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New Zealand gears up for another crack at Aussie tri-series Lynn McConnell - 8 January 2002
It's one-day series time in Australia, always a keenly-awaited event on the New Zealand cricket calendar. Nothing ever attracts the interest of armchair sports fans in the New Zealand cricket fraternity quite as much as the tri-series in Australia. Screened mainly in primetime viewing, it has the capacity to cheer, enrage, delight, disappoint and frustrate New Zealanders more than anything else in the summer sporting scene. Crook umpiring decisions, dubious tactics, outstanding batting, fielding or bowling, all combine with the colourful crowds and the generally day-night extravaganza that these matches involve to make the series a special time in the game here. The prospect of an Australian tri-series always has a rub-off effect for the game in New Zealand. It heightens interest. And when the New Zealand team is performing well, as it did in the Test tour of Australia in November, it creates even more interest. With England to follow on our pitches in February-March, there will never be a better time to enjoy the game here, until the next Australian tri-series. Much of the interest is based on history. New Zealand first took part in the series in 1980/81, a stage when New Zealand were drastically under-rated in the one-day game by the Australians. They should not have been surprised if they had bothered to check their records. New Zealand had reached the semi-finals of the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979 and before that had generally dominated the one-day domestic series' in Australia, by whatever name they were known. India was the third nation involved in that memorable debut appearance in what was then called World Series Cricket in Australia. But a New Zealand team that had been well beaten in the Test series which alternated with the one-day programme, had growing confidence in the one-day arena and with Richard Hadlee, Ewen Chatfield, Martin Snedden, Lance Cairns and Jeremy Coney had useful performers with the ball while the developing experience of openers John Wright and Bruce Edgar was supplemented by the English county cool of Geoff Howarth, and the hard-bitten home experience of Paul McEwan, John Parker, Mark Burgess and either Ian Smith or Warren Lees. No game in the preliminary rounds of that series captured the public feeling more than the Sydney game which New Zealand won by one run when Snedden had to bowl the last over with Australia needing eight to win. Facing Doug Walters, who had a proud history of denying New Zealand any advantage, especially in Test matches, and Shaun Graf, Snedden got down to the last ball with three runs needed. Visions of Howarth, clearly nervous but masking it well, waving his arms around and making subtle field changes will still be with fans from this era. Walters drove the ball and headed off for the run, but he was unable to get the ball past a diving Hadlee, who not only stopped the ball but got up quickly enough to fire it back to the stumps and run out Graf as he attempted a second run. New Zealand made the finals that year and won the first game by 78 runs. Hadlee took five for 26, still the best bowling by a New Zealander in finals, and the win is still the only finals victory New Zealand has achieved. The third game of the finals was the infamous underarm match which is now part and parcel of trans-Tasman cricket history. But it was also a match famous for the 'non-catch' taken by Snedden diving full-length forward to get hands beneath a ball hit by Greg Chappell. Chappell refused to accept New Zealand's claims it was a catch and the umpires claimed they couldn't see it. And Australians wonder why New Zealanders will never forget the match? With both countries in an uproar after the underarm, what was the final game of the series was played in Sydney and Chappell, greeted by Howarth as he came to the wicket in a show of respect, if not understanding of what he was going through, hit 87 as Australia took a six-wicket win to win the series 3-1. New Zealand returned to Australia two years later with England as the third nation this time. Again Snedden, now the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, was in the thick of the action in another thriller at the start of the series when the side first met England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. New Zealand scored 239/8 in their innings and while David Gower scored 122 opening for England, the only other innings of substance was 41 from Ian Botham, before he was caught from Snedden's bowling. But the real action came in the last over again. With five wickets in hand, the supposed experts of the one-day game, the English, needed 13 runs in the last two overs. Two wickets fell as England panicked and when Snedden lined up the last ball three runs were needed. Vic Marks was facing and in his attempt to get the ball away he was bowled and New Zealand won by two runs. Another outstanding game in the preliminary part of the series was also played against England but in Adelaide this time. Opening with Botham, who scored 65, and with Gower scoring 109, England amassed 296/5. New Zealand fought