ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2020

279 New Zealand in 2019/20 On these pages a year ago, we suggested that New Zealand’s Test schedule for 2019/20, featuring series against England, Australia and India, would test their right to their second place in the ICC rankings rather more than had their 2018/19 challenges against more lowly-ranked sides.  In the event they withstood that test very well, winning their two home series although losing the one away from home. The outcome was that they ended the period under review still in second place in the rankings.  England were one place behind New Zealand in the ICC rankings when the sides met in two Tests in November and December. The first match produced an unlikely innings win for the home team who, facing an England first innings of 353, recovered from 197-5 to post 615-9 declared – their record total against their oldest Test opponents. They owed much to a maiden Test 200 from the obdurate BJ Watling, and a maiden Test century from Mitchell Santner. The following Test was spoiled by rain, though there was still time enough for the side’s three leading batsmen – Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham – to recover some form and score personal centuries.  It was a very different story when New Zealand travelled to Australia for a three-Test series over Christmas and the New Year. Australia were a side on the rise, and New Zealand were, frankly, outclassed as they suffered successive defeats, each of them in under four days, by 296, 247 and 279 runs. In six innings the batsmen could only twice muster a total above 171 (and their highest of all was only 256), while their seam attack, so potent at home, was unable to have the same impact on an in-form Australian batting line-up. As a result, Australia overtook New Zealand in the ICC rankings for the first time since October 2018, pushing their trans-Tasman rivals down to third place.  On paper, the final challenge was the hardest of all – a two-match series against the number one side, India. But India are not the force away from home that they are on their own pitches, and New Zealand’s quick bowlers make up a formidable pack on their home soil. So this time it was the Indian batsmen who could not find any form, as shown by their successive innings totals of 165, 191, 242 and 124. Wins for New Zealand by ten wickets and by seven wickets – the first of them their 100th Test victory, in their 441st match at this level – took them back into second place in the rankings, which is where they remained at the end of the 2020 season, albeit now behind Australia rather than India.  New Zealand’s pitches may be more bowler-friendly than those of some other countries, but it still takes special skill for their regular pace attack to exploit the conditions so consistently. In their four home Tests of the season, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult took 21, 15 and 12 wickets respectively, Wagner’s tally coming from only three matches. Their batsmen were not so consistently prolific as in some recent series, but thanks to these bowlers – with support from a variety of spinners when needed – New Zealand were able to maintain a sequence that now extends to six home series wins in a row since 2016/17.  Their win over India took New Zealand to fourth place in the current World Test Championship table, despite having played fewer matches than any of the sides above them. However, New Zealand’s next scheduled WTC commitment, two Tests in Bangladesh in July and August 2020, fell victim to the coronavirus.  As in 2018/19, the six teams in the Plunket Shield were each scheduled to play eight matches, but in the event only six rounds of the competition were completed before the pandemic intervened. At that point Wellington – fifth out of six the previous season – were the clear leaders, 26 points (and two wins) ahead of the field. In mid-March they were duly declared as the winners of the Plunket Shield for 2019/20, thus taking the title for the first time since as long ago as 2003/04. Auckland were potentially their closest rivals had the season run to its natural conclusion, as when