Marshall's long wait and Parore joins a short list
In a previous edition of The Numbers Game we looked at New Zealand players selected for an overseas Test tour without a first-class hundred to their name
Francis Payne
12-Dec-2000
In a previous edition of The Numbers Game we looked at New Zealand players selected for an overseas Test tour without a first-class hundred to their name. With Hamish Marshall making his Test debut at Johannesburg, here is the full list of specialist batsmen selected for a Test for New Zealand without having scored a century in first-class cricket.
HS 76 Alby Roberts v England Christchurch 1929/30 56 Eddie McLeod v England Wellington 1929/30 88 Jack Kerr v England Lord's 1931 81 Paul Whitelaw v England Christchurch 1932/33 89 Martin Donnelly v England Lord's 1937 72 Gordon Rowe v Australia Wellington 1945/46 98* Don Taylor v England Christchurch 1946/47 70 Matt Poore v South Africa Auckland 1952/53 53 John Beck v South Africa Johannesburg 1953/54 84 Noel McGregor v England Dunedin 1954/55 96 Les Watt v England Dunedin 1954/55 91 Noel Harford v Pakistan Lahore 1955/56 89 Jack D'Arcy v England Birmingham 1958 79 Bruce Bolton v England Christchurch 1958/59 90 Barry Sinclair v England Auckland 1962/63 98 Wynne Bradburn v South Africa Dunedin 1963/64 88 Terry Jarvis v India Madras 1964/65 98* Mark Burgess v India Dunedin 1967/68 94 Jeremy Coney v Australia Sydney 1973/74 99 Jock Edwards v Australia Christchurch 1976/77 58 Hamish Marshall v South Africa Johannesburg 2000/01
Whitelaw, Bolton, Bradburn and Jarvis all opened the batting. Harford made 93 and 64 in his first Test.
Marshall took 61 minutes to get off the mark in his first innings and thus joins eight other New Zealand batsmen who have remained scoreless for at least an hour during a Test innings. Interestingly, the manager of the current New Zealand team, Jeff Crowe, features on the list twice.
Mins 101 Geoff Allott v South Africa Auckland 1998/99* 94 Martin Snedden v Australia Wellington 1989/90 91 Jeff Crowe v West Indies Bridgetown 1984/85 82 Matthew Bell v India Hamilton 1998/99 66 John Wright v Australia Wellington 1981/82* 65 Roger Twose v India Cuttack 1995/96 63 Bill Playle v England Leeds 1958 61 John Reid v Pakistan Wellington 1984/85 61 Hamish Marshall v South Africa Johannesburg 2000/01* 60 Jeff Crowe v Sri Lanka Colombo 1986/87
* before scoring
Adam Parore was selected to open the batting and keep wicket in the third Test, the first time for 22 years that a New Zealand player had been entrusted with both jobs in a Test match. The short list of players who have done this (all on overseas tours) is:
Scores Frank Mooney v South Africa Johannesburg 1953/54 23 & 2 Frank Mooney v South Africa Port Elizabeth 1953/54 24 & 9 Eric Petrie v India Hyderabad 1955/56 15 & 4 Eric Petrie v India Bombay 1955/56 4 & 4 Artie Dick v Pakistan Karachi 1964/65 33 & 2 Bruce Edgar v England Lord's 1978 39 & 4 Adam Parore v South Africa Johannesburg 2000/01 10
Edgar (playing only his second Test) was a batsman given the keeping job as opposed to the other instances when a regular keeper was promoted to open. Parore had opened as a stand-in in the second innings against Zimbabwe at Harare earlier in the tour after Mark Richardson had been injured during the game.
Percy Sherwell (South Africa, 6 Tests), Gerry Alexander (West Indies, 1 Test) and Imtiaz Ahmed (Pakistan, 3 Tests) kept wicket, opened the batting and also captained their side.
By coincidence, the match referee at Johannesburg was former Pakistan opening batsman and wicket-keeper Naushad Ali. When Pakistan toured New Zealand in 1964/65 both Naushad and reserve keeper Abdul Kadir opened the batting in the second Test.
Auckland's Tim McIntosh registered his maiden first-class hundred against Canterbury and went on to make 182 before being dismissed. The highest maiden centuries in New Zealand first-class cricket are:
290 Bill Carson Auckland v Otago Dunedin 1936/37 209 David White Northern Districts v Central Districts Hamilton 1985/86 204 Arthur Cox Canterbury v Otago Christchurch 1925/26 203* Graham Burnett Wellington v Northern Districts Hamilton 1991/92 196 Jack Kerr Canterbury v Wellington Christchurch 1932/33 194 Chris Gaffaney Otago v Auckland Dunedin 1996/97 193* David Stead Canterbury v Central Districts Christchurch 1980/81 190 Denis Moloney Wellington v Auckland Auckland 1936/37 189 Mathew Sinclair Central Districts v Wellington Masterton 1996/97 183 Hec Gillespie Auckland v Canterbury Auckland 1929/30 182 Tim McIntosh Auckland v Canterbury Christchurch 2000/01 180 Ernest Beechey Wellington v Auckland Wellington 1918/19 180 Stewie Dempster New Zealand v Warwickshire Birmingham 1927 180 Frank Mooney Wellington v Auckland Wellington 1943/44
Beechey was playing in his last first-class game. Carson (aged 20 years 168 days) and Cox (21 years 19 days) both were playing only their second first-class innings and remain the youngest players to score a double-century in New Zealand first-class cricket.
