The Last of the Cricket?

Wellington v Central Districts, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve, 1–3 March 2020

Scorecard with video clips

The last of the cricket of the season is forever poignant, the more so as the years pass by. There is a question mark added to the heading of this piece, because nobody knows how cricket will emerge at the far end of all this. Already there is talk of counties folding and of England’s test and one-day teams playing concurrently. Not even the most Blimpish of us could argue that the T20 should not have priority in the English season, to keep the people coming through the gates and the money going into the bank.

The immediate consequences for cricket here in New Zealand will be fewer than for the UK, as the suspension here came at the end of the season, costing only a T20 series against Australia and two rounds of the Plunket Shield. The national team has had a series in Ireland cancelled, but is not scheduled for test cricket until Bangladesh in August.

The game against Central Districts just over a month ago was my last cricket for the season anyway, Wellington’s final three fixtures all being away. I was able to attend only on the first day. Central were top going into the game, and Wellington were second, so we knew that the game would go some way to deciding the Plunket Shield, but we didn’t realise quite how far.

The pitch was greener than that for the test, and a degree more helpful, but not nearly as much as what ensued might suggest after Central were put in. It demonstrated the principle that I have just heard expounded once more by Richie Benaud as Sky Sports New Zealand start their rerun of the 2006/07 Ashes (the whole match, not just highlights—first day at Brisbane and it’s not going well for England)—that the ball only has to move an inch, not a foot, to get a batsman out. 

No assistance whatsoever was needed from the pitch for the first Central wicket, a gorgeous yorker from McPeake to remove Worker.

Had he been fit, Will Young would have opened for New Zealand in the Boxing Day test, just as he would against Bangladesh at Hagley Park last March had the test not been cancelled following the 15 March atrocity. He is Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, continually just missing Meg Ryan playing the role of his unborn test career. Young was soon lbw shuffling across to Neesham, the pick of a strong seam attack.

It was a day on which the bowling was more intelligent than the batting, the verdant pitch an unconvincing defence for unconvincing defence. The fifth-wicket partnership of 28 between Hay and Cleaver was the biggest of the innings.

It was when Cleaver was dismissed that it first occurred to me that I had a chance of ticking off one of my unfulfilled ambitions in cricket watching: to see an opener carry his bat, that is to bat all through an innings, remaining not out when his side is all out.

I have seen batsmen on their way to this achievement, but have never seen it completed. At Canterbury in 1987, Neil Taylor, an underrated Kent opening batsman, was five not out at the close of play of the first day against Nottinghamshire, but I was back at work in Bristol when the bat carrying was done on the Monday. Ten years later, on what remains my most recent visit to Lord’s, I watched Mark Ramprakash get Middlesex’s second innings under way; he also went on to get an unbeaten hundred the next day, unperturbed by the foot traffic at the other end.

But the closest I had previously come to seeing an opener carry his bat was at Folkestone in 1977. When the Yorkshire team awoke and looked out of their hotel-room windows on the third morning they would have experienced the sinking feeling felt by a soldier about to go over the top, a pilot as an engine fails or, in their case, cricketers who find that it has rained overnight and that Derek Underwood is in the other team, for this was the time of uncovered pitches, with no protection permitted after the first ball of the game was bowled.

The opening batsman concerned was Geoffrey Boycott, in the very week in which he ended his self-imposed exile from the England team. If mention of Boycott fosters the notion that this was some sort of masterclass in batting on a drying pitch against Underwood, think again. Boycott did indeed show immense command and skill, but only in manipulating the strike. He spent so much of Underwood’s spell watching from the non-striker’s end that he might reasonably have been charged admission.

No 11 Mike Bore somehow broke Boycott’s bubble (as we would say these days), whereupon the Great Resistor became Underwood’s seventh victim. He was caught behind by Knott, with whom, just two days later, he was to put on 215 for the sixth wicket on his test return, though not before he had run out local Trent Bridge hero Derek Randall.

Logan van Beek stoked my hopes with three quick wickets. Now only two tailenders with only two previous first-class appearances between them stood between Greg Hay and his achievement (though by now I was regarding it as much my achievement as his).

