Cricket: NZ Black Caps win test series

Cricket:NZ Black Caps win test series

By Andrew Alderson

Sunday Dec 22, 2013

Cricket has a way of creating appropriate quirks. Ross Taylor deserved to be at the wicket as Hamish Rutherford drove to the long off boundary to seal the victory in the third test against the West Indies at 1.45pm today.

New Zealand won by eight wickets to take their first three-test series in eight seasons.
Rutherford finished 48 not out and Taylor was unbeaten on two. Taylor finished on 866 runs for the calendar year at an average of 72.17, five runs short of equalling John R Reid's record 871 runs across 24 innings in 1965.

He finished with 495 runs for the series, second only to Andrew Jones' 513 in a three-test series against Sri Lanka in 1991. Taylor, Trent Boult and Tim Southee will get deserved plaudits for their pivotal roles in the series, but also spare a thought for Kane Williamson today.

The No.3 was bowled by Veerasammy Permaul slogging to the legside after anchoring the final innings; six runs short of New Zealand's required total. Since a productive county period with Yorkshire, Williamson has had six innings for New Zealand against Bangladesh and the West Indies. The results: 114, 74, 62, 45, 58 and 56 - 409 runs at an average of 81.80.

Williamson anchored the hosts' chase. He was supported by Rutherford who, while he didn't look as comfortable, got valuable time at the crease. New Zealand were 89 for one off 32 overs at lunch before polishing off the 33 required runs 8.4 overs after the break.

Some may argue the New Zealanders could have forced the pace earlier, especially during a patient period of 34 balls between the 13th and 18th overs where they did not score. However, there was no need. It's not Twenty20. Better to have a steady chase than a frenetic collapse - the 1993 shredding of the hosts for 93 chasing 127 to win against Pakistan's Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis is an example.

Fortunately for New Zealand the visitors don't possess anyone of that calibre in their attack.


The hosts suffered the early loss of Peter Fulton for 10 to another Darren Sammy lightning caught and bowled reflex. Sammy pouched Fulton's sweetly-struck but lazy straight drive at knee height as if someone had underarmed an orange at him on a training run. It was casual brilliance.

Williamson and Rutherford accounted for Fulton's premature exit by batting securely for the most part of the session. Rutherford survived a close call for caught behind on 24 when New Zealand was 43 for one.
He flashed at a full length ball from Sunil Narine and was given out by on-field umpire Ian Gould. Upon review, third umpire Paul Reiffel reversed the decision. The original sound on the snickometer appeared to be Rutherford's bat hitting the ground.

Rutherford faced a sustained spell from Narine. Over 99 balls between the fourth ball of the eighth over and first ball of the 26th, the batsmen did not change ends. Elsewhere Williamson edged a sharp chance to short leg Kieran Powell's right off Permaul in the 23rd over. Powell got a hand on it but needed some of the suction on Sammy's hands to keep it.

Congrats NZ, well deserved win. Clearly the better team, hands down.
Ross Taylor coming back in top form great sign for them indeed.  And their bowling is backing it up well - both Southee and Boult are class acts.

The difference was Ross Taylor who, by his application, gave his bowlers confidence to bowl at a West Indies.

Well done to New Zealand and it would have been 3-0 but for the weather and perhaps some negative New Zealand batting. 

Thank you for this Chin.

I had not seen much of Sammy until he was Captain and felt that he was a good choice at the beginning as he came across well. Subsequently the dearth in his abilities became evident and I am surprised at the length of his tenure.

Is that for real? Sir Frank was a serious cricketer and the only parallel one might attempt to compare is leadership which again strikes me as a misplaced analogy.