Old men take the lime light, sadly

Hello and welcome back to my blog

I thought to myself 24 hours ago that I shouldn't write my blog until the thing was finished - herald the NZ comeback only to see a boring draw/embarrassing loss etc. Naturally I refer to the just-completed test between India and New Zealand and not surprisingly it didn't end in a victory for my favoured team. Despite the efforts of Martin, four wickets were still to be claimed when play began on Day Five. The last of these was not removed until after Tea by which time Black Cap fans had moved comfortably from celebrating a possible victory to celebrating - well anything else.

I am disappointed that Dhoni didn't push for a victory himself - his side blunted the Day Five attack after an hour and could have declared anytime after lunch really. This is the kind of captaincy that destroys interest in test cricket; certainly there was no real reason to keep batting after Harbhajan Singh reached his century (sigh). The only sympathy I have for him is that he likely didn't expect both overnight-batsmen to still be in at lunch and closing in on centuries (neither, I would wager, did Vettori). However, some kind of punishment for 'captaincy contrary to the spirit of the game' could be useful...

Certainly the visiting team took more out of this match than the home side. Although I didn't write them off to the extent that many publications did, I never thought the match would make it to the end of Day Five. The sad thing is, and it will be a learning curve for many of the players, you really need to win early in India because it generally takes great sacrifice of resources to do so. In the case of Vettori's men the cost for this draw was quite obvious with Bennett, Ryder and possibly McIntosh injured to one degree or another; less obvious will be the physical and mental strains from this match which will likely appear in tests 2 and 3. While there are still bowling resources to be used (and, according to Vettori, players that can be called from NZ) one can't help but ask whether Simon Doull and Danny Morrison have been told to hit the nets before the second and third tests.

Beyond this, the glaring concern is the use of Brendon McCullum as a top order batsman. This development has huge implications on the balance of the team - suddenly they only had two front line seamers (and the danger of this was realised when Vettori was forced to open the bowling with Martin in the second innings) not to mention the joke selection of Gareth Hopkins as keeper. Although equally important a consequence, the latter proved more frustrating as Hopkins missed several straight forward chances (in both innings) and did nothing while batting to convince us that he isn't a poor (emphasis on poor) man's version of a domestic keeper (harsh? I'm not sure). Traditionalists worthier of the title than I express a regret that the post Marsh/Healy/Gilchrist area is dominated by keeper-batsmen, but of equal importance to these geriatrics is the QUALITY of the old keepers whose batting average was less than 25. The idea of selecting an all-but-34 year old keeper is also insulting to some of us who would perhaps have kept quiet if only a person of younger years than McCullum were given the chance - I doubt that Brendon will suddenly change his mind, thus a bit of forward thinking was required and hardly difficult to manage.

One might say that the Black Caps have lost a keeper but gained a top-order batsman (no secret that they were lacking) but sadly that small victory has not yet been won- and I don't think it will be either. It certainly will please some that Brendon made runs at No. 2 (curse them if they print such a 'triumph') but to the trained eye the problem was as obvious as it was saddening. His eventual dismissal (stumped) was of bad technique equal to the fine piece of keeping to complete it and exposes his flaw. The top three batsmen MUST be century makers (although old-time openers were less concerned with this, their time finished after the West Indies/Australian dominance of the last 25 years) and this requires a mix of mental and technical skill and patience; McCullum was undone by hard hands going at the ball and lost his balance - never mind how good the delivery was. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt if I hadn't seen him play two seasons of ODI cricket in the same position and walking into the same problem (literally?). Is the team losing a talented No. 7 (in both forms of the game) to that player's ambitions? The corollary question is what about his next flight of fancy? Ross Taylor took two wickets today - after making a handful of fifties opening the batting in test cricket will Brendon try and be an all-rounder?

On a different note, congratulations to Chris Martin for producing a wonderful display of swing bowling yesterday evening. Although I did predict his selection, I did so in a dejected sense and certainly thought him past such spells - not even Hadlee could have dreamed of such an effort (in India) and neither could the bowling coaches of the subcontinent who have become obsessed with reverse-swing of late. Consider me silenced sir (for now) and eating my hat. Consider the other traditionalists occupied in a similar fashion.

Oh and by the way Kane Williamson made a debut century that required concentration that belied his years...

Sadly it won't surprise me if India ease to large victories in the remaining test matches (as has happened in the past) and that would be no great shame in my mind. As for the two tired umpire decisions made on the final afternoon - if you don't fork out and pay for the Umpire Review System you get what you deserve (and the BCCI are supposedly leaking cash!).

Also, as I type this up, a story is emerging around the second-choice keeper for Pakistan, Zulqarnain Haider, who may have received threats after steering his side to victory against South Africa in the fourth ODI of their current series. He has apparantly disappeared. Naturally I will be keeping an eye on this as it unfolds - despicable if true

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's good bye for now