There remains confusion about the identity of the debutant No 10. On the day, the board had him as Hook, as does the NZ Cricket scorecard linked to at the top of this piece. But CricInfo says that he is Stefan Hook-Sporry, possibly a friend of Bertie Wooster’s. What seemed clear on the day is that he is no batsman. He scooped a ball from off stump to behind square on the legside, where he was caught by van Beek off Sears.

Ray Toole was Central’s last man. Surely a man whose batting ability could promote Hook-Sporry to No 10 could not divert the course of history? But he was good, or lucky, enough to survive nine deliveries, at which point Hay was late with the shot to Neesham and was hit on the pad. The umpire thought for a moment, then decided that it would have hit leg and so Hay failed at the last, just as Boycott had at Folkestone. As things stand, I can still have the words “He never saw anyone carry their bat” on my headstone.

Central’s total was just 96. It was unusual in that only Hay reached double figures, his 62 constituting 65percent of the whole.

Ninety-six looked a fair score after the first over of the Wellington innings in which Colson and Conway were both dismissed without scoring. Both fell caught behind to testing deliveries that moved away just enough. The bowler was Blair Tickner, whose exuberant celebrations rile an element of the Basin faithful.

There was no need for concern. Just one wicket fell in the remaining 52 overs of the day. Left-handed opener Rachin Ravindra led the recovery. Ravindra, still only 20-years-old, was identified as a future international at an early age. He made his first-class debut for New Zealand A before he had appeared in the Plunket Shield. Here, he showed why. It was a composed, classy innings, made as if he was at a different venue from the rest of the batsmen. Look out for Ravindra in the Black Caps team very soon.

He was well supported, first by Troy Johnson then by the captain Michael Bracewell, who has had a season good enough to have placed him in international contention (if there is any international cricket to contend for). My cricket watching for the season finished with Wellington 79 ahead with seven wickets standing. It was a day that had settled the question of the Plunket Shield.

Next day, the lead was extended to 202. Though Central did better in their second innings, Wellington had to make only 53 to win the game by nine wickets. In the next round, sixth of a scheduled eight, Wellington beat Auckland by an innings while Central lost to Otago. This left Wellington with a 26-point lead (with 20 the most attainable in any one game). Thus when Coronavirus forced the cancellation of the final two rounds Wellington were declared to be champions, an odd way to achieve their first title in 16 years, to add to the T20 trophy won in January.

It has been a good season for me, the most enjoyable since 2014–15, which I picked as my vintage summer. Three test matches were at the heart of it, in Hamilton, Sydney and at home in Wellington. Fine batting by Latham, Burns, Labuschagne, Warner and Williamson; excellent bowling from Wagner, Boult, Southee, Cummins and Lyon, amongst others.

The domestic schedule was kinder to me than for some time, particularly in providing four 50-over games early in the year. I didn’t have time to blog on these, but they were most enjoyable. There was some good Plunket Shield too, notably Devon Conway’s triple hundred early on the season. Also, Wellington’s T20 victory.

What will it be like when we next meet at the cricket? The current emergency will change all sorts of things in all sorts of ways. Cricket, more than many sports, has international contests at its core. It will suffer from the restrictions on international travel, which may last much longer than is generally recognised, with 14-day quarantine periods at either end even when the planes start taking off again. I’ll be happy if I’m wrong, but England will be fortunate to see any international cricket in the coming season. When domestic cricket begins it is to be hoped that the ECB sticks to its promise to put domestic T20 at the heart of the schedule. If there are no tests, what about a little imagination to keep the longer form going? I suppose that Smokers v Non-Smokers might be a bit one-sided these days, perhaps less so if what was being smoked wasn’t specified. North v South would be pretty good. Or Born in England v Born Somewhere Else.

Here at Scorecards Towers we feel very fortunate. Both of us are working full-time from home in a large house with a well-stocked library in a country that is doing much better than most at dealing with the virus. You do so much better if you have a good captain.

My main concern at the moment is that this year’s Wisden won’t get here for a while. As mentioned above, Sky Sports New Zealand is running a stack of old cricket in full, (but with most of the ads edited out so it moves along at an old-school over rate). It’s now lunch on the third day at Brisbane 2006 on my timeline, and England are in a tricky spot.

