Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2023

17 Richard Hadlee, a son of Walter the 1949 captain and a phenomenally successful bowler, was knighted in 1990 for his contributions to cricket - the only NZ Cricketer to be honoured in such a way. New Zealand’s first victory against England came in 1977/78 when our team, captained by Geoff Boycott, lost one of their three games against them in the customary short series at the end of an Australian tour. On their 1983 tour here Geoff Howarth’s team won their first ever Test in England, captained at that time by Bob Willis. A few months later, on the way back from a Test series in Australia, England lost one match with draws in the other two, hence a NZ series win for the first time. Under the captaincy of Jeremy Coney their 1986 team won the only match to be decided in the three match series. This was at Nottingham and was, quoting Wisden, “a thoroughly deserved and comprehensive win (by 8 wickets) dominated by Richard Hadlee who reacted to the challenge of facing England, on his adopted home ground. In his customary combative manner he took 10 wickets in a Test for the seventh time and played a key role in New Zealand’s first innings batting recovery”. Moving on by some 26 years, Alastair Cook and Brendon McCullum respectively captained the next three series (2012-15) between the two countries, one in New Zealand and two in England. Seven Tests were played in this time with England winning three and NZ one. In the next two series, both in NZ (2018 and 2020), Joe Root and Kane Williamson were the captains and NZ won the only decided match. I apologise for this raft of statistics, but it is only in this way that one can track NZ, a country with a population of 5 million, becoming a force in the cricket world. This culminated in them being crowned world champions in 2021. NZ is my favourite overseas touring team for they consistently play the game in the right spirit. Their players are exceedingly courteous and exude good sportsmanship, which, in my opinion, is what the game is all about and I have been delighted to see them succeed so well. The three match series this summer was a fine one and not just because Ben Stokes’ revitalised team - thanks in no small part ironically to New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum - won all three matches. In my opinion, whilst we deserved to win, the tourists suffered one or two pieces of misfortune. The first was when Colin de Grandhomme, who top scored with 42 out of a total score of 128 in NZ’s first innings at Lord’s, sustained an injury which ruled him out of the next two Tests. He was a vital part of the NZ bowling attack, being more than a useful all- rounder and this resulted in them being one experienced bowler down at Nottingham and Headingley. Their captain and leading batsman, Kane Williamson, also missed the second test through illness. Daryl Mitchell, batting at five, achieved a very rare distinction of scoring a century in each of the three Tests and was ably assisted by wicket-keeper,Tom Blundell, at six and scoring a century and three 50s in the series. The two of them together put on valuable runs in all three Tests. In Trent Boult and Tim Southee they had cont’d on pg19