brilliantly, firstly inspired by 50 from Jeff Crowe, 49 from a promoted Cairns and then a superb 121-run stand between Coney and Hadlee which took New Zealand to within 10 runs of their target and, amazingly, New Zealand reached the mark with seven balls to spare. Hadlee hit 79 and Coney was 47 not out at the end. Hadlee didn't play in the finals that year because of injury and New Zealand lost the first final due to inferior run rate in a rain-affected game, then in the second, Australia scored 302/8 with the match becoming famous in New Zealand eyes for the six-hitting exploits of Cairns who hit two huge sixes off each of Dennis Lillee, Rodney Hogg and Ken MacLeay. In the series of 1985/86, New Zealand's performances in the Test matches of that summer were far more superior and the one-day side failed to make the finals with India getting that spot. But if there was one highlight from that series it was in Adelaide against Australia where New Zealand made an outstanding 276/7 with Wright and Edgar each scoring 61. The Australians were mown down in their chase however, and were all out for a paltry 70 as Hadlee took three for 14, Chatfield two for nine, John Bracewell two for three and Stu Gillespie two for 21. In 1987/88, New Zealand got off to a flier in Perth with another superb result against Australia. New Zealand totalled 232/9 with Andrew Jones scoring 87. Snedden was at the sharp end again when Australia, having had Dean Jones score 92, needed eight off the last over. Six runs came from the first three balls but with Mike Whitney looking to hit the winning runs, he hit a leading edge which Bracewell was able to race in from cover and catch to give New Zealand a one-run win. Sri Lanka were the third team in the competition and they caused a hiccup when beating New Zealand by four wickets in Hobart. However, New Zealand made it to the finals, only to be well beaten in both by an Australian team that had recently won the World Cup. The foundations for the side to play for New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup were laid in the series of 1990/91 in Australia where England was the third side. New Zealand qualified for the final courtesy of a last gasp effort to beat Australia in Hobart. Having scored 194/6 Australia suffered three run outs and going into the last over, Australia had the last pair at the wicket with only two runs needed to win. Chris Pringle had to bowl the over to Bruce Reid, possibly one of the leading contenders for No 11 batsman of the 20th Century, and Pringle had him bamboozled as he bowled six dot balls to clinch the victory by one run again. New Zealand were again unable to score enough runs in both finals to seriously challenge the Australians who had wins by six and seven wickets respectively. In the two subsequent series New Zealand has played, South Africa have been the third nation involved. In the 1993/94 series the most satisfying result for New Zealand was beating Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 13 runs. New Zealand scored 198/9 with Ken Rutherford hitting 65, Mark Greatbatch 50 and Gavin Larsen 29 not out down the order to shepherd New Zealand home. Pringle was again to the fore in the defence of the total with four wickets as only David Boon (67) and Ian Healy (48) made any impression against the New Zealand attack. South Africa, although beaten twice by New Zealand took the finals berth. In 1997/98, New Zealand was capable of much better than it achieved and it must be wondered still what might have been had a ruling on a ball landing on an overlapping part of the boundary rope been correctly interpreted as a six rather than the four awarded whether New Zealand might have made the finals. In that game, at Brisbane, South Africa scored 300/6 on the back of a Gary Kirsten century. In response New Zealand were 124/6 in the 31st over. But refusing to be undaunted, New Zealand's smashing lower order of Chris Cairns (64), Adam Parore (67) and Dion Nash (38) got the side within two of victory, and that four awarded on the boundary rope hit to the penultimate ball of the game left New Zealand needing three off the last ball instead of the one it should have been. Nash hit high but not quite hard enough as Lance Klusener was able to claim the catch. A token win in the last preliminary round game over Australia was inflated by the fact the home team used the match to experiment with their batting order and paid the price. New Zealand missed the finals again. So what might this year hold? South Africa struggled through the Test series but New Zealanders know too well the "get out of jail" ability of players like Klusener to ever take anything for granted while the Australians have fought back well from the disappointments of their inability to beat New Zealand in the Test series to take a 3-0 series win over South Africa. They will be riding high, but if New Zealand can match the tactical awareness shown in the Test series, then the road to the finals could be much easier to achieve, and that lonely statistic of only one finals match victory might be changed. It is well overdue. Best performers for New Zealand in Australian tri-series history are: Batting:
Bowling:
© CricInfo
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