the day 225 ahead with six wickets remaining, apparently heading for a declaration close to lunchtime, but seamers McPeake and Sneddon expunged all six for just 23, leaving Wellington with a target of 250. It was one of those collapses that give the team that suffers it a greater chance of victory, closing the innings earlier than a more cautious declaration would have dared. This was a whisker from being the case here.

The highlight of both my mornings at the cricket was the batting of Rachin Ravindra. He puts me in mind of the young Ramprakash (though our man is left-handed) for the precocity and fluidity of his shots. Of course, that comparison raises questions about whether the class will translate to the top level. I hope that the national team management desists in using him as a No 7 who can bowl a bit of spin, and waits until he can be given a decent run in the top four. On this morning he hit several sumptuous cover drives before getting out to a legside strangle.

When I left at luncheon (as John Woodcock would say) Wellington were 77 for four, so ND would have considered themselves to be ahead. I caught up with the live stream (a more basic affair than in the UK, with just a single static camera) when Wellington were about 20 short with eight down. That they were this close was down to Tom Blundell, who performed an innings resurrection like those he undertook with Daryl Mitchell during the recent tests in England. Adam Leonard went in a manner similar to Ravindra with six left to get, and it was last man Hartshorn who secured an inside edge to the fine-leg boundary for the winning runs. This was four-day cricket at its best.

There was no such tension when I got to the Basin for the third morning of the match against Canterbury. The weather forecast was for rain in the late afternoon and for much of the following day, so the visitors had declared on the previous evening, setting Wellington a target of 378. They started the day on nine for two.

Again, Ravindra’s batting was worth the trouble of going to the Basin. He hit three offside fours off the otherwise near-unplayable Henry that were Goweresque in their languidity. This time it took a good one to get him, a ball from O’Rourke that rose a little and left him on off stump. With nightwatchman McPeake in support, that wicket did not fall until we were into the second hour, but thereafter only Blundell and the agricultural Newton made double figures. It was all over in time for lunch.

Despite the crushing defeat, Wellington have the same points as Canterbury and the two teams lead the Plunket Shield table after two of the eight games. 

New Zealand defeat the West Indies at the Basin Reserve

 New Zealand v West Indies, Second Test, Basin Reserve, 11–14 December 2020

Scorecard

As the West Indian fielders and the New Zealand openers took their positions for the first ball on the first day of this test match, they went down on one knee to affirm the universal truth that black lives matter. There had been no announcement of this beforehand so it took us by surprise. There was silence for a few seconds, then I and others started applauding, soon to be joined by a good proportion of the crowd. It was an emotional moment on a sunny morning with the red blooms of the pohutukawas leaking across the Basin’s panorama. Added to the privilege that we in New Zealand feel at simply being able to go to the cricket  was my personal reflection on the debt I have to West Indian cricketers. They were my Jesuits, capturing me at my most impressionable, inculcating me with an unshakeable faith in the passion and excitement of cricket to a degree that English cricket’s abstaining methodism of that time could not inspire. 

Regular readers will know that finding new ways of conveying the deep verdancy of New Zealand cricket pitches has proved a challenge to Scorecards over the years. The strip at Hamilton for the first test attracted a lot of social-media attention from the UK, mostly from people to whom it did not occur that the parameters of pitch behaviour 12,000 miles away might vary from those at the club down the road (the more strident the opinion about New Zealand, the less likely it is that the perpetrator has been here, or can locate the country on a map). The occasions on which these pitches produce the amount of assistance to the bowlers that their appearance might conventionally suggest are greatly outnumbered by those on which they do not. The score at the end of that first day at Seddon Park was 243 for two. Discussing this issue the other day, the TV commentators suggested that the green grass here might be so dense that the main effect is to cushion the ball. 

