The final edition of The Numbers Game for 2000/01 looks at New Zealand’s performances in Sharjah and wraps up a long season which began at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on 14 August and ended at the Sharjah Stadium on 17 April. In view of the huge turnover in players during that time, it is perhaps surprising that even as many as four players who appeared in the first game against Queensland were still there at the very end. The durable quartet was Chris Nevin (although, ironically, he was injured in the first game), Craig McMillan, Chris Harris and Daryl Tuffey.Overall New Zealand used 33 players, ten of whom had not played for New Zealand in any capacity before. Six players made their Test debuts and nine made One-Day International debuts.A total of 17 appeared in both Tests and one-dayers. They were:
Nathan AstleMatthew BellGrant BradburnChris CairnsStephen FlemingJames Franklin *+Craig McMillanChris Martin *+Dion NashShayne O’ConnorAdam ParoreMathew SinclairCraig SpearmanDaryl Tuffey +Daniel VettoriBrooke Walker *+Paul Wiseman
* Test debut
+ ODI debutFive played only in Test matches:
Chris Drum *Matt HorneMark Richardson *Hamish Marshall *Kerry Walmsley
* Test debutEleven players appeared only in One-Day Internationals:
Andre Adams +Geoff AllottChris HarrisChris NevinJacob Oram +Kyle Mills +Andrew PennScott StyrisGlen Sulzberger +Roger TwoseLou Vincent +
+ ODI debut
The list of most expensive overs in One-Day Internationals had to be rewritten during the tournament in Sharjah – both times at New Zealand’s expense. Chris Harris went to number one in the charts when his tenth over in the first match against Sri Lanka went for 30 (his first nine had cost 36) and in the first meeting with Pakistan, Grant Bradburn, playing his first one-dayer for eight years, found himself with figures of 2-0-38-0 on his comeback – his second over costing 27.The most expensive overs in One-Day Internationals are:
Runs Batsmen Bowler30 ST Jayasuriya CZ Harris SL v NZ Sharjah 2000/0130* ST Jayasuriya Aamer Sohail SL v P Singapore 1995/9628* AD Jadeja/SR Tendulkar CJ Drum I v NZ Hyderabad 1999/0028 Shahid Afridi ST Jayasuriya P v SL Nairobi 1996/9727 Asif Mujtaba/Salim Malik M Muralitharan P v SL Colombo 1993/9427 Ramiz Raja/Moin Khan IR Bishop P v WI Sharjah 1995/9627 MS Atapattu/ST Jayasuriya Akram Khan SL v B Colombo 1997/9827* Zaheer Khan HK Olonga I v Z Jodhpur 2000/0127 Imran Nazir/Shahid Afridi GE Bradburn P v NZ Sharjah 2000/0126 RW Marsh BL Cairns A v NZ Adelaide 1980/8126 MW Gatting RJ Shastri E v I Jullundur 1981/8226 BL Cairns V John NZ v SL Colombo 1983/8426 MD Crowe/RJ Hadlee GA Gooch NZ v E Manchester 198626 IT Botham SP Davis E v A Perth 1986/8726 AP Kuiper CJ McDermott SA v A Centurion 1994/9526 Saeed Anwar AR Kumble P v I Madras 1996/97
* includes extrasIn the final match of the tournament, against Sri Lanka, Bradburn dismissed Indika de Saram and Mahela Jayawardene. These were his first ODI wickets for over ten years, his last victim being England’s Chris Lewis during the World Series in 1990/91.
Waqar Younis further extended his record for most wickets by any bowler against New Zealand with three wickets in the two matches in Sharjah. The highest wicket takers in ODIs against New Zealand are:
Wickets Matches AveWaqar Younis 72 32 14.77Wasim Akram 57 34 17.85Shane Warne 44 22 17.04Shaun Pollock 34 20 18.41Anil Kumble 34 26 28.85Kapil Dev 33 29 27.60Javagal Srinath 32 22 25.62Mutiah Muralitharan 31 19 22.61Steve Waugh 31 56 42.96
With two centuries in six days, Mathew Sinclair came from nowhere to become just the eighth New Zealand batsman to score at least two hundreds in ODIs. The full list of century scorers for New Zealand is:
100s MatchesNathan Astle 9 133Martin Crowe 4 143Glenn Turner 3 41Chris Cairns 3 137Stephen Fleming 3 152Mathew Sinclair 2 13Mark Greatbatch 2 84Ken Rutherford 2 121Bevan Congdon 1 11Ken Wadsworth 1 13Bruce Edgar 1 64Roger Twose 1 87Craig McMillan 1 88John Wright 1 149Adam Parore 1 163Chris Harris 1 182
By the end of the tournament in Sharjah, the table of most matches for New Zealand read as follows:
MatchesChris Harris 182Adam Parore 163Stephen Fleming 152John Wright 149Martin Crowe 143Chris Cairns 137Nathan Astle 133Ken Rutherford 121Gavin Larsen 121Richard Hadlee 115Ewen Chatfield 114
Of current players, Craig McMillan is nearest the hundred mark with 88 matches.
