The Domestic Summer in Review
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A frustratingly abbreviated home test summer comes to an end with more questions than answers thrown up.
A summer that was bookended by two tough defeats. There was Bangladesh’s historic away win against the World test champions, and the role reversal second test against South Africa.
Credit to South Africa for being bold and getting everything right for that second test. They knew they could pick Maharaj because NZ were going to bowl first if they’d won the toss, and they boldly stuck to that plan.
In between there were two massive victories by an innings, and it seemed as if normal transmission had resumed. Complacency possibly played a part at The Mount, and it possibly played a part at the other end of the bookcase.
Conway 388 @ 65
Easily New Zealand’s most reliable batsman. Slipping into number 3 in the absence he scored two centuries and a 92 over 6 innings.
Nicholls 226 @ 38
Two test series that saw him mover from 5 to 4 in the batting line-up. His century in the first test against South Africa was an important contribution to that win, and he ran out of support badly at the Mount.
Few sportsmen are unfairly maligned like Nicholls, but he missed out a couple of times this summer.
Blundell 214 @ 43
2021 was not an easy year for Blundell. Returning to keeping duties after a decent break in a test series in India is not easy and he seemed to be down on confidence. Things did not go well at The Mount, before he turned it around for the rest of the summer with a Watling like batting average.
He was back to his best form behind the stumps by the end of the season too.
Henry 58 @ 29. 14 wkts @ 16
A real breakthrough series against South Africa. Equal best bowling figures by a New Zealander at home; he really was unplayable that day. It’ll be really interesting to see where he goes from here.
Indicated in the first test against South Africa that he should be moved up the order before bagging a pair in the next test.
De Grandhomme 183 @ 92. 1 @ 33
Back in January it seemed as if his test career might be over.
Int eh first innings oof the last test of the summer he played the best innings of his career. Disciplined yet still aggressive. Two days later it was the other side of his play which we know only too well.
Wagner 80 @ 27. 15 wkts @ 28
15 wickets, 15 fantastic celebrations. No 5WI this summer, but kept on delivering.
Improved with the bat as the summer wore on.
Southee 32 @ 6. 16 wkts @ 28
With the ball he continues to spearhead the attack and has really developed a lot of consistency. Not many would have seen this late V2.0 phase to his career.
His rightful position in the batting order is an amusing diversion in any summer of cricket
Boult 17 @ 17. 9 @ 19
Another disjointed summer for Trent Boult. That make-up of the bowling attack in England will be fascinating.
Taylor 99 @ 33. 1 wkt @ 0
The great servant of the game knew when to bow out of test cricket.
Mitchell 103 @26. 1 @ 18
Brought in for the second test against Bangladesh to shore things up a bit. He did that to a certain extent in the second test against the Proteas but got out in both innings before he really made it count. He will be on the tour to the UK but really needs to convert those starts.
Young 186 @ 31
Performed well against Bangladesh followed by a really disappointing series against South Africa. He is clearly a very good batsman, but there are still questions about where he should bat.
Latham 283 @47
252 of those 283 runs came in one innings. That’s 89% of runs scored over 6 innings in one knock. He attracts a lot of hyperbolic analysis, and stats can be stretched in any direction you want. But this slanted those takes in the direction of He only scores against weaker teams ahead of the He is statistically one of best ever openers side of the debate. In the South African series there were 27 runs from Latham (16) and Young (11) in 6 innings.
Jaimeson 50 @ 10. 14 @ 29
He seemed to be off his best at times, but those are still pretty handy figures. But he will continue to find it tougher as opponents keep on studying the videos.
No, he’s not a test number 7
Ravindra 20 @ 10 0/67
Made the scapegoat after the Mount, he’s still very much Work in Progress across both disciplines..