At the Basin, the first-morning pitch was about an eight on the international scale of greenness, and three-and-a-half measured domestically, still enough for Jason Holder to put New Zealand in upon winning the toss. Tom Latham was captain, as he was the last time Scorecards reported on the national team, in Sydney at the start of the year. This time, Kane Williamson’s absence was down to the impending arrival of his daughter. 

The sun had a ticket, but the wind is a life member at the Basin, and registered its presence by removing a bail at each end after the first ball of the match. The gale seemed to blow Shannon Gabriel off course. His first two overs went for 21, the ball pitched up too far with no consistent line. 

Gabriel adjusted to the conditions with the alacrity of an America’s Cup skipper. In his next 12 overs he took three for 17. The first of the three was Tom Blundell, the ball after he had cover driven a four. The next one came back just enough to find the gap between bat and pad and to hit the top of the off stump. Gabriel bowled with the wind, but that meant that he had to walk back to his mark into it, which he achieved at a speed of a retreating glacier. 

Showing himself to be an over-the-top-into-the guns sort of leader, Jason Holder opened the bowling into the wind. His opening spell was tight, but the first wicket from that southern end was taken by his namesake, Chemar Holder, at whom Latham drove to provide a first test dismissal not only for the bowler but also for replacement keeper Da Silva, in for the injured Dowrich.

Regular readers might expect that Devon Conway would have come in at No 3, so often has Scorecards extolled his credentials as an international batsman in the four years since he started playing for Wellington and qualifying for New Zealand. Despite Conway’s impressive start in the T20 side, Will Young of Central Districts got the call in this series. Young was close to selection for some time before making his debut in the first test. He was down to play in the Christchurch test against Bangladesh that was cancelled following the terrorist attack on the mosques in that city in 2019. He has a first-class average of 43, just four fewer than Conway. 

Ross Taylor was Gabriel’s second victim with another ball that straightened a little to provide a second catch to Da Silva. This brought in Henry Nicholls, another feeling the breath of Conway on his collar. It is a sign of the current health of New Zealand cricket that Nicholls’ current test average of 41 did not guarantee him a place for the rest of the season when not so long ago it would have done so for several summers. He and his fourth-wicket partner Young knew that a substantial innings by one would mean the other making way for Williamson on his return on Boxing Day against Pakistan.   

Young fell for 40 to a stunning diving catch by the captain at second slip (it was a surprise not to see Holder driving the team bus at the end of the day such had been his ubiquity in other roles). Nicholls finished with 174, but was missed four times, including two straightforward slip chances, and had edges go into gaps on any number of occasions. He showed great mental strength not to be undermined by his good fortune, but Young might be forgiven for shaking his fist at the fates. 

BJ Watling played an uncharacteristic innings that ended in an uncharacteristic way. Big shots replaced little nudges: 24 of his 30 runs came from boundaries.  He played on attempting to cut a ball that did not have the necessary width. 

Daryl Mitchell looked as comfortable as anybody and accompanied Nicholls to his century, achieved appropriately with an inside edge. It was the hundredth test century at the Basin, and one of the ropiest, not that Nicholls will care. New Zealand finished the day on 294 for six, much better than it would have been with average test-match catching.

The southerly always keeps its diary free for some of the Basin test, and was there for the second day, but without its usual icy venom. The Wellington summer wardrobe of two sweaters was sufficient.

The highlight of the first half of the day was Neil Wagner’s innings at eighth down. Wagner bats as he bowls, like a man writing an angry letter to the editor, in green ink with much underlining. After five balls to gain a sighter, he began with a little light legside slogging off Holder, then top-edged a six off Joseph, who was beginning to look a bit of a spare part, as Josephs will at this time of the year. 