See you at the cricket, sometime.

New Zealand v India, first test, Basin Reserve, 21–24 February 2020

Scorecard

This is an account of a test match played little more than a month ago, though it seems now to have been in another time, so much has happened since. To be able to watch cricket at all has become a matter for nostalgia. For us in New Zealand, at least it has come at the end of the season. We lost only a couple of rounds of the Plunket Shield. Let’s acknowledge that to view all this through a cricket lens is to get it badly wrong, but as someone who every year counted down the days until I could first risk April hypothermia on the roof of the Hammond Room in Bristol or elsewhere, I share the loss that county cricket watchers will feel right now.

Many of that group will wonder what county cricket will look like when it returns. Will it emerge with enough money to sustain 18 counties? Will those who seek to undermine the county structure, however much they deny it, ensure that it doesn’t?

For now, here is an account of four pleasant days at the cricket.

First day

The Basin Reserve looked a picture on a sunny morning. For the first time in almost a decade the Museum Stand was open, having been restored and strengthened against earthquakes. It has a new, somewhat unimaginative, name—the Old Pavilion. There is a new pavilion, the players’ area next to the RA Vance Stand. It might kindly be described as functional, though at least it is consistent with the architectural style of Wellington’s sports venues. Down the road, the Cake Tin, here the Bread Bin.

It has a good name though: the Ewen Chatfield Pavilion. In the UK Chatfield is best remembered for having his life saved by Bernard Thomas after edging a Peter Lever delivery onto his temple. Here, he is regarded as the quintessential New Zealand cricketer, military medium into the wind, setting the batsmen up for Richard Hadlee at the other end. Chatfield is still seen at the Basin whenever he can spare the time from driving his taxi. He retired from club cricket just last year, 51 years after his debut for the same club. He didn’t tell his Naenae Old Boys teammates until after the game that it was his last, as he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

New Zealand won the toss—a novelty of itself at the Basin—and put India in on a pitch that had the browny-green hue of a stagnant pond. But the customary first-morning handouts were not on offer, nor did the pitch enter its usual coma after lunch. This was the best test pitch I have seen at the Basin, “best” not in the misused sense of being easy to bat on, but providing a balance between bat and ball. Throughout, there was assistance for the quicker bowlers, but it required work and skill to find it; there was bounce too, enough to test the batsmen. Ashwin even found some turn out of the footmarks; whether that would have developed into anything significant on the last day and a half, we will never know. It was a thousand times better than the dead tracks on which the England series was played.

There were six changes from the XI that I saw beaten in Sydney at the beginning of January. Williamson, Nicholls and Boult returned from illness and injury. Spinners Somerville and Astle made way for Ajaz Patel’s slow-left-arm (Sydney turned out to be Astle’s last first-class appearance—he announced his retirement soon thereafter). Pace bowler Kyle Jamieson made his test debut after impressing in the 50-over side. And Tim Southee returned. Southee’s omission from the XI at Sydney is one of New Zealand cricket’s great mysteries, our version of the disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. Watch out for a Dr Who episode entitled The Mysterious Dropping of Southee in a few years’ time. Neil Wagner was absent, supporting his wife as their first child was born. Matt Henry was omitted; he is slipping down the pecking order of New Zealand quick bowlers.

Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal opened for India. Twenty-year-old  Shaw could be the next big thing, but may never be good enough to deal with the sort of delivery that he received from Southee, which swung very late and hit the top of off.

Kyle Jamieson becomes New Zealand’s tallest test cricketer at six foot eight, topping Peter Fulton by a couple of inches. Like Tom Blundell, Jamieson has looked promising in domestic cricket without demanding an international place, but when given the opportunity looks as if he belongs there. Few players have pure talent in such quantity as to guarantee success at the highest level. For most, it comes down to how well they adapt to the challenges it presents. Jamieson relishes them. Barring statistical anomalies, have any other bowler’s first two test victims had a combined test batting average of more than 100?

Jamieson’s accurate off-stump line and tall-man’s bounce had induced diffidence in Pujara, and when a full-length ball straightened more sharply it found the edge to be caught by Watling. Kohli started aggressively, but in Jamieson’s next over edged another full-length delivery to Taylor at first slip.