McIntosh and Lou Vincent added 206 for the fourth wicket breaking a long-standing record for matches between Auckland and Canterbury who have now met 114 times since 1873/74 (39 wins each). The previous fourth wicket record for either side had been set back in the 1907/08 season when Auckland's Lance Hemus and Albert Relf put on 177 at Hagley Park - the first ever Plunket Shield match.
Auckland's longest standing partnership record against another province is now the second wicket stand of 170 against Otago at Auckland Domain in 1909/10. By coincidence, Hemus and Relf were again the players involved.
Gary Stead and Chris Harris had earlier put on 183 for Canterbury's third wicket in this match, also erasing long standing records from the books. The previous Canterbury record against Auckland, surprisingly low, had been 139 recorded by Alby Roberts and Curly Page in 1929/30 and equalled by Frank Bellamy and Walter Hadlee four seasons later.
Long standing partnerships seem to be a feature of Canterbury v Auckland matches. Canterbury's best for the first wicket against Auckland (and all teams) is 306 compiled by Len Cuff and Jimmy Lawrence in 1893/94 and the ninth wicket record of 104 between Bill Wigley and Charlie Clark was set in 1897/98.
These are the two longest surviving partnerships in interprovincial first-class cricket in New Zealand.
The second round of the Shell Cup threw up its share of interesting items. Simon Doull, opening the batting, reached fifty off 36 balls against Central at Hamilton. Here are the fastest fifties for Northern Districts in the Shell Cup.
Balls 26 Lance Cairns v Canterbury Rangiora 1987/88 27 Daniel Vettori v Auckland Auckland 1999/00 28 Barry Cooper v Otago Mt Maunganui 1994/95 28 Michael Parlane v Wellington Mt Maunganui 1994/95 34 Robbie Hart v Wellington Wellington 1996/97 34 Michael Parlane v Central Districts Hamilton 1997/98 36 Simon Doull v Central Districts Hamilton 2000/01
The fastest for any team is 22 balls by Matthew Maynard for Otago against Auckland at Alexandra, 1997/98.
Central Districts contrived to lose five of their batsmen run out in this match, equalling the New Zealand one-day domestic record. It is held by:
Wellington v Auckland Wellington 1974/75 Northern Districts v Wellington Hamilton 1992/93 Central Districts v Northern Districts Hamilton 2000/01
The record for one game is 7 in the Wellington v Auckland game above and the Auckland v Canterbury match at Auckland in 1999/00.
In Wellington's game against Otago at Carisbrook, Matthew Walker captured just the third hat-trick in Shell Cup cricket when he dismissed Matt Horne, Mark Billcliff and Karl O'Dowda. Interestingly only one of the three who have performed the feat was a specialist bowler. This list now reads:
Willie Watson Auckland v Otago Auckland 1984/85 Scott Briasco Central Districts v Auckland Napier 1989/90 Matthew Walker Wellington v Otago Dunedin 2000/01
Walker also performed the hat-trick for Wellington in the 1999/00 Super Max final against Auckland.
Finally, here are the combined Tests averages for New Zealand for their two series against Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Mat I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St MJ Horne 1 1 0 110 110 110.00 1 - 1 - CL Cairns 2 3 1 176 124 88.00 1 - - - DJ Nash 1 1 0 62 62 62.00 - 1 - - MS Sinclair 5 9 2 346 150 49.42 1 - 5 - DL Vettori 1 1 0 49 49 49.00 - - - - MH Richardson 5 8 0 350 99 43.75 - 3 4 - CD McMillan 5 8 1 241 78 34.42 - 2 3 - SP Fleming 5 8 0 224 99 28.00 - 2 2 - NJ Astle 5 8 0 190 86 23.75 - 1 3 - BGK Walker 3 5 1 76 27* 19.00 - - - - PJ Wiseman 2 2 1 15 14 15.00 - - 1 - AC Parore 5 8 1 89 32* 12.71 - - 17 - CM Spearman 3 6 0 58 23 9.66 - - 4 - SB O'Connor 5 7 0 58 20 8.28 - - 1 - CS Martin 3 5 3 12 7 6.00 - - - - DR Tuffey 2 3 0 14 8 4.66 - - 1 - KP Walmsley 1 2 0 5 5 2.50 - - - - HJH Marshall 1 1 1 40 40* - - - - -
O M R W Ave Best 5 10
CL Cairns 93.2 28 221 11 20.09 5-31 1 -
KP Walmsley 18 4 47 2 23.50 1-7 - -
SB O'Connor 198.4 59 431 17 25.35 4-73 - -
PJ Wiseman 100 35 207 8 25.87 5-90 1 -
CS Martin 83.1 22 286 11 26.00 4-104 - -
NJ Astle 167 78 270 7 38.57 2-22 - -
DJ Nash 34.3 19 53 1 53.00 1-25 - -
DR Tuffey 53 11 194 3 64.66 3-38 - -
BGK Walker 63.4 12 204 3 68.00 2-92 - -
CD McMillan 88.5 22 215 3 71.66 2-29 - -
DL Vettori 52 23 79 1 79.00 1-79 - -
MH Richardson 1 0 1 0 - - - -
HJH Marshall 1 0 4 0 - - - -
MS Sinclair 4 0 13 0 - - - -