Most runs for New Zealand in ODIs have been scored by:
Runs Matches AveMartin Crowe 4704 143 38.55Nathan Astle 4371 133 34.96Stephen Fleming 4047 152 30.65John Wright 3891 149 26.46Chris Harris 3256 182 31.61Chris Cairns 3217 137 28.72Ken Rutherford 3143 121 29.65Adam Parore 3108 163 26.11Andrew Jones 2784 87 35.69Roger Twose 2718 87 38.82Mark Greatbatch 2206 84 28.28Craig McMillan 1995 88 26.25
New Zealand’s leading wicket takers are:
Wkts Matches AveChris Harris 164 182 35.95Richard Hadlee 158 115 21.56Ewen Chatfield 140 114 25.84Chris Cairns 131 137 33.73Danny Morrison 126 96 27.53Martin Snedden 114 93 28.39Gavin Larsen 113 121 35.39Chris Pringle 103 64 23.87Lance Cairns 89 78 30.52Nathan Astle 86 133 35.75
Finally here are the complete averages for the 31 ODIs played by New Zealand in 2000/01.
Mat I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St SRMS Sinclair 10 10 1 447 118* 49.66 2 2 1 – 70RG Twose 26 24 2 907 103 41.22 1 6 12 – 80CL Cairns 11 10 2 324 102* 40.50 1 1 4 – 89CD McMillan 31 29 5 848 104* 35.33 1 6 3 – 84NJ Astle 26 25 1 728 119 30.33 1 3 14 – 69CZ Harris 30 26 7 560 56 29.47 – 2 11 – 69CM Spearman 7 7 0 188 86 26.85 – 2 4 – 74SP Fleming 27 25 1 582 85 24.25 – 4 12 – 66CJ Nevin 11 10 0 206 68 20.60 – 2 3 1 90L Vincent 12 12 2 196 34 19.60 – – 4 – 60MD Bell 4 4 0 78 66 19.50 – 1 1 – 60DJ Nash 1 1 0 19 19 19.00 – – 1 – 105AR Adams 3 3 2 18 13* 18.00 – – – – 105SB Styris 16 11 2 159 48 17.66 – – 4 – 95AC Parore 26 22 5 266 49 15.64 – – 18 3 68JDP Oram 13 12 1 172 59 15.63 – 1 3 – 79AJ Penn 1 1 0 15 15 15.00 – – – – 65BGK Walker 7 4 3 13 5* 13.00 – – 3 – 34DL Vettori 12 8 2 60 17* 10.00 – – 3 – 78GP Sulzberger 3 2 1 9 6* 9.00 – – – – 60JEC Franklin 14 8 1 53 25* 7.57 – – 3 – 54DR Tuffey 13 7 3 18 7* 4.50 – – 4 – 45KD Mills 2 1 0 4 4 4.00 – – 1 – 26GI Allott 9 4 2 3 1* 1.50 – – – – 20CS Martin 7 5 1 6 3 1.50 – – 2 – 27GE Bradburn 3 2 1 1 1 1.00 – – 1 – 7SB O’Connor 11 3 1 2 1* 1.00 – – 4 – 20PJ Wiseman 5 3 3 19 12* – – – 1 – 44O M R W Ave Best EconKD Mills 17.2 2 63 4 15.75 3-30 3.63DR Tuffey 99 5 487 21 23.19 4-24 4.92PJ Wiseman 25 0 139 5 27.80 4-45 5.56CD McMillan 89 4 454 15 30.26 3-20 5.10SB O’Connor 74.4 4 398 13 30.61 5-46 5.33JDP Oram 63 1 293 9 32.55 3-40 4.65GP Sulzberger 22 0 102 3 34.00 1-28 4.64NJ Astle 137 7 629 18 34.94 3-7 4.59JEC Franklin 107 5 525 14 37.50 3-44 4.91DL Vettori 104 6 430 10 43.00 3-21 4.13GI Allott 70 2 397 9 44.11 3-33 5.67AR Adams 18 0 89 2 44.50 1-38 4.94CZ Harris 225.5 6 983 20 49.15 2-31 4.35SB Styris 129 4 628 12 52.33 3-36 4.87CS Martin 54 4 270 5 54.00 2-56 5.00GE Bradburn 23.1 2 111 2 55.50 2-22 4.79CL Cairns 73.5 5 411 7 58.71 2-62 5.56BGK Walker 43 3 249 3 83.00 2-43 5.79AJ Penn 4 1 29 0 – – 7.25
A total of 28 players were involved with only Craig McMillan playing in all 31 games. The results were as follows:
P W L NRv Pakistan 9 4 5 -v South Africa 7 – 6 1v Zimbabwe 7 3 4 -v Sri Lanka 7 2 5 -v India 1 1 – -Total 31 10 20 1
