From: conrad@actrix.gen.nz (Conrad Bullock)
Subject: Pakistan/NZ Test Aftermath - NZ Coverage (Long)
Organization: Actrix Information Exchange
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 10:58:27 GMT

This site is constipated again, I'm not sure if my postings are
getting out, but I'll give it a go. This article contains summaries of
various NZ newspaper articles published the day after the NZ/Pak test.
I hope they are of interest to some readers.

Dominion, Wed Jan 6th.

Akram frustrated by bouncer rule.

Champion Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram yesterday expressed
frustration at the controversial bouncer rule being used in test
cricket.
   "It's not proper cricket," said Akram, of the rule that now limits
bowlers to one bouncer per batsman an over otherwise they are
no-balled.
   "Everything goes for the batsman, one bouncer and the batsman can
go onto the front foot."
   Akram said he did not know who made the rule but they should have
asked the players first.
   Akram said the Pakistanis did not believe they had given themselves
much of a chance when New Zealand only required 127 for victory.
   But taking three wickets early on had revived them, said Akram, and
a further breakthrough when getting rid of Andrew Jones had given them
renewed heart, leading to the last seven wickets falling yesterday for
28.
   "We said 150 would have been a good total to chase," Akram said.
   "We decided to try our best, and go flat out, and we bowled really
well.
   "Suddenly we won the game.
   "Everyone fought really well. It was one of the greatest games I've
played in."
   Akram said he and fellow fast bowler Waqar Younis had developed a
tremendous relationship.
   They encouraged each other, and offered advice, especially when the
other was having problems.
   "It's really good for us," Akram said.
   Akram was delighted with the standard of umpiring exhibited in the
test by Brian Aldridge, of Canterbury, and Otago's Steve Dunne.
   "It was perfect umpiring," said Akram.
   "It was a very friendly atmosphere, laughing. They were very good
with the bowlers.
   "I bowled quite a few no balls but they would tell me to come back
a bit, which was very good umpiring. I was very impressed," said
Akram, who has now played in 45 tests for 177 wickets.
   Pakistan captain Javed Miandad, often in the middle of problems
over umpires in the past, said: "The umpiring was good. I went to the
two umpires and thanked them because the best thing was that it was
very, very consistent for both teams."

Over rate fine dampens party

Pakistan's victory celebrations were dampened last night when they
were fined for failing to meet the required over rate in yesterday's
cricket test in Hamilton.
   The players will each be fined 10 percent of their match fees,
which are complicated because players have different fees.
   To settle the issue it will require New Zealand Cricket to contact
the Pakistani board to settle on the fees.
   According to the agreed playing conditions the two sides were
required to average 15 overs an hour in the Bank of New Zealand
sponsored test.
   Pakistan missed out by two overs after adjustments made for
stoppages in consultation with the umpires.
   Pakistan captain, Javed Miandad, said the situation was unfair. His
first consideration was to win the test not worry about his team's
over rate.

[The fine was imposed by the match referee (for all the games in the
series), Australian Peter Burge]


Rutherford gives duo full credit.

