one innings wonders

[Mr Kiwi]

interesting stat turned up today;

since the 1st test vs Pak in '03 NZ have averaged a respectable 422 or so in their first innings. in all completed second innings since that date the average is 191. apparently this doesn't include a 90-odd for 8 somewhere along the way.

i can think of two games (vs PAk) where NZ have converted a 100+run 1st innings lead into a rather spectacular loss by the 3rd or 4th innings

this coupled with last years ODI form where NZ had the best win/loss ratio for all teams ('05 of course is a different story) makes me wonder . . .

all this has become apparent since bracewell became coach, gaining an NZ contract after forging a very good record in county one-day games - of only one innings

is there a link? i have no idea - but this current NZ teams ability to conspire to lose a game on the fourth day after a competitive (even dominant) first innings is quite uncanny

[vvvrulz]

Totally agree, especially during the Pakistan series, they just got blown to bits without anyone seeing it coming.

I'm not sure whats going on really, how can the same batting sheet suddenly go from competitive to downright awful.
Bit of a mystery for me.

[Paoli]

Also, you should've got Australia out for 230..If Bond was there, you guys would've done it...Vettori and Wiseman, probably the 2 best bowlers, need to bowl in tandem...Tuffey needs to be back after his little "tape" incident....

NZ need to capitalise on every opportunity...Australia have done that with great success

[Zainub]

Against Pakistan it's something that's not new. NZ have a history of doing poorly against our faster men, both in test and one-day internationals.

I rember Mohammad Sami's amazing burst of 5 for 2 at Lahore in 2003, New Zealand crumbled from 155 for 4 to 157 all out, this was only one of many such collapses that the New Zealanders have suffered against Pakistan in recent years. In fact, in Sami's debut Test, at Auckland in 2000-01, New Zealand collapsed just as spectacularly, losing their last eight wickets for 10 runs, with Sami taking five of those wickets to end up with the Man-of-the-Match award. In the one-dayers which preceded the Tests on that tour, New Zealand had been at the receiving end of another blitz at the same venue, this time by Shoaib Akhtar, who took 5 for 19 – his career-best ODI figures at the time – and destroyed the tail, as New Zealand lost their last five wickets for seven runs.

Shoaib wasn't quite done, though. When New Zealand came to Pakistan for that ill-fated tour in 2002 which was curtailed due to a bomb blast, Shoaib wrecked more havoc. In the first ODI, he surpassed his Auckland performance, taking 6 for 16 at Karachi. Less than two weeks later, New Zealand –reeling from Inzamam's mighty triple-hundred – succumbed meekly to yet more Shoaib thunderbolts, as his 6 for 11 doomed them to a humiliating innings defeat in the only Test of the series. That was also Shoaib's first – and so far his only – Test against New Zealand. Add Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis to the list and, as the table below shows, New Zealand have had more than their fair share of problems against Pakistan's pace attack.

 Player Name: Shoaib Akhtar
 Test average vs all teams: 25.09
 Test average vs NZ: 1.83
 ODI average vs all teams: 21.58
 ODI average vs NZ: 18.36
 
 Player Name: Mohammad Sami 
  Test average vs all teams: 44.23
  Test average vs NZ: 30.62
  ODI average vs all teams: 22.98
  ODI average vs NZ: 17.00 
 
 Player Name: Wasim Akram
  Test average vs all teams: 23.62 
  Test average vs NZ:17.01 
  ODI average vs all teams: 23.52
  ODI average vs NZ:18.54 
 
 Player Name: Waqar Younus
  Test average vs all teams:23.56
  Test average vs NZ:19.60
  ODI average vs all teams:23.84
  ODI average vs NZ:15.84

ps: these stats as well as the brief intro above it were combiled by the Numbers Game column at crickinfo before we'd won 1-0 in NZ, in that series Sami and Shoaib further improved their avergaes, though I'm not bothering to gather statistics, summary is that in the first test match Sami took a late five-for to reduce them to 90-8 and we should have won had rain not interveened And in the second test Shoaib took about 11 wickets if not less and second time around NZ were sitting pretty with 70 odd for 3 and 200 odd runs ahead, but they collapsed to 100 odd all out, and we chased the runs down with Inzi and Youhanna making unbeaten half centuries before rain almost washed out this win for us too

[vvvrulz]

Is Shoaib's Test Average versus NZ really 1.83 !?

Thats incredible.

[Paoli]

1.83, Gees..What an average!!! I took 4-3at school last week in the 2nd XI, cleaning up 7, 8, 9, 11 but still...How long can such an average like Shoaibs last??

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by vvvrulz

Is Shoaib's Test Average versus NZ really 1.83 !?

Thats incredible.

I thought that might have been a typo, but its not. In Shoaib's first Test against NZ (Lahore 2002), he took 6 wickets for 11 runs. So his average after that one Test was indeed 1.83. He has now played another Test (Wellington 2003), in which he took 5 for 48 and 6 for 30, taking Pakistan to a comfortable 7 wickets win (his match figures were 11 for 78).

Shoaib's current record against NZ, after only two Tests, and almost 47 overs in total, is 17 wickets at an average of 5.23; economy rate is a respectable 1.90 and the strike rate is a staggering 16.5.

[vvvrulz]

Boy NZ must have some serious shivers everytime he charges down at them.

[Maranello]

They have had a problem with Pakistani pacers going back a while. Apart from all the numerous incidents recounted by ZR, there was the famous Hamilton Test of Jan 1993. New Zealand were chasing a very achievable 127 in the 4th innings, but were all out for 93 in just 44 overs. Wasim and Waqar getting 5 each, from 22 and 14 overs respectively, in one of the best displays of sustained aggressive and attacking fast bowling I have ever seen. That probably set the scene for all the subsequent demolitions by the likes of Waqar, Wasim, and Shoaib. Even M. Sami looks like a good bowler against the second innings Kiwis!

[vvvrulz]

Indeed, apparently Sami crushed the kiwi's on debut about five/six years ago and hasn't let up on them since.