Our hero was dropped twice at fine leg in three balls, neither easy, but both catchable. The joke du jour was that it had been a waste of money putting the West Indians in quarantine for a fortnight as they can’t catch anything. With a combination of the classical and the grotesque, the 50 partnership, 39 from Wagner, came up in 30 balls. In his 50th test, Wagner’s first test 50 was now close, but he had to wait until after lunch to push for two past point to get there. How we roared. There is no more popular cricketer in New Zealand than Wagner, for his enthusiasm, dedication and unkiwilike bad temper. He is Monty Python’s Black Knight made flesh. In the Boxing Day test a couple of weeks later he bowled 28 overs in the second innings with two broken toes. Here, Wagner marked the landmark by unrolling a cover drive of which Frank Woolley would have been proud. 

When Nicholls’ marathon ended, Wagner was joined by Trent Boult, the only batsman by comparison to whom he appears measured and orthodox. Anyone who has not seen Boult bat need only read some of Hardy’s descriptions of the bucolic folk of Wessex scything hay in the fields to get the flavour. He was off the mark first ball with a six over wide long on.

The innings finished two balls later at 460, Wagner unbeaten on 66. This was at least 200 more than the fielding should have allowed. 

West Indies had not taken a single step towards that total when Southee got one to hold its line close enough to off stump to force Brathwaite to edge to Watling. Along with Boult, Southee controlled and threatened throughout the opening spell. The inevitable second wicket came when Bravo did not go through with a drive, giving Southee an athletic return catch. Bravo’s departure from the field was Brexit slow.

These days, the New Zealand attack is no longer what Graham Gooch described as the World XI at one end and Ilford Seconds at the other. After Boult and Southee there was Wagner, who had got himself into a state about the price of fish, or global warming, or something, and was working it out with red-ball therapy. Then there was Kyle Jamieson, whose first over was one of the most memorable bowled in tests at the Basin.

Jamieson has made a dazzling start to his international career this year, having been on the domestic scene since 2014. He is 26, and it is hard to explain why he has suddenly become such a force. There was never a chorus of calls for him to be picked before he was. Yet here he is, with batting and bowling averages of 49 and 14 after five tests.

He came on, into the wind, for the 15th over. The first ball brought appeals from the slips, but not the bowler, for caught behind, but it had flicked the pad. Jamieson joined in the appeal for lbw from the second ball, but Latham did not review, rightly as there was an inside edge. Campbell drove at the third, full on off stump, and was caught behind. Chase’s first ball was an inswinging yorker that bowled him. 

The hattrick ball got the RA Vance Stand to its feet, as it clattered into Jermaine Blackwood’s pad, but the review showed that it was missing leg. The final ball was closer, again spearing into the back pad. It was turned down on review on the umpire’s call. 

Blackwood played for a while with the abandon of a man who has cheated death and is attempting to tick off his bucket list, reaching 30 from just 21 balls. At this point he drove hard to give Jamieson a tough return chance that was put down. This seemed to bring him back to his senses, and he took a further 43 balls to reach 50. With Shamarh Brooks he put on 68 for the fifth wicket.

Brooks was bowled by Jamieson playing no shot for a 92-ball 14, the first of the six remaining wickets to fall for the addition of only 34, leaving the West Indies with a deficit of 329. Southee and Jamieson divided the wickets equally between them, but this was a combined achievement of the whole attack. There was no let up in the pressure from either end.

The final two wickets were taken on the third morning. Since the abolition of the rest day, it has become unfashionable to enforce the follow on, but Tom Latham could feel what it was like to be Clive Lloyd, with four fast bowlers at his disposal, two of whom would always be fresh, so the West Indies openers were back in on a cold morning that had me watching the first session from the Long Room. 

The second innings went much better than the first for the visitors.There was more of an attacking intent, with 186 more runs scored in just 23 more overs compared to the first innings. The openers had almost seen off the opening spells from both ends when Boult removed Brathwaite and Bravo in the 11th over, the former to a fine catch by Young at leg gully off the middle of the bat. 

