Hot off the press from Sportsfreak.
So that’s it then. The 2nd half of the Great Australian Tour of 2008/9 that started in November is over; a drawn Trevor-Barry series and a 1 run loss in the T20 miked-up match.
At the start of this leg most would’ve taken that, but the fact that New Zealand threw away a 2 match lead, and the frustrations of the Sunshine State rain meant that it all feels flat, if not as devastating as Vettori would make it out.
The side that crossed the Tasman was new, experimental, in a rebuilding phase, looking to the future and full of clichés. Predictably some of it worked, and some didn’t although the fact that most of the top performers were not the normal suspects offers some promise.
This is how they fell.
The Good Bits
Iain O’Brien continues his golden spell. Given that he’d only had one shocking ODI under his belt before this tour you wouldn’t have expected as much as we got. Always used in the batting and bowling power plays, he never lost his control and ended up being the leading wicket-taker.
Only blot was refusing to get sucked into the Haddin debate on his blog.
If O’Brien was a surprise then Elliot was like hearing Nelson Mandela was down at your local. Consistent throughout the series, the century in Sydney was all class. The jury is still out on whether he’s stepped up; his innings in the T20 reminded us that Chris Harris once scored 130 v Australia in a World Cup match.
Taylor copped a lot for the hoick in Brisbane but if you put that aside he was the focal point of the batting, and varied the way he played more than normal. Mills was a big part of the 2 wins, but showed a worrying tendency to tire later in the innings.
Guptill might have scratched around for most of the fortnight, but the innings in Brisbane shows he’s got the skills to go with the temperament.
The Bob Cunis neither one nor the other group
Broom didn’t actually score many runs, but he looked the part, and when he did score it mattered.
Vettori and B McCullum both took a fair bit of the blame on the forum here, but that probably says more about the expectations from then than anything else.
Vettori couldn’t but a wicket but was still NZ’s most economical bowler. And although McCullum looked confused at times he still showed more application than normal, and had a couple of good innings; one when coming in at 9, and the other in the T20. Both on his home ground.
Nice trademark century from him in the warm-up game too.
Diamante was meant to be a bowler all-rounder, but looked like the other way around. Butler and Nathan McCullum showed enough in the T20 to say they should be persevered with, but there’s only so many slots in a team.
Wished you’d stayed at home?
What a fall for Jeetan Patel. 3 bad overs in Sydney and now he’s slipped a slot in the rankings. Looking more like a test specialist now.
A lot of 19 year old kiwis go on summer holidays to Australia so at least Trent Boult wouldn’t have felt out of place. Still strange they picked him though. Still, he can say he didn’t go backwards, unlike his fellow 19 year old bowler Southee who seemed to lost confidence with every match.
Peter Fulton had 2 good overs batting in the rain in Brisbane, but the rest of the time he was rubbish. Embarrassingly so.
Craig Cumming. The Sinclair-like 6 ball duck on recall was one thing, but then to drop a simple catch when it mattered…
Seriously you should go to Sportsfreak, they don’t just get angry about 2020 games.
