Black to the Future (NZ story)

[_Ed_]

India end series on a high

The final margin in the 5-match ODI series is 3-2 after India ended the series with a tight 15-run win.

It was set up by their highest score of the series, 248-7, which they achieved largely thanks to an explosive 91 from opener Virender Sehwag.

The batsmen's good work was backed up impeccably by the bowlers, particularly Munaf Patel, who took two wickets very early in the innings and returned to take two more to finish the job.

 

[_Ed_]

So, how'd we do?

That was the last game of the year/season/whatever the weird thing that ends in March is.

Our record for the year:

Tests:
Played 11
Won 7 (63.64%)
Lost 4

ODIs:
Played 22
Won 17 (77.27%)
Lost 5

Superb year, really amazed by those results.

Our top 5 Test runscorers:
B.McCullum 872 @ 54.50
J.Oram 861 @ 47.83
R.Taylor 839 @ 46.61
P.Fulton 773 @ 40.61
M.Guptill 668 @ 30.36

And top 5 Test wicket-takers:
K.Mills 53 @ 22.77
D.Vettori 45 @ 26.98
J.Oram 44 @ 27.02
J.Patel 26 @ 27.81
A.McKay 19 @ 33.32

 

[_Ed_]

World XIs for 2008-09

Test:
P.Jaques (Australia) - 1225 @ 40.83
A.Cook (England) - 1058 @ 40.69
* R.Ponting (Australia) - 1315 @ 45.34
S.Tendulkar (India) - 1103 @ 42.42
M.Hussey (Australia) - 1479 @ 54.78
+ B.McCullum (New Zealand) - 872 @ 54.50
A.Flintoff (England) - 805 @ 38.33, 92 @ 13.98
D.Bravo (West Indies) - 643 @ 30.62, 60 @ 22.35
B.Lee (Australia) - 86 @ 20.58
D.Steyn (South Africa) - 86 @ 17.83
R.Sidebottom (England) - 60 @ 22.28

ODI:
P.Jaques (Australia) - 1162 @ 55.33
V.Sehwag (India) - 760 @ 44.71
S.Chanderpaul (West Indies) - 696 @ 49.71
+ K.Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) - 465 @ 38.75
* M.Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) - 598 @ 49.83
O.Shah (England) - 617 @ 47.46
J.Oram (New Zealand) - 602 @ 43.00, 40 @ 24.35
D.Vettori (New Zealand) - 419 @ 34.92, 47 @ 16.49
K.Mills (New Zealand) - 45 @ 16.76
M.Johnson (Australia) - 46 @ 22.33
L.Malinga (Sri Lanka) - 37 @ 15.08

Some insanely good stats there!

 

[NZTailender]

Only 1 spinner out of 10 bowlers, don't believe it for a second.

 

[_Ed_]

Yeah the lack of good spinners was weird. Chawla only just missed out on the Test team though tbf.

Neither Murali nor Mendis were in the SL squad at all, but they're both there now so I expect a very different looking team next year.

 

[Somerset]

Seven wins from eleven tests represents a very successful year in my eyes, congrats - and your ODI win ratio is outstanding.

I like the concept of the 'World XI' as part of your season summary too.

 

[Jakester1288]

So, how'd we do?

That was the last game of the year/season/whatever the weird thing that ends in March is.

Our record for the year:

Tests:
Played 11
Won 7 (63.64%)
Lost 4

ODIs:
Played 22
Won 17 (77.27%)
Lost 5

Superb year, really amazed by those results.

Our top 5 Test runscorers:
B.McCullum 872 @ 54.50
J.Oram 861 @ 47.83
R.Taylor 839 @ 46.61
P.Fulton 773 @ 40.61
M.Guptill 668 @ 30.36

And top 5 Test wicket-takers:
K.Mills 53 @ 22.77
D.Vettori 45 @ 26.98
J.Oram 44 @ 27.02
J.Patel 26 @ 27.81
A.McKay 19 @ 33.32

How did you find that? I would be interested in doing that for my story.