Campbell and Brooks put on 89 for the third wicket, but both fell within four runs of each other, interspersed with Chase picking up a pair. We expected the game to be wrapped up within the hour, but the West Indies lower order had more spirit, led by their estimable captain. I have written before of my admiration for Jason Holder, who has borne the burden of the West Indian captaincy with courage since the dark day of the World Cup quarter-final at the Cake Tin when he fielded lonely on the boundary as Martin Guptill tore his team apart. 

Holder found support from debutant Joshua Da Silva. They put on 82 for the seventh wicket in 18 overs, relying on the big hits rather than rotation of the strike and took the game into the fourth day helped by an early finish because of bad light, which, as ever, came when the batsmen were seeing the ball better than at any point in the match.

Holder was out in the first full over next morning to a cracker from Southee that left him just enough to take the off stump. Alzari Joseph got off the pair with a hooked six off Southee and made 24 entirely in boundaries before being caught behind off a legside strangle. Da Silva got a deserved half century on debut.

Wagner uprooted Gabriel’s middle stump to secure the victory with a margin of an innings and 12 runs. As usual, New Zealanders put the result down to how poor the opposition had been. As Holder acknowledged after the game, their catching was awful and spending so much of their lives in various degrees of quarantine over the past few months must take its toll, but we must overcome the natural humility that is central to our charm to acknowledge that we have a very good test cricket team. 

That as good a player as Devon Conway does not walk straight into the team shows the strength of the batting (Williamson returned to the team for Boxing Day and peeled off his 23rd century). We have added to this a four-man quick attack of high quality, even if, with loveable Kiwi diffidence, it lacks the speed of the great Caribbean attacks or England 2005. Of course, Wagner bowls as if at 150 kph rather than the mid 130s that the machine registers, a magnificent illusion worthy of membership of the Magic Circle. A quality spinning all-rounder would round things off nicely. Mitch Santner may fill this slot, but isn’t there yet. 

India’s defeat of Australia in the Boxing Day match in Melbourne means that New Zealand and Australia are level on points at the top of the ICC rankings, but, as we have come to expect from ICC contests, a technicality (most boundaries? wicketkeeper’s height? who knows?) keeps us in second place. 

This is different from the ICC test championship, with a final at Lord’s in prospect for the top two. New Zealand have a path to this, but it seems to depend on a decisive win for either Australia or India in the rest of their series, and for India against England. 

This may leave us in the awkward position of being on Australia’s side in the current series, though unprecedented choruses of C’mon Aussie, C’mon have yet to be heard this side of the Tasman.

I wish everyone a happy and safe 2021. 

Early adventures in the Plunket Shield

As I write in mid-November (roughly the equivalent of mid-May in England), three-quarters of Wellington’s home programme in the Plunket Shield has been completed. The New Zealand domestic schedule is a warning to England as to what may be to come if resistance from county cricket’s defenders is less than staunch.

I could not get to the Basin for any of the opener against Otago, an eight-wicket win for Wellington, but was there on the first and fourth days of a memorable contest between Wellington and Canterbury: Conway’s match.

Wellington v Canterbury, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 29 October – 1 November 2019

Scorecard

Devon Conway scored more runs here than anyone has done before in one match in New Zealand. He followed an unbeaten 327 in the first innings with 66 in the second to top Bert Sutcliffe’s single-innings 385 for Otago against Canterbury in 1952–3. His 53 boundaries were the most hit by a New Zealander (including aspiring New Zealanders). It was the highest individual score that I have ever watched, though I saw only (only!) the 261 he made on the first day. Conway—an immigrant from South Africa—qualifies for New Zealand in October 2020, so it would be well worth a county making him an offer for next season.

At 20 for three in the twelfth over, such profligate scoring appeared impossible after Wellington had been put in by Canterbury, but this was not an archetypal first-day Basin pitch. All three wickets were down to good bowling. Left-armer Nuttall swung one into Fletcher to have him leg-before, then Matt Henry, in Kent form, combined accuracy, movement with a little lift to account for Colson and Bracewell. However, even at this early stage very few deliveries beat the bat, particularly when Conway was holding it.