New Zealand captain Ken Rutherford believed it was the remarkable
talents of Pakistani bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis rather than
poor batting that led to yesterday's 33-run defeat in Hamilton.
   "I'm not annoyed at all that we lost," Rutherford said.
   "Rather than saying our batsmen played badly you've got to look at
how well their bowlers bowled.
   "Perhaps there were a couple of bad shots included in that but
their bowlers bowled extremely well, and you've got to give them full
credit.
   "They're two of the finest bowlers ever, probably.
   "It's always surprised me about those two that they have stacks of
stamina, they must be eating good breakfasts," Rutherford said.
   "They keep coming at you, and they don't decrease in pace or
vigour.
   "Mind you I guess when you've got a sniff of victory like they had,
and when wickets are tumbling fairly regularly there's every incentive
for a bowler to keep going."
   Rutherford spoke to his players about having the courage to go out
and win a test match.
   "Not many players can look back over the course of their careers,
and say they won a test match in New Zealand.
   "But seven or eight guys today had the chance to do that.
   "I think the guys were suitably motivated but when you play two
quality fast swing bowlers like Waqar and Wasim life can be difficult
when they get on a roll."
   Rutherford said he felt he had done his best in leading his country
in place of the injured Martin Crowe.
   "I think we showed we were competitive, we won just about every
session in the test but the sessions that probably counted.
   "That's very frustrating in that you can dominate a side as good
as Pakistan for 75 to 80 percent of the time, and lose it at a vital
time.
   "There's still lots of positives, the bowlers bowled extremely
well.
   "Danny Morrison's back and bowling well and Murphy Su'a is going
from strength to strength at test level.
   "I'm pleased with the way I've handled the team, I'm pleased with
the way that the team's responded to what I've tried to achieve."
   If the opportunity arose Rutherford said he would feel quite
comfortable continuing in the role.

Pakistani Pace Pulversise NZ

[Very long match description and analysis]

Evening Post, Wed Jan 6

Bush Waqared! Pakistani pace pair exposes batting gremlins

Deficiencies in the technique of playing fast bowling cruelly exposed
in Pakistan's 33-run win yesterday must be corrected quickly if the
New zealand cricket team is to avoid more defeats.
   Yesterday's loss was last years World Cup semi-final all over
again. New Zealand controlled much of the game only to see it fly out
of the window at the last moment.
[Information about NZ's upcoming games - Oz in NZ, NZ in Oz, WSC with
Oz+SA, then Pak in NZ]
[Match description]

Greatbatch Injured

New Zealand's test century-maker against Pakistan, Mark Greatbatch,
will be out of cricket for the next month.
   The left-hander had his finger broken two balls before his
second-innings dismissal at the hands of Pakistan left-arm fast bowler
Wasim Akram on Monday.
   Greatbatch said yesterday the length of his spell out of the game
would depend on a visit to an orthopaedic surgeon today, but early
reports suggested that he would be out for a month.
   That will rule him out of the rest of the Shell Cup campaign and
leave him only two Shell Trophy matches in which to prepare for the
forthcoming Australian test and one-day series.
   He is the third of New Zealand's top-order batsmen to suffer hand
injuries. Both John Wright and Martin Crowe suffered injuries last
week that kept them out of the test loss in Hamilton.


Evening Post, Thu Jan 7

Miandad eyes one last NZ tour

Pakistani cricket run reaper Javed Miandad is keen to make his side's
full tour of New Zealand next year.
   Miandad, 35, is 1425 runs short of scoring 10,000 runs in test
cricket.
   He is far and away the highest scorer of any country against New
Zealand and needs only another 74 runs to become the first player to
score 2000 runs against this country in tests.
   His best score against New zealand was on the 1988/89 tour when he
hit 271 runs at Eden Park but he was even more deadly in games in
Pakistan.
   "I would love to come back to New Zealand. It will depend if I
continue with this kind of form.
   "It is a beautiful country and obviously when I first came in 1979
you couldn't get anything after 5 or 6 o'clock. We eat late, we don't
eat at 4 or 5 o'clock. We get dinner at around 8.30-9 o'clock. When I
came the first time even when were staying in the hotel there was
no food."
   "But when I came three or four years later and there was a lot of
change. And now this country, especially in its sport, is not far
behind England and Australia," Miandad said.
   "There are big sponsors, a lot of sponsorship, press conferences
after the game and you won't see this kind of thing in so many other
places.
   "It is good, a good compliment to New Zealand people.
   "I would love to come and get my 10,000 runs in this country," he
said.

[Note - I travelled to Hamilton to watch the test. The motel I was in
(coincidentally) was across the road from the Pakistani team's motel,
and next door to the NZ team's motel/hotel. I had never stayed in
Hamilton before. I had no problems finding food/drinks/entertainment
through till the wee smalls - 24 hour cafes/bars etc - I guess things have
changed a lot - I wasn't old enough to care in 1979 :-) (Mind you, the
closest large supermarket closed early - although they were public
holidays....)]