 

[_Ed_]

To get the results I just went back through all the last year's matches in the Fixtures & Results section, and for the stats I looked at the current Test stats in the Player Records section.

 

[_Ed_]

A bit of a lull between series involving NZ, but during that break there was an amazing Ashes series.

It should be noted that I used the editor to get rid of players I didn't like.

Squads:

Australia:
Ricky Ponting *
Phil Jaques
Matthew Hayden
Michael Hussey
Phil Hughes
Chris Rogers
Michael Clarke
Timothy Paine +
Moises Henriques
Shane Watson
Andrew McDonald
Brett Lee
Mitchell Johnson
Stuart Clark
Peter Siddle
Shaun Tait
Ashley Noffke
Ben Hilfenhaus

England:
Alistair Cook *
Andrew Strauss
Michael Vaughan
Ian Bell
Owais Shah
James Hildreth
Paul Horton
Timothy Ambrose +
Andrew Flintoff
Paul Collingwood
James Harris
Timothy Murtagh
Stuart Broad
Alex Tudor
Christopher Tremlett
Ryan Sidebottom
Stephen Harmison
Matthew Hoggard

A few surprises in there.

 

[_Ed_]

The summer didn't start off wonderfully for either side, with England only scraping past Zimbabwe at the start of the season (with both Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss suffering injuries) and Australia losing Michael Clarke for the whole tour with an injury in the first tour game.

But Paul Horton, a surprise selection, gave the hosts a perfect start to the Ashes series.

 

[_Ed_]

Then England went up 2-0, sending their fans into a state of delirium.

One of the stars was the teenager, James Harris, with a 50 and some key wickets.

 

[_Ed_]

Two great bowling performances, led by Mitchell Johnson, allowed Australia to open their account for the series, making it 2-1...

 

[_Ed_]

Despite a mammoth first-day spell by Stuart Broad, Australia made it all square and ensured that they approached the decider with all the momentum.

 

[_Ed_]

And, in a phenomenal match, Australia retained the Ashes 3-2 with a two-wicket win.

So, yeah. Just thought I'd share that. More NZness coming up soon, we've got a tour of India coming up. Their squad looks terrifying, quite frankly.

 

[_Ed_]

Their squad looks terrifying, quite frankly.

See?

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah ICC seems to love India, along with Englands bowling attack.

Hates me though, but I voiced that in my star rating thread.

 

[Somerset]

Sensational Ashes series there by the looks of things - thanks for posting that and good luck with your tour of India Ed.

 

[Flem274*]

Try to do better than me. Won the first test then got ****ed up in the other two, keep losing wickets with 2 minutes to go in a session, not to mention dropping Sehwag four times in his double hundred, and having a rubbish bowling attack in general.

 

[_Ed_]

Nasty.

I played a little bit of the first Test before coming in to uni today. India are 117-4. I got Sehwag, Laxman and Tendulkar cheaply and Dravid for 20-odd, but Badrinath is 86* on his debut.

 

[_Ed_]

Our squad for the India tour was largely the same as it has been in recent times, with just a few changes.

Notable additions:
Greg Hay - FC average of 57.12 last season. Can't ignore that.
Jesse Ryder - Had a very good season as well - but unfortunately he injured himself in the tour game.
Tim Southee - I'll give him a try in the tour game, if he outbowls O'Brien he'll leapfrog him for the first Test.

Notable omissions:
Lou Vincent - Just had too many low scores in a row.

Right, tour game:

Karnataka 134
S.Binny 37*
B.Rowland 34
K.Mills 4-34
D.Vettori 3-17

NZ 352
B.McCullum 111*
R.Taylor 50
K.Appanna 4-44
N.Aiyappa 3-115

Karnataka 134 (again!)
W.Jedhe 66*
B.Rowland 25
T.Southee 5-58
I.O'Brien 2-22

Nice win. And Southee bowled himself into the team, which is:

M.Guptill
C.Spearman
P.Fulton
R.Taylor
G.Hay
B.McCullum * +
J.Oram
D.Vettori
K.Mills
T.Southee
J.Patel