Agarwal and Rahane took the innings well past luncheon (as I will continue to call it in tribute to John Woodcock), showing that the pitch was not combustable. It was misjudgement rather than movement that ended the partnership when Agarwal top-edged a pull to be caught at fine leg off Boult. Vihari became the third victim of Jamieson’s probing off-stump line. Progress was slow, with only 43 runs added in 27 overs during the afternoon session.

Rain came during the interval. Visiting crews in next year’s America’s Cup contest could usefully acclimatise themselves to New Zealand’s vigorous winds by doing a spell on the groundstaff at the Basin, some of whom might have been swept up over Mount Victoria while clinging onto the large groundsheet that serves as the primary covers. There was no further play; India finished the day on 122 for five.

Second day

The start of play each day was at 11 30, just as it used to be when I was a lad. However, unlike then, play here did not end at 6 30, giving us time to march briskly down the Old Dover Road to catch the 6 45 bus home. It sprawled on, not knowing quite how to end, like the Hobbit films made by Peter Jackson at the studios just down the road. The time lost yesterday was added on at the end of the day, rather than to the beginning, as was the case in the England series. This is because Indian TV wants it that way. There should be no complaint about this; the rights to this series will go a long way to keeping New Zealand cricket going for the next few years. The T20s had begun at 8pm, and that at the Cake Tin didn’t finish until gone midnight, after the losing super over that now seems obligatory for New Zealand. Some people who went didn’t get home until past 1 30am, yet were still in their seats for the first ball of the domestic one-day game at the Basin the following morning. Heroes.

Rishabh Pant resumed for India. He had been unusually subdued on the first day, but today he put the fourth ball of the morning in the food court next to the main stand.

Ajaz Patel was the bowler, on just to allow Southee to change ends. It was his third over, and last of the innings. He bowled the same number in the second innings, a reflection of how well the quicker bowlers bowled here. He was dropped for the second test, thanks partly to the poor record of spinners at Hagley Park. Also, de Grandhomme performs the holding and control role that is usually that of the spinner. The all-rounder’s 11 overs on the first day had cost only 12 runs.

However, Patel’s influence on events was not at an end. Rahane pushed a ball from Southee into the offside and set off for a sharp single. Pant took three paces down the pitch, then stopped. Rahane hesitated, but carried on. Patel, moving square from cover point, should have thrown the ball to Watling who was sprinting towards the stumps with plenty of time to take the bails off before Pant got there. Instead, Patel went for glory, and hit the one stump he had to aim at.

Pant’s selection as keeper was criticised by Harsha Bhogle as taking India down the well-trodden road of going for the better batsmen over the artisan keeper, Wriddhiman Saha in this case. Farokh Engineer agreed that Saha is the better gloveman but thought that the selectors were right to go for Pant as a package, the same reasoning having accounted for a good proportion of his own 46 test caps. Pant kept wicket well here.

Ashwin’s dismissal by Southee, was to a ball every bit as good as the one that dismissed Shaw. It was Ashwin’s first ball, but if it had been his two hundredth he would have stood no more chance of keeping it out.

Southee and Jamieson finished the innings off efficiently, both ending with four wickets. India’s total was 165 and would have been less but for Shami’s late-order slogging.

Now for something that I have been looking forward to for a few years: the chance to watch Jasprit Bumrah bowl. Bumrah’s run up resembles that of your aunty on her annual spell on the sands at Skegness, before turning into something wonderful as he passes the umpire. Like Lasith Malinga, Bumrah would never have survived a regimented academy system; he is a celebration of dissidence.

Tom Blundell continues to impress in his surprise role as a test opener, which he approached so seriously here that he did not get off the mark until the seventh over. There were a few false shots, and he was a little fortunate that balls that might have been caught landed in space, but he remained unfazed, an attribute for a batsman at the top of the order. He was still in when the spinner came on, always a sign (in New Zealand, at least) that the opener has done his job. The opening stand had reached 26 when Latham was dismissed somewhat softly, caught behind off a legside flick just after lunch.

Williamson’s first ball bounced steeply and took him on the gloves. That was just about the only false shot he played. He looked in prime touch from then on.

