Crucket

I never managed to wrap up the WI series, but luckily Sportsfreak has done it for us. In fact, they’ve reviewed the Black Caps as well.

In fact, I never got around to doing my review of 2008. But luckily again, Suhas has done my work for me.

Cheers guys

I’ve updated the schedule to include the changes to the Indian tour. I hope I have all the details correct. Below, I have tried to show the relevant changes, with the old schedule first, then the new schedule with all changes shown in bold (except the numbering of the matches).

With 10 internationals, the India tour is now the marquee series of the Black Caps season. And with some decent weather, let’s hope it gives us some more decisive results.

I don’t know if anyone keeps track of these sorts of things, but if there is a record for the number of reverse sweeps, Chanderpaul’s six on Tuesday ought to be right up there. I certainly can’t remember anyone hitting that many (usually because they get out trying their second).

I suppose taking guard 90° out of a regular stance makes it easier to get into a reverse position.

The papers are reporting that the ICC has named Matthew Hayden as one of the top 10 test batsmen of all time. Here’s the list and there’s Hayden, sitting at 10th equal.

The Indian’s aren’t happy. Not necessarily with Hayden’s position in the list, but with the fact that Sachin Tendulkar sits all the way down at 26. Tendulkar surely belongs higher on the list, definitely above Hayden. Tendulkar has more runs, more centuries and a higher average than Hayden.

I’m not going to enter that particular debate. I do think that Hayden is overrated. While he as an excellent batsman, he was basically an expert flat-track bully in an era of flat tracks. (Perhaps I only feel this way because we hardly got to see Hayden at his best. His record against New Zealand was not that impressive.) However, I also think that, inspite of his acknowledged genius, India are equally able to overrate Tendulkar.

The Indian bleating about the list is actually pretty funny. The BCCI secretary even seems to believe it is all a conspiracy to raise the profile of the ICC ranking system above Indian systems.

It only takes a quick look at the list to see that it only ranks the players based on their highest ever achieved rating. That is a long way from measuring how good a player is overall. So Hayden peaked higher than Tendulkar. However, check out the comparison of the two players. Tendulkar maintained a high rating for much longer than Hayden (noting that the time base for the graphs are different). If you change it to a view of ranking charts, you see that Tendulkar maintained an unbroken top 10 ranking for over 10 years, whereas Hayden only managed this for about 5 years. The ICC ranking blogger has noted that Tendulkar played 125 matches in the top 3, his measure of sustained excellence. You can draw your own conclusions from all of this, but it does show that there are innumerable ways of measuring greatness.

So the final ODI was a disappointment because it had to be decided by Duckworth–Lewis, and hence the entire series was decided by the rain rules.

A rain-shorted result match is a real disappointment because we are robbed of game time, but also robbed of the proper climax. Suddenly the flow of the game has to change and the objectives are different.

The struggle to match the D-L target as the rain approaches can have its own drama though. However, in Tuesday’s match I found it excruciating. Two overs out from the eventual end it was clear that the umpires were about to call the game off, so the D-L calculations became important. At that point, New Zealand were just behind the D-L target. Nine runs were needed off the next over…15 were scored. Next over, not much required, in fact nothing, but a wicket would raise the D-L target. The purest end to an ODI should come down to the same essential situation, the batting team needs to get the runs to win, the bowling team would like wickets, which could give them the win. But in a D-L climax, the promise of release when the runs are scored or wickets are taken is lost. The batsmen get the runs…but then another over is added, they need to make more. A wicket is taken…but it doesn’t hasten the end, there are too many wickets in hand, only the rain can stop it. Run down the clock, kick the damn ball into touch, the tension is just too much. Excruciating.

I have a strong suspcion also that the rain rules may have altered the result of the match. McCullum’s start to the innings made things easier for the Black Caps, but a lot of that was squandered, and shortly before the end, when Flynn and Broom were out, the momentum had definitely shifted. Check out the over graphs to the see where the match was heading. Derek Stirling commentating on the radio kept saying “there’s nothing on the scoreboard to worry the New Zealanders”. Yeah, except that honking great 293 there!

A 9-run Duckworth–Lewis victory. What a blah way to end a frustrating series.

Still, prosperity will record it simply as a win.

Arcade Fire:

Two drawn tests, a shared 20-20 rubber and one ODI each, with the victory target in the final match of 294. It has all the makings of a cracking finale, as long as the Black Cap batsmen show up to play. The last time we chased a total anything like this was last year’s ODI at Napier, where we chased down 340 to tie (now there’s a thought).

Jesse Ryder has been dropped for the 4th ODI for a drinking indiscretion. Bugger! Seeing Jesse get through a whole tour of Bangladesh, a visit to Australia and 95% of the West Indies tour, I had forgotten that he was on the razor’s edge. I had started to get my hopes up and imagine a New Zealand team with a world class batsmen once again.

I think we just have to get used to the fact that Ryder is only good until he loses his spot in the team, for suspension or worse. He has enormous potential and we will no doubt see some great things from him, but we’d be inviting dissappointment to pin too great a hope on him.

On a day when a one-armed man nearly saves a test and the English captain commits a bizarre professional murder-suicide, a mere ODI victory, emphatic though it was, isn’t going to dominate the headlines. Still, it was the Black Caps’ first win of the year so I feel compelled to celebrate in song.

Fleet Foxes:

West Indies all out in 41.4 overs. The scores of the visiting teams at the Caketin for the last three years have been 138 (Australia), 120 (England) and now 128. NZ’s winning margins for the previous two years have been 10 and 6 wickets. The ground is not friendly to visitors.

128 is a pretty poor score, but is not the lowest score the Windies has against us. The record low score is 123, scored at Margao, Goa. That’s one record I am not keen to see broken actually, as that was a game I was present at.

Led by a 5-22 by Matty Hart, we rolled Courtney Walsh’s men for 123. We then very shakily held off a few overs before the heavens opened for about 10 minutes or so, followed by bright sunshine, but with no chance of drying out the field, despite the dozen or so people sopping up with cloths. The game was called off.

So that game in Margao was overall a disappointment, but it was part of a great adventure of mine. At the time I was living in Baroda, in north-western India. When the Black Caps came to India I was very excited and was really keen to see a match or two. They were scheduled to play at Baroda itself on the 28th, but the only other game I could reasonably make it to was the game at Goa on the 26th. (I was there on a scolarship so couldn’t afford to fly around the country.) So I concocted a plan. I got myself a train ticket down to Mumbai, but was relying on luck and my ability to unpick India’s complex transport services to get any further. I then took a nightmarish overnight bus trip down to Margao. So I was there for the first match. One day at Goa to get sunburnt at the beach and to watch Ken Rutherford get some throwdowns from the local boys at the stadium and refuse to comment on Willie Watson’s revelations that the Black Caps had once experimented with ball tampering. Then the match, with the early finish ensuring that I made it back to town in time for my bus, for another horrific overnight journey. From Mumbai, only 3rd class train tickets were available, so I had to sit on my bag, packed in just by the open carriage door, for about eight hours. But I made it back in time and got to the stadium for the next match (at the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited Sports Complex Ground) and got myself a ticket, to see Rutherford and Tendulkar score centuries. An awesome little adventure.