Vettori Can’t Bury Australia Bogey
Can you remember when New Zealand beat Australia last in a Test? Allan Border was captain, Glenn McGrath hadn’t made his debut, and Daniel Vettori was 14 years old.
This week in Hamilton – Vettori’s 100th Test – New Zealand were presented with an opportunity to put one across their trans-Tasman rivals. They didn’t take it, slipping to defeat by 176 runs instead, and maintained the winless records of their players against Australia.
The Hamilton Test was Vettori’s 18th against Australia – 17 for New Zealand and one for the World XI – across eight series and he’s been involved in five draws, 13 defeats and no wins. Seven of those series were lost and the one that was drawn, in 2001, contained two matches in which New Zealand and Vettori came closest to beating Australia since 1993. They ended the Brisbane Test 10 runs short of the target, and were three wickets away from victory in Perth.
Before the ongoing barren period began, New Zealand wins against Australia weren’t that uncommon – there were four between 1982 and ‘86 and another in ‘90. Vettori, therefore, has played the most matches for New Zealand against Australia without a win. Stephen Fleming, the only other New Zealand cricketer to play 100 Tests, played 14 Tests against Australia without victory.
Pakistan beat England for the first time in the fourth Test between the two sides, but then went nearly three decades without a win. The careers of Mushtaq Mohammad and Intikhab Alam were during those years and they played 23 and 20 matches respectively against England between 1961 and 1974 without a win.
England didn’t win the Ashes between 1987 and 2005 but several players experienced what it was like to win a Test against Australia, usually in dead rubbers. Not Robin Smith, though. He played 15 Ashes Tests between 1989 and 1993, of which England lost 11 and drew the others. His Ashes career ended with a pasting in 1993: Australia were 4-0 up after five Tests. England axed Smith, for the first time after 45 Tests, for the Oval dead rubber, and promptly won by 161 runs.
Pakistan have not beaten Australia in a Test since 1995. In fact they’ve lost their last 12 Tests to them. Mohammad Yousuf, one of Pakistan’s batting mainstays during this period, ended his career on Monday, following a ban – a consequence of his conduct during a 3-0 drubbing in Australia. He played 11 Tests in all against them, of which Pakistan lost nine and drew two, and averaged only 29 with the bat. Another giant of the 1990s and 2000s who didn’t win any of his 13 Tests against Australia was Shaun Pollock.
Only four players have played in 10 or more Tests against a particular opponent and won all of them. Three of those – Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara – did it against relatively weaker Bangladesh. Roger Harper, however, played 10 Tests against England between 1984 and 1988 and West Indies won every one. They were massive victories as well, the smallest margins being eight wickets or 172 runs. Harper’s contribution was a batting average of 34 and 22 wickets at 17.90 apiece.
The West Indian dominance over England during the 1970s and 80s was so overwhelming that Michael Holding and Joel Garner spent more than a decade playing Test cricket without ever losing to them. Holding’s 21 matches is the most anyone has played against a country without a defeat.
Gordon Greenidge nearly shattered that mark. He had played 28 Tests against England, with West Indies winning 19, drawing nine and losing none. Then, at Sabina Park in 1990, Angus Fraser triggered a collapse from which West Indies did not recover. It was England’s first victory against West Indies in 16 years and Greenidge’s only defeat against them in 32 Tests.
Courtesy of CricInfo
Is Wayne Parnell The Next Shaun Pollock?
It's good to be Wayne Parnell right now
The Proteas may have lost the first one-dayer against India – and in some style – on Sunday, but one of the positives to be taken out of the game in the emergence of Wayne Parnell as a genuine allrounder.
With the game dead and buried, the former SA Under-19 captain played a brilliant knock coming in at number 9, eventually coming within 30 centimetres of salvaging what would have been a sensational draw.
It follows on some excellent displays with the bat in the Test series, where he again came close to rescuing a lost cause.
Parnell’s form with the bat should come as no surprise – he batted at number 5 for the SA Under-19 side, which he also captained.
And his talent with the willow – coupled with abilities of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel – will finally give the Proteas’ lower order what has been missing for so long – a bit of depth that has not been seen since the days of Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Pat Symcox.
Jacques Kallis certainly believes Parnell has the talent to become one of the game’s great allrounders.
“He’s a talented cricketer and he’s going to take a lot away from today. Every time he plays he’s going to learn. He’s still very new to the subcontinent,” Kallis said. “He’s got all the attributes of becoming a good allrounder and that’s something that he’s working on. He’s a man for the moment, so he’s certainly got a bright future ahead of him.”
HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you reckon? Does Parnell have it in him to follow in Polly’s footsteps?
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A Tired Ntini?
Makhaya Ntini
Talking about sports people reaching their expiry date, cricketer Makhaya Ntini’s seems to have had it after his performance against the English.
The Centurion Test match against England was the cricketer’s 100th Test but did not motivate for a good performance from Ntini.
And if he could not do so on such an illustrious stage as his centenary match, what price the 32-year-old markedly rectifying things just a few days further on at Kingsmead after five days of punishing Highveld sunshine?
Ironically, of course, Ntini was asked to send down the critical final over of the drawn thriller on Sunday.
I thought it was a fairly clever move, the possibility of a fairytale finish to the game for Ntini, on so symbolic an occasion, only cranking up the pressure on England’s last batsman Graham Onions.
It is history now that Ntini could not penetrate the No 11’s defence. Not that he was at fault in any major way — that’s cricket.
But Ntini, in broadest terms, has run low on gas, a bit like Shaun Pollock finally did after so many overs for South Africa. You cannot wish away the ravages of time, and there was even painful evidence of decline, in Ntini’s case, in lead-up fare in the SuperSport Series.
But not being carted is not enough. Strike bowlers have to … well, strike. And Ntini has not had a “five-for” since a dead-rubber Test against the very same opponents at the Oval in August 2008. Before that, it was Pakistan in January 2007.
On flattish decks, and never having been the type of bowler with a big box of varietal tricks, his 135km/h fare is beginning to look all too impotent; mere plug-an-end fare.
Two intelligent former England seamers, writing in their respective British organs on Monday, share this suspicion.
Mike Selvey wrote in the Guardian: “Ntini was out-bowled by the debutant. It will be hard to drop De Wet. The (final) ball to Onions … could be the last of Ntini’s illustrious career.
“Ntini’s pace was down. The single shooter in the final over, from one of the cracks in the pitch, was slow enough for Onions to jab down on.”
And Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph: “De Wet applied pressure (in his lethal burst on Sunday) by bowling fast down the corridor of uncertainty.
“South Africa were under-strength here and will have both Steyn and Jacques Kallis back bowling properly at Durban: Ntini is possibly the one to make way.”
Ntini has courageously defied odds against him before. Maybe he can do so again, and certainly all kudos to him if so.
Courtesy of Rob Houwing, Sport24
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