Blundell played around a Sharma inswinger to be bowled for 30 from a self-denying 80 deliveries. This brought in Ross Taylor in his hundredth test match, only the fourth New Zealander to achieve this after Fleming, Vettori and McCullum. What’s more, he became the first cricketer anywhere to notch up a century of international appearances in all three forms. I first came across him when he was a member of the New Zealand Under-19 squad in 2000/1 when I covered part of their series against South Africa for CricInfo. Just 16-years-old, he had scored a half century in each of the first two games, but only managed six when I saw him at New Plymouth and did not much better in the subsequent one-day series. The CricInfo scorer knew Ross quite well so he spent a bit of time with us. He came across as a modest but self-possessed young man, confident enough of his ability not to need to draw attention to it. The level-headedness has enabled him to make the most of the ability, and could be felt in the warmth of his welcome to the field as he came out to bat. Seven-thousand runs also helps, of course.

Two of his trademark shots came out straightaway. The not-quite-falling-over-push through the legside got him off the mark, then everybody’s favourite, the slog-sweep, nowadays generally reserved for the encore, but on this special day the opening number, putting Ashwin onto the terraces while still in single figures. To show that that he is down there with the kids, Taylor later ramped a boundary off the back of his bat.

The Williamson–Taylor partnership took New Zealand past India’s total for the loss of just two wickets, which was massively therapeutic for those of us who had been in Australia. But without addition Taylor was surprised by Sharma’s pace and gloved a catch to Pujara at backward short leg for 44.

Williamson continued give a reasonable impression of an angel at the crease. Two offside boundaries from one Bumrah over after he had been in for half an hour had the RA Vance Stand purring like a cattery at dinnertime. He was Shakespeare knocking off a sonnet, Rutherford splitting an atom. A century appeared inevitable, but on 89 he got a cover drive slightly wrong and substitute Jadeja took a good diving catch.

Henry Nicholls took 50 deliveries to reach double figures and was out to Ashwin, edging to gully a ball that turned quite sharply. Three of the other wickets fell to Sharma, who bowled splendidly. He has always been quick enough to bother good players but now has added guile. He exploited the extra bounce in this Basin pitch magnificently.

New Zealand were 51 ahead with five wickets standing when the sun disappeared behind the Old Pavilion to bring play to a close 20 minutes early.

Third day

Some test-match traditions are immutable. Picnics in the Harris Memorial Garden at Lord’s; beer snakes at Headingley; the band at Port Elizabeth; Chickie’s disco at the Recreation Ground, Antigua; that on one day of every test match played at the Basin Reserve there will be a southerly that could blast freeze molten lead. Today was that day.

Perhaps the wind had a chilling effect on BJ Watling’s judgement. He followed the first ball of the day from Bumrah—one that he could have been relied upon to leave 99 times out of 100—to be caught by Pant.

With the lead far from decisive and wickets falling fast, home supporters were in need of reassurance. In these circumstances the appearance of Tim Southee is as comforting as setting sail only to discover that the captain is wearing an eyepatch and brandishing a cutlass.

Sure enough, a couple of overs later he glanced a Sharma delivery that was well wide of leg stump straight to Shami at fine leg, possibly leaving the field as a test No 8 for the last time, given the fine performance by Kyle Jamieson that followed. Not many batsmen have hit a six before they are out of double figures in their debut innings as he did. Three more followed, as he showed equal relish for pace and spin. He was caught at long on going for a fifth six that would have taken him to a half century, having written his name on the New Zealand teamsheet in indelible ink.

Jamieson out de Grandhommed de Grandhomme, who was content to take the supporting role and to have the rare experience of watching himself bat. He was out soon after, feathering a legside catch off the glove to the keeper off Ashwin.

I am not generally a fan of music during play, but it would be quite reasonable if the Benny Hill theme were to ring out throughout every Trent Boult innings. He bats as if he hasn’t noticed that the library has given him the tennis coaching book rather than that for cricket. But what an eye he has. The most astonishing shot from a strong field of contenders was a full toss from Shami on middle stump that he clipped to the cover boundary while in retreat towards square leg. Boult made 38 from 24 balls including five fours and a six. New Zealand’s lead was 183.

