ACS Oveseas First-Class Annual 2013

New Zealand in 2012/13 The New Zealand Test side continued to struggle during most of the 2012 and 2012/13 seasons. Two-match rubbers in 2012 in West Indies and India resulted in four straight defeats. The team’s 2012/13 campaign began in Sri Lanka on a more positive note, with a heartening and well-merited win in the second Test to cancel out a heavy defeat in the first. The victory was built around scores of 142 and 74 by the captain, L.R.P.L.Taylor, but any optimism was instantly dispelled as the news broke of his resignation or sacking (depending whom you prefer to believe) for the following tour of South Africa. Worse still, Taylor, easily New Zealand’s best batsman of recent times, opted out of the trip altogether. The result was unsurprising: South Africa emphatically justified their top place in the Test rankings with two crushing wins. The tone was set from the start of the first Test when New Zealand won the toss and batted, only to be swept aside for a humiliating 45. After four consecutive rubbers abroad, the players must have been relieved to return home for three Tests against England. The visitors, fresh from a successful tour to India, started as strong favourites but failed to come to terms with conditions that they should have found more familiar. New Zealand looked, on the whole, the better side and it was only by dint of desperate rearguard actions in the first and (especially) third Tests that England were able to save their blushes and escape with a 0-0 scoreline. Notwithstanding the relatively good result against England, New Zealand finished the season without having won a rubber (of more than one Test) since beating Bangladesh in 2008/09; and, not surprisingly, the side remained in eighth place in the ICC Test rankings, ahead only of Bangladesh (with Zimbabwe not ranked). This persistent low placing must be a source of serious concern to New Zealand cricket. And it could be argued that the situation is worse than it appears when account is taken of the performances of teams ranked around New Zealand. West Indies, for instance, who not so long ago were struggling to hold on to seventh place, finished the 2012/13 season challenging strongly for sixth. And Bangladesh, the only side keeping New Zealand off bottom place, has also shown distinct signs of improvement, although admittedly from a very low base. With Zimbabwe likely shortly to rejoin the rankings ahead of Bangladesh, the lower echelons of the table are beginning to look more congested, while the gulf that separates the lower sides from the top performers appears to be widening. The New Zealand season opened unusually early, in September, with two even draws between New Zealand A and a strong India A side. Later in the season the New Zealand second string again performed well (this time technically as a New Zealand XI rather than an ‘A’ side) with a well-earned win against the England XI. The Plunket Shield was keenly contested and remained in doubt until the last day of the final round of matches. Otago looked likely winners but failed to achieve a victory target of exactly 200 set by Wellington. Central Districts, to whom Otago’s defeat handed the title, had also proved strangely vulnerable to the Wellington team, providing these otherwise moderate opponents with the other two of their three wins. These were, however, Central Districts’ only reverses in a season in which they claimed more wins than any other side. Central Districts’ success was based on consistent performances throughout the side rather than on outstanding individuals. Otago, however, possessed the leading run-scorer in the Shield, A.J.Redmond (941 at 55.35), while H.D.Rutherford (1,077 runs at 46.82 in all matches) and N.Wagner (51 wickets at 28.50) also enjoyed excellent seasons. 243