The New Zealand cricket team, also known as the Black Caps or BLACKCAPS, played their first Test in 1929-30 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth Test nation. It took the team until 1955-56 to win a Test, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972-73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch.
The current Test captain is Daniel Vettori. He replaces the Black Caps' most successful captain, Stephen Fleming who led New Zealand to 28 Test victories, more than twice as many as any other captain. Vettori lost his first match as captain (vs South Africa) by 358 runs, New Zealand's worst ever defeat by runs.
The New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team.
As of July 2008, the New Zealand team has played 339 Test matches, winning 19.00%, losing 40.05% and drawing 40.93% of its games.[1]
This is a list of active players who have played for New Zealand in the last year. Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan have played for New Zealand in the last year, but have since retired. Players in bold have a central contract for 2008–09.[2]
1 Shane Bond and Lou Vincent have had their contracts terminated by the New Zealand cricket board for signing with the Indian Cricket League. They are presently banned from playing for New Zealand.
2 Scott Styris has played test cricket for New Zealand in the last year, but has since retired from the format.
Note that New Zealand's first Test win against Australia was in only the sixth match between the two teams; despite making their Test debut in 1930, they had to wait until 1946 before playing Australia for the first time, and then until 1973 for a second meeting.[3]
?Batting at Number 10, Southee also scored 77* and top scored in the match for NZ. He reached 50 off only 29 balls, which at the time, was NZ's fastest ever test 50 and the sixth fastest test 50 ever.
The order of the players on this list is determined by: Batting average minus Bowling average. The greater the postive difference, the higher he is on the list.
New Zealand is one of only two Test playing countries (the other is South Africa) to have two players who have achieved the allrounder?s double of 3000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets. The current (2007) list is:
Two other NZ players have scored more than 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets. Daniel Vettori has 2745 runs and 257 wickets. John Bracewell scored 1001 runs and took 102 wickets.
A Century and 10 wickets in a match
No New Zealand player has ever achieved this. Only Imran Khan and Ian Botham (once each) have scored a century and taken 10 wickets in the same match.
A Fifty and 10 wickets in a match
Richard Hadlee 51 & 17 and 5-34 & 6-68 v West Indies at Dunedin 1979/80
Richard Hadlee 54 and 9-52 & 6-71 v Australia at Brisbane 1985/86
Richard Hadlee 68 and 6-80 & 4-60 v England at Nottingham 1986
Dion Nash 56 and 6-76 & 5-93 v England at Lord's 1994
Chris Cairns 72 and 3-73 & 7-27 v West Indies at Hamilton 1999/00
A Century and 5 wickets in an innings in a match
Bruce Taylor 105 & 5-86 vs India at Calcutta 1964/65 (on his debut)
Nathan Astle scored Test cricket's fastest ever double century versus EnglandChristchurch2002.[6] He scored 200 off 153 balls with the second hundred coming off just 39 deliveries. He was eventually out for 222 ? the dreaded double Nelson. He knocked the first hundred off 114 balls. Astle smashed the record by 59 balls, previously held by Adam GilchristAustralia vs South AfricaJohannesburg 2002).
Geoff Allott holds the record for the longest time taken to score a duck.[7]South AfricaAuckland 1999. He faced 77 balls in 101 minutes for his zero score.
Danny Morrison held another "unwanted" record for the most ducks in Test cricket ? (24). He lost the record to Courtney Walsh.
Chris Cairns and his father Lance Cairns are one of the two father-son combination to each claim 100 Test wickets, South Africa's Peter and Shaun Pollock being the other.
Chris Cairns held the record for the most Test sixes.[8] He passed Viv Richards record of 84 (vs England, Lord's, London, 2004) and retired from Test cricket with 87. He has since been passed by both Adam Gilchrist (the current record holder) and Brian Lara.
Chris Harris is the only New Zealand cricketer to have taken 200 wickets in ODIs. (vs England, Lord's, London, 2004). He is only the second player in ODIs to complete the 4000 run / 200 wicket double. (The other is Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya). He holds the record for the most ODI caught and bowled dismissals, with 29.[9]
Fast bowlerShane Bond holds the best strike rate in the history of One Day International cricket of 26.5 (one player out for every 26.5 balls bowled).[10]
John Bracewell became the first - and so far only - substitute fielder to take four catches in a One-Day International, vs Australia in Adelaide on 23 November1980.
The New Zealand team holds the dubious honour of the record for the most consecutive Test series played without a win - 30 series between 1929-30 and 1969-70 (40 years), comfortably ahead of Bangladesh on 16 series.[11]
Another unenviable distinction is the largest margin defeat in the Cricket World Cup, by 215 runs, by Australia. (April 2007).
Notable
New Zealand dismissed Zimbabwe (Harare 2005) twice in the same day for totals of 59 and 99. Zimbabwe became only the second team (after India Manchester 1952) to be dismissed twice in the same day. The whole Test was completed inside two days.
In the same match, he became the third NZ cricketer (after Richard Hadlee and Chris Cairns) to take more than 200 Test wickets.
Lou Vincent holds the record for the highest one-day cricket innings by a New Zealander of 172 (vs Zimbabwe Bulawayo 2005). The previous best was Glenn Turner 171 not out (vs East Africa Birmingham 1975). Vincent and captain Stephen Fleming broke the New Zealand one-day opening partnership record against all countries. Their total of 204 beat Fleming and Nathan Astle's 193 (vs Pakistan Dunedin 2000-2001). The team total of 397 was just one run short of the then record one-day total of 398 (Sri Lanka vs Kenya Kandy 1996).
Brendon McCullum scored the fastest World Cup (2007) fifty (off 20 balls) for New Zealand against Canada, beating Mark Boucher's 21-ball record set against the Netherlands six days earlier.
In a match for the New Zealanders (i.e., the New Zealand national team playing a tour match against non-test opposition) at Scarborough, Yorkshire, in 1986 vs the D.B. Close XI, Ken Rutherford scored 317 runs off just 245 balls, including 228 runs in boundary fours and sixes. In terms of balls faced, this is almost certainly one of the four fastest first-class triple-centuries ever recorded .[12]
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