Tom Blundell joined Conway to put on 34 for the fourth wicket before being given leg-before to Williams. Blundell could not have advertised more widely his view that the ball had hit the inside edge had he taken a full page in the Dominion Post. He stared at the raised finger with the expression of a Pope whose infallibility is questioned. All the way back to the rooms his head shook from side to side as he examined the offending strip of wood. Had he widened the scope of this inquiry it would have revealed that the bat also had a middle, which, appropriately deployed, would have saved him a lot of trouble.

The umpire involved, Garth Stirrat, has been outed in as a retired porn star, so I’ll leave a space here for the reader to insert their own witticism.

One of the characteristics of a class batsman that Conway has is that watching him gives no inkling that the team may be in trouble, or that batting is anything other than the breeziest of activities. As we were to see, he has shots around the ground, but his go-to area is behind square on the offside. So productive was he in this area that Cole McConchie committed a heresy against the creed of modern captaincy by stationing a third man before lunch on the first day, and followed it with a second a few balls later. Conway reached his 50—out of a total of 72— with the first false shot he played, an edge over the slips.

The Canterbury bowling in the early part of the innings was exemplary, with Henry conceding only 11 off nine overs and Will Williams—a tall right-arm seamer with a bouncy approach—12 off eight. The rest of the Canterbury attack could not maintain the pressure. Left-armer Andrew Hazeldine was sufficiently pacey to have Malcolm Nofal caught at mid on when attempting a pull, but was profligate to the extent of reaching his bowler’s century in his eleventh over, as quickly as I have seen it done. Conway is so adept at telling the good ball from the almost-but-not-quite good ball and steered what he got from Hazeldine through the gaps like a pilot in a busy waterway. He reached his hundred with another rare mishit, a top-edged pull that fell just out of reach of the diving keeper, Fletcher.

Peter Younghusband joined Conway for the sixth-wicket partnership and took the role of defensive support seriously as may be judged by the fact that he did not contribute to the first 33 runs they put on, and was on only 14 when the century partnership was achieved.

There were no nervous 190s for Conway; a four followed at once by a six over deep mid-wicket saw to that. He reached 200 before the team had passed 300, which can’t have happened often.

Those two boundaries came off Todd Astle, who had been held back until Conway was well-established, which suggested a lack of confidence in a bowler who is a semi-regular member of the test squad, but asking a leg spinner to bowl in New Zealand in October is like bringing a bear out of hibernation a couple of months early, to forage with the snow still on the ground.

Younghusband’s blockade was breached by a fine catch by Tom Latham at second slip. He was replaced by Jamie Gibson, who took the opposite approach, striking out from the start. They were both right, in their contrasting ways. By the time Gibson came in, Conway had been batting for most of the day and was happy to let his partner man the guns.

The Canterbury attack operated like two economies, one managed by Margaret Thatcher, the other by Robert Mugabe. Henry and, especially, Williams (one for 52 from 28 overs) held fast against the inflation of batsmen’s scores, while the other bowlers printed runs.

In my absence on the second and third days, Conway reached his triple century and Wellington declared on 525 for seven an hour or so before lunch. Tom Latham then scored his traditional Wellington double hundred (one in the test match against Sri Lanka late last year and one in the Plunket at Karori in 2013). Nobody else reached 50 for Canterbury, who declared nine down 110 behind.

To what Bismarck said of sausages and laws, add the accumulation of runs needed for an agreed target: it is better not to see them being made. I was glad to have missed the first hour or so of the final morning when the formalities necessary for Wellington to set Canterbury 358 were completed.  

That many runs in a day less half an hour is tough even on a pitch that appeared truer than George Washington. But by the time I arrived late in the morning session, pessimism had already set in among the Wellington faithful, in whose company Eeyore would appear a cock-eyed optimist. Canterbury were 80 for one, with one of the world’s top-ten ranked test batsmen (Latham) in and another (Nicholls) to follow.

