ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2014

New Zealand in 2013/14 Two heavy defeats for the Test side in England in May 2013 continued New Zealand’s disappointing pattern in Test cricket from the previous seasons. They might have hoped for better things in Bangladesh in October, but they came up against an unexpectedly competitive home side, and the series was drawn 0-0, with the rain that prevented play on the last day of the final Test denying supporters of both teams a potentially close finish to both match and series. But a corner was then turned, as New Zealand secured home and away series wins against West Indies in December 2013 and June 2014 respectively, between which they also won a home series against India - as usual, not travelling well. In the second match of this series, at Wellington, there was much rejoicing when Brendan McCullum became the first New Zealander to score a Test match 300, 23 years after Martin Crowe had got within one run of doing so on the same ground against Sri Lanka. McCullum’s 302 (he was out two balls after reaching his 300) was part of a fine recovery by a newly determined New Zealand side: it came in a second innings which began with New Zealand 246 behind, and which ended with them setting a new national Test record score of 680 for 8 declared. McCullum had scored 224 in the previous Test against India, thus emulating only Don Bradman and Wally Hammond in scoring a double- and a triple-century in successive Tests. Much credit went to him both for his batting and for his innovative captaincy, but he was not alone in deserving praise: several others - Ross Taylor, B.J.Watling, Tim Southee, Travis Boult and newcomer Jimmy Neesham in particular - contributed consistently to the team’s improving performances. Their results took New Zealand into seventh place in the ICC rankings, overtaking and pulling well clear of the twice-defeated West Indians and ending the period under review within reach of the declining Indian and Pakistan sides. Yet at the end of this period New Zealand were still looking for a settled opening partnership, to say nothing of a spinner to replace the wiles - and ideally the runs - of Daniel Vettori, whose injury-shortened Test career now looks to have passed into history. In a wet home season, too many Plunket Shield games were disrupted by the weather to allow the low proportion of drawn matches seen in 2012/13 to be maintained. Canterbury won the Shield title with a match to spare, rising from fifth in 2012/13 and swapping places with last season’s winners, Central Districts. Canterbury’s opener Tom Latham ended as the season’s leading runscorer with 977 runs at 69.78, including the domestic season’s two highest innings (261 against Central Districts, and 241* against Wellington). Mark Gillespie (Wellington) headed the bowling lists with 42 wickets at 32.90. (KSW) Plunket Shield 2013/14: Final table P W L D BatBP BowBP Pts NetRpW 12 0 0 1 Canterbury 10 5 3 2 13 33 106 1.010 2 Otago 10 3 2 5 19 31 86 0.990 3 Auckland 10 2 2 6 22 33 79 3.235 4 Wellington 10 2 2 6 18 30 72 1.429 5 Central Districts 10 2 3 5 16 30 70 -3.004 6 Northern Districts 10 2 4 4 10 24 58 -1.490 243