Smashing wickets and breaking records the BlackCaps way

Our mighty Blackcaps have been on a tear since the beginning of the last southern hemisphere Summer. Breaking records galore and unearthing talent that other teams can only dream of. We have batsmen consistently scoring tons, breaking records and posting huge record totals - plus we now have a triple centurion.

Sir Brendon's Triple Century at the Basin Reserve vs India

This week the boys demolished the Windies at home in Sabina Park. Neesham became just the 8th player to score centuries in his first two tests, new boy Latham took to opening like a duck to water, the Boy Wonder tonned up again and we spun our way to victory (yes, spun!!).

Run fella, run.

We're on the brink of a first away series win since 2002 and the first three match series win since 1999 in England. These are historic times and the current team under Sir Brendon will go down as legends in NZ cricket surely.

Since Ross Taylor was deposed by Hesson and McCullum mid-tour in 2012, the Blackcaps have looked onwards and upwards. While there were terribly dark days immediately afterwards (I've stopped remembering about the 45 all out in Sth Africa), steady improvement has now turned into rampant destruction of the opposition. I'd been tempted to write a post for almost a year titled 'What the hell is wrong with NZ cricket?!' but I'm bloody glad I never did now. It all seems so trite when you look back on it. Clearly there were issues with the players responding to coaching and the laissez-faire approach of Ross. Obviously he's an awesome cricketer but I guess with hindsight we can say that perhaps he was struggling to impose his will on the players around him.

The other thing is that there are two sides to cricket - batting and bowling. While batters save tests, bowlers win them. And we now have bowlers coming out of our ears. Who'd of thought we could get 20 test wickets on a regular basis? Even in our losses in England last year we were still able to bowl the opposition out in both innings. Bondy is the bowling coach and I guess this is down to him but there must be a lot of grassroots people working hard in NZ discovering and fine-tuning talent like Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Neesham and Andersen. There is so much pressure on for a place in the team now that incumbents are having to bowl out of their tree to stay in.

I thought Ish Sodhi had nailed down the spinner's spot too but along comes Mark Craig - on debut 8 wickets and a MOTM performance. Amazing. There are not enough superlatives for the way this team plays at the moment.

Mark Craig. Whaddya mean? The guy in middle of the picture. The one doing the high fives. Don't panic I'm sure we'll recognise him in future.

We've added real strength to the tail with BJ Watling (classy name!) batting like a barnacle with the bowlers. Stickability is his middle name.

The only real issue in the current team is what to do with Sir Peter of Fulton. His Eden Park heroics are now a distant memory and every time he goes out for less than 5 and exposes the Boy Wonder to a hostile new ball attack we limit our chances of a big score. I'm guessing he's had his ultimatum already so a shuffle will probably happen for the 2nd or 3rd test. Not sure if Neesham can open and I'd suggest it would be dangerous to risk damaging his confidence by moving him up top but somehow we need to find room for both him and Anderson in the team. Some would argue the Boy Wonder should open (as he mostly does that job anyway when Sir Peter departs early) but again it's such a risk to his talents.

Still it's good to have these problems. As it was two years ago, I could have played for the Black Caps and done no worse than the guys in the team. Now...we're world beaters.

Man it feels good.