However, Bowes, who had opened with 40 from 27 deliveries, had already departed and three more followed in the short time before lunch. Stephen Murdoch was out lbw making room to cut a ball from slow left-armer Nofal that was quicker than he thought. The decision looked dubious, though Murdoch was well back in the crease. The scorecard has links to video of all dismissals, so readers can make up their own minds.

The day took a significant turn in Wellington’s direction in the following over when Latham was caught at second slip, driving loosely at van Beek.

The third to fall was McConchie who, mind straying to the impending ham salad, swept the last ball before lunch to be caught at short fine leg. The bowler was again Nofal, who once more put a little extra speed on the ball. Canterbury’s target at the start of the afternoon was 239 with six wickets and a minimum of 62 overs left.

Nofal has taken 15 wickets in the Plunket Shield so far this year, more than anyone except Neil Wagner, so has moved onwards and upwards from the “golden arm” category. Wellington captain Michael Bracewell, however, with three wickets in 78 first-class games, only aspires to that description. But he did get one to turn to Henry Nicholls, who knocked it cross-batted it to mid off. Only the bowler was more surprised than the batsman.

Now Wellington were ahead and expected to win, particularly as Canterbury had a longish tail. There was a time when a team in Canterbury’s situation would have abandoned hopes of victory and set about digging trenches, but the modern cricketer just runs quicker towards the machine guns. This is no criticism. Here, with two or three more lucky breaks, it would have won Canterbury the match, and it was good to watch.

Todd Astle hit 33 from 15 deliveries, including two splendid straight-driven sixes. On only four, Cam Fletcher hit a Rohan Kanhai-style fall-over hooked six off McPeake. Matt Henry struck three sixes as he made 43 from 40, before falling to an excellent catch by Bracewell, low to his left, which is not where a first slip expects to take a catch from a right-handed batsman. Fletcher followed soon after leaving Canterbury with 126 to get with only two wickets left.

Canterbury continued to press on, if a trifle more cautiously than before. Williams and Hazeldine restored Wellington’s anxietyometer to the high levels to which we are accustomed with a ninth-wicket stand of 64 before Hazeldine off drove straight to van Beek at mid off. Still they hit out; the game ended when Nuttall was caught at long on to give Nofal his fourth wicket. Wellington won a splendid game of cricket by 44 runs.

Wellington v Auckland, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 8 – 9 November 2019

Scorecard

The following week we were back at the Basin for the visit of Auckland. I arrived soon after lunch on the first day to discover that I had missed Wellington’s first innings, bowled out for 91 having been put in. Lockie Ferguson took four for 23. After his performances in the World Cup, readers will know that Ferguson is capable of bowling as fast as anybody, but now with added accuracy. He had been withdrawn from the T20 series against England to play here in preparation for a summer of test cricket.   

Soon after I took my seat Auckland’s reply was interrupted by the rain, and there you have the story of the rest of match. There were only 26 more overs that day, and 57 in total in the next. As had been forecast, the third and fourth days were washed away completely, so from the outset this was a game played for the small stakes of bonus points. No point then in recounting events in any detail, save to introduce readers who do not follow domestic cricket in New Zealand with the name of Ben Sears.

Sears is a local 21-year-old all-rounder less than a year into his first-class career. He took six for 43, three of them in the two overs he was able to bowl on the second morning before the rain fell. He bowls right arm on the brisk side of medium with a high action. Test opener Jeet Ravel was bowled by a ball that swung in, and was quick enough to hurry Horne into a head-protecting edge.

Wellington finish the first half of the Plunket Shield season with a comfortable lead of 15 points. Whether anybody remembers that when the competition resumes in late February remains to be seen.

I will next report from Hamilton, where I’m heading at the end of the week for the first three days of the test match.