Fast bowlers have claimed 91.37% of the wickets at Hagley Oval, not least because they have bowled 88% of the overs.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
PREVIEWS aren’t supposed to be about players who have no chance of featuring in the match, but this is an exceptional instance. New Zealand will be without Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson and Trent Boult for the first Test at Hagley Oval on Thursday. South Africa will be missing Keegan Petersen. That’s about as exceptional a list of absentees as could be found.
Taylor has retired, Williamson’s longstanding elbow problem has kept him out, Boult is becoming a father, and Petersen fell foul of Covid-19 regulations. While the circumstances of their not being there are routine, the impact of their non-appearance promises to be significant.
Not since January 2008 have New Zealand named a Test XI that hasn’t included at least one of Taylor, Williamson or Boult. That’s more than 14 years and 117 Tests ago. They have been major figures in their team’s march to the World Test Championship.
Petersen is only five Tests into his career, but in the home series against India in December and January — when he was the leading scorer with 276 runs in six innings — he proved himself the answer to South Africa’s search for a No. 3, which hadn’t been resolved since Hashim Amla’s last Test in February 2019. Theunis de Bruyn scored 52 runs in four innings in the pivotal position in 2019, and Zubayr Hamza made 140 in eight innings in 2019 and 2020. Then Rassie van der Dussen scored 309 in eight innings for a decent average of 38.62 at first drop, but he was shifted to No. 4 in the wake of the Test retirement of Faf du Plessis in February.
None of which will matter when Ton Latham and Dean Elgar exchange team sheets in the middle of what amounts to a cricket ground — not at all a stadium — set in the midst of a lush garden in downtown Christchurch.
Hagley Oval is a proper place blessed with a proper pitch on which to play proper cricket. That New Zealand haven’t bothered picking a spinner in five of the nine Tests here — and not for the last three — doesn’t mean slow poisoners aren’t proper cricketers. But Mitchell Santner didn’t get a bowl in either innings against Bangladesh at Hagley Oval in January 2017, and against Sri Lanka in December 2018 Ajaz Patel had to wait until the second innings to turn his arm over. He was granted 12 out of a total of 106.2 overs and went wicketless. In their current squad of 15, the closest the Kiwis have ventured to selecting a specialist spinner is Rachin Ravindra, a batter who dabbles in slow left-arm.
It isn’t difficult to see why, especially as both matches in the series will be played in Christchurch. Of the 278 wickets that have been taken by bowlers at this ground, only 24 have fallen to spinners. The quicks have claimed 91.37%, not least because, among those who have struck here, they have bowled 88% of the overs.
Even so, don’t be surprised if South Africa don’t take the entirely fast and furious approach. In the 37 Tests they have played, home and away, since their last match in the format in New Zealand — in Hamilton in March 2017 — they have gone in without at least one spinner just three times: twice at the Wanderers and once at Newlands, and on each occasion against Asian opponents. Then again, South Africa have never played a Test at Hagley Oval.
All of which suggests that this ground favours, in batting terms, careful accumulators rather than flash and dash merchants. That argument is supported by the fact that Latham, Williamson and Henry Nicholls are the most successful batters here. Of the three only Williamson’s strike rate is above 50, and only just at 51.41.
But there’s a spanner in those works, and his name is Brendon McCullum. In Hagley Oval’s inaugural Test, in December 2014 involving Sri Lanka, McCullum hammered 195 off 134 balls; a strike rate of 145.52. Seventy-two of his runs screamed to the boundary on the bounce and another 66 soared over it. A fluke, perhaps. Especially as Suranga Lakmal was the most threatening member of the Lankan attack.
So how do we explain McCullum’s 79-ball 145 against Australia at the same ground just more than two years later? This time he hit 84 in fours and 36 in sixes, and his strike rate of 183.54 remains the second-highest in Test history for innings that have begat a century.
The highest was produced in an effort of 110 not out off 58 balls: a strike rate of 189.65. It was registered at Antigua’s Recreation Ground, where the outfield is not much bigger than a traffic roundabout. And it came from the bat of a player regarded as cricket’s greatest showman, Viv Richards.
Nobody in the modern game is Richards, and none of those who will line up in Christchurch on Thursday are of McCullum’s bristling bent. But previews aren’t supposed to be about players who aren’t around.
When: Thursday, 11.00am Local Time.
Where: Hagley Oval, Christchurch.
What to expect: A pitch that, even though it’s often green, doesn’t always live up to its reputation as a seamer’s paradise. That was the case in the most recent Test played here, in January, which yielded three centuries — including Tom Latham’s 252.
Team news:
New Zealand: Gary Stead confirmed the top five as it is below and all but said Matt Henry would replace Trent Boult. Also, it seems the home side will pick an all-seam attack. That leaves a spot for an allrounder, who could be Colin de Grandhomme.
Possible XI: Tom Latham (capt), Will Young, Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Colin de Grandhomme, Tom Blundell, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Matt Henry.
South Africa: Dean Elgar has said, twice, that Sarel Erwee is likely to crack the nod to fill the vacancy left by Keegan Petersen. Despite the prevailing conditions, expect Keshav Maharaj to retain his place.
Possible XI: Dean Elgar (capt), Aiden Markram, Sarel Erwee, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier.
What they said:
“We’re under no illusions about what’s in front of us, in terms of the battle it’s going to be. We have a record that we would like to change against South Africa. We’ve never beaten them in a series.” — Gary Stead faces up to the history between the teams.
“The wickets look very green and very grassy, but the surface underneath is quite hard so it makes it quite consistent in terms of bounce and pace.” — Rassie van der Dussen talks turf.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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