Shaw looked in good touch with three offside boundaries in the first eight overs, before Boult’s extra bounce surprised him, though it needed a spectacular catch from Latham, stationed at leg gully for precisely that delivery, to complete the dismissal.

Pujara seemed just the man to bring India back into the game with a fighting innings. His defence was solid. De Grandhomme resorted to placing three catching short covers, to no avail. But Pujara couldn’t score. I was put in mind of the great CJ Tavaré at Lord’s in ’84 (and in many other places at many other times, to be fair), existing in a sort of temporal stasis.

Pujara was out to the last ball before tea, symbolically strokeless, leaving alone a Boult delivery angled in from wide of the crease that hit off. He made 11 from 81 balls.

In the final session, 66 runs were scored for the loss of two wickets, which sounds mundane. It was anything but; the cricket was gripping. The wickets were Agarwal, though it needed every bit of the DRS’s technology to confirm Aleem Dar’s caught-behind decision; and, crucially, Kohli, also caught behind, off a thin edge trying to hook Boult.

I had mixed feelings about this. It was a large step towards a home victory, but a cricket fan always wants to see the great players be great. I saw Kohli in his prime… He made a century last time India played at the Basin, but only when the game was dead. Given the punishing programme that Indian cricketers face, he might have been forgiven taking the foot off the pedal on a tour to a quiet corner of the world, but there has not been a second when Kohli has appeared anything other than consumed by his team’s interests. He has had a poor series with the bat, because he cares too much, not too little. The mutual respect and liking between him and Williamson has made for an excellent spirit between the two teams.

Fourth day

The wind had shifted back to a more social direction and was mostly absent; the sky was blue. It reminded me of days at Folkestone at the end of August, when summer had settled into contented, predictable old age.

India were 39 behind with six wickets standing, a good position for New Zealand, but there was anxiety among the Basin faithful. We have often seen recovery from an apparently hopeless position, usually by New Zealand: against India in 2014, Sri Lanka in 2015 and Bangladesh in 2017. We looked at the Indian team listed on the scoreboard and were impressed. There were plenty of runs left, more than that attack might give us.

Such pessimism. The game was over by lunchtime. That this was so was mainly down to the excellence of Boult and Southee, both at the point where physical ability and experience, or science and art, complement each other perfectly. Yesterday, Boult took three of the four wickets. Two of them were from short deliveries, testimony of itself to his skill, given that pace is not his chief weapon.

Boult took his fourth in the third over of the morning. Close enough to off stump to force Rahane to play, it moved just enough to take the edge of the bat.

Southee now took over. He began in the next over by working Vihari over a treat. First, he swung one away. The next one came in, through the gap created between bat and pad by the previous delivery.

Ashwin was leg-before, bringing in Sharma to buckle such swashes as remained. He was dropped twice, by Latham at short leg and Southee at short cover. Neither were difficult, but it didn’t matter. The latter miss was off de Grandhomme, who got the wicket he deserved by when he got Sharma leg-before.

Southee finished off the innings, helped by two brilliant catches, first by Boult at fine leg to dismiss Pant, then substitute Daryl Mitchell at second slip off Bumrah.

Southee finished with five for 61, Boult with four for 39. Richard Hadlee is New Zealand’s greatest bowler by a street, but these two are the outstanding bowling combination, one of the finest in cricket history. This was New Zealand’s 100th test victory, and Southee and Boult have bowled in combination in 28 of them.

Latham and Blundell completed the ten-wicket win without incident.

New Zealand took the second test in Christchurch by seven wickets, Southee and Boult again destroying India’s second innings after even first innings. So New Zealand took India apart after having the same done to them in Australia. What does this tell us about the state of world cricket?

The disadvantage of away teams remains an issue, though India’s preparation was better than most these days with the players not involved in the one-day series playing for India A against New Zealand A in four-day games. Perhaps the World Test Championship should give double points for away wins, though this assumes that anybody takes any notice of that competition which seems to have taken off like a hippo trying paragliding.

New Zealand are back to No 2 in the test rankings, just ahead of Australia and England. They are not scheduled to play tests again until August so are less immediately affected by the hiatus than some countries.

Stay safe, wherever you may be.