Absent Crowe defended

[Crowe absented himself from the last two days of the test]


More short tours pondered

[Cooperation with Australian cricket, in getting more teams to have
short tours of NZ between WSC matches, when Australia have their
traditional Boxing Day/New Years tests.]


Some of my memories:

At the presentation of the awards at the end of the test, Wasim Akram,
after having been presented the man of the match award: "We went out
and played our best. They went out and played their best. It was the
best team on the best day. It was the best test match ever."

Waqar Younis's incredible excitement (and that of the rest of the
Pakistani team) when he bowled Harris to take his 100th test wicket -
in 20 tests, including 11 (I think) 5-wicket bags. Similar excitement
when the bowled Patel to win the match.

Some great batting from Miandad (92), Greatbatch (133?), and
Inzamam... but not too many others :-).

Incredible bowling from Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram.

Extremely good umpiring - I think all the decisions stood up very well
under televsion scrutiny, and were very consistent. Steve Dunne had a
number of very tricky decisions, which he ajudged well - although
sometimes taking a hell of a long time to do so :-)

Rod Latham's second innings dismissal (bowled by a very fast Waqar
Younis ball), imortalised on stumpcam. The ball beat him with pace,
came in between bat and pad, hit the middle stump on the lens, and
flung it out of the ground - a great view - a single frame of the ball
dead centre on the screen, then the view as the stump falls back, and
rolls over on its side - all on video... (Luckily they had a big
screen at the ground so the crowd could see it (and the replays..))

Peter Burge's warning about sledging.... there was one incident in
which Dipak Patel apparently had a few words to say to the Pakistani
batsmen - in their native language, which apparently didn't go down
too well.... Some discussion between bowlers and batsmen....

Bloody hot weather.... quite a bit of cloud, and a few drops of rain,
but very nice overall.... :-)

Other things: 

Why was Ken Rutherford made captain? I thought Jones was vice-captain,
and next-most senior player......? He did well, but I did wonder at
the start.... Mind you, I don't think Jones would be a good captain
anyway.

NZ really did miss Martin Crowe and John Wright.

I don't think Wright should have been playing anyway - certainly not
at the expense of Blair Hartland. It's not fair to develop him (or any
other opener) against the 'lesser' teams, and then resort to the
'old-guard' for Pakistan, at the fear of losing - we've got to develop
them some time. Hartland is the only other opener we have...?
(Franklin?)
(Hasn't Wright retired a couple of times already? :-)

Losing Crowe was a big blow - but was Latham really the best we could
do? Maybe it was because Crowe only pulled out just before the start,
and he was available.... Or was it really because NZ doesn't have any
batsmen coming through in the Shell Trophy.....?
(No disrespect for Latham intended, but I don't think he's the right
player for the job....)

On a related note - NZ has very different ODI and test squads - the
ODI team is very effective - very tight bowling, tie them down, the
batsmen get themselves out - no need for 'expensive' strike bowlers.
Is that the right way to do it - it seems to work for bowlers, what
about batsmen - NZ have the same ODI and test batsmen..... (Well,
maybe that's down to injury - I guess Hartland wouldn't make the ODI
team, and Latham normally wouldn't make the tests...)

Is Chris Cairns recovered from his Kidney operation yet? I know he was
considered for the Pakistan series.... has he played Shell series
matches yet? If he is fit, does he come in... does he displace Michael
Owens?

NZ won the ODI series 2-1 - through extremely good bowling and
fielding... but the batting problems are a worry.... Greatbatch and
Jones are both great players, but patchy at the moment. Rutherford is
too. Crowe is consistently brilliant. Latham and Harris are question
marks - but Harris hasn't had a chance to prove himself. Latham has
also been patchy. But why do they all have to be patchy at the same
time! :-)
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