A crucial factor
God I love test cricket. Maybe I’m just caught up in the euphoria of the moment, but that feels like one of the special New Zealand wins. Certainly of recent times. Of course, in recent times any test win is special – we haven’t had a decent test win for a year and half.
But seriously, it was a good win. We put 100 runs on Pakistan after the 1st half of the match, then managed to hold on to our lead despite an embarrassing batting collapse in the second half. Mostly though, the match was special for the fight shown in the 4th innings. The guys just kept on trying even though there were several times when it looked like Pakistan were going to get away.
I rode quite a roller coaster today. I wasn’t feeling too confident with a target of only 250. It’s not a bad target to defend, but recent performances had left me lacking in optimism. The two early wickets in the Pakistan innings evened things up though, and from then it was several hours of fluctuating emotions as the game ebbed and flowed.
It looked to me like Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik were going to steal the match. They got to within 100 and I could easily see them sticking around to the end or near enough to the end. We have seen New Zealand deflate in the 4th innings so often. So Malik’s wicket was important; it brought the game back within reach. However, it was Umar Akmal’s wicket, c&b Shane Bond, that was crucial. Getting rid of Umar before he could build another partnership was the winning of the match.
While that wicket was crucial, it was Bond’s overall performance that gave us the match. 8 wickets at a strike rate of 37. It is fantastic to have him back in the team. We are a different team with Bond leading our attack.
But that is such a troubling thought. That we should be so reliant on one player. We came no where near replacing him in the two years he was away and there are no firm prospects on the horizon.
But enough pessimism. At the moment I just want to glory in the win.
Kenny Rogers & The First Edition:
November 29th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Good on you for revelling in it.
I’m an Oz fan and the Windies were mostly so feeble that I can’t glory in that win at all.
Vettori and co deserve a break and it is grand to have Bond back in test cricket.
November 29th, 2009 at 7:03 am
A very good test to watch and absorb. Kudos to the Kiwis and the Pakistanis for playing it. A run chase on the fifth day where any of the four results where possible; it just doesn’t get any better.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I think Malik’s wicket tilted the balance in Kiwis favor. Even though Pakistan lost but I enjoyed a test match after a long time because of the quality of bowling and some spirited performances from both sides.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:44 pm
i would like to remember this match as classic deja vu match where both team were doing their own ‘classical’ stuff…
in the end more than nz winning it fighting it was pakistan who surrendered their last 5 wickets for 30 odd runs to do their own classical collapse which they do almost every test these days…
before the news of bond broke i was wondering on BCC! that it would be interesting to see how long bond can carry the attack on his shoulder the way nz were resorting to him … and then his news of injury came (a day after) which was not obviously surprising but sad and unfortunate…
probably it will be safer to say that win cost nz more than the loss to pak… its going to be interesting how this series pans out…
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 am
i would like to remember this match as classic deja vu match where both team were doing their own ‘classical’ stuff…
Well you have your own perspective on this I suppose. That shouldn’t detract from the match though. In the end one team won and one team lost. Even if you want to be negative and claim that the team that lost simply succumbed to their weaknesses, you also have to realise that the team that won managed to overcome their own weaknesses sufficiently.
However, I have to disagree that there is a sense of deja vu in this match. If this match had run true to form one of two things would have happened. Either the NZ bowlers would have failed to wrap up the Pakistani tail in the 1st Pakistani innings and thus surrendered a 1st innings lead or they would have failed to crack the top order in Pakistan’s 2nd innings, thus allowing Pakistan to stroll to victory. That neither of these occurred makes this a unique test of late. Really, I cannot remember the last time New Zealand defended a gettable total.
As I’ve said elsewhere, there is much to celebrate about this test.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
I think Malik’s wicket tilted the balance in Kiwis favor. Even though Pakistan lost but I enjoyed a test match after a long time because of the quality of bowling and some spirited performances from both sides.
From NZ’s perspective, Malik’s wicket had to come when it did. Pakistan still enough fire power in the Akmal brothers to get home though. I think at the point the test became quite delicately balanced.
Given that the two teams are looking so well matched I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
A very good test to watch and absorb. Kudos to the Kiwis and the Pakistanis for playing it. A run chase on the fifth day where any of the four results where possible; it just doesn’t get any better.
And it stayed a contest right up to the last session. Win or lose, you’d want every test to come down to the wire like this.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
I’m an Oz fan and the Windies were mostly so feeble that I can’t glory in that win at all.
Yeah, it must suck to be an Aussie sometimes.
I’ll tell you what, we should consider this summer a big long test tri-series between Oz, NZ and Pakistan.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
[...] after musing very briefly in my previous post that we are too reliant on Shane Bond, we are now going to be hit by the reality of that. [...]