India v New Zealand - Series Summary
India secured their first ever home series victory on the back of some heavy scoring from the top order and the consistent bowling of Bedi and Venkat. The fact that four of India's top five averaged over 50 showed what a tough time New Zealand's bowlers had; Gavaskar dominated the first half of the series, Azharuddin the second, whilst Hazare was consistent throughout. Had India shown more ambition once they went one up in the second Test then they might have won the series by a greater margin, but with Venkat and Bedi bowling with indefatigable accuracy - they sent down almost 600 overs between them for a combined return of 49 wickets - New Zealand's batsmen were always kept in check, at least until the final Test.
For New Zealand, their Achilles Heel was in the field, with 12 catches going down over the course of the series, half of which were fumbled from the gloves of Adam Parore, whose position in the team must now be in doubt. Congdon led the way again with the bat and Glenn Turner enjoyed a mid-series revival in form, but with Crowe missing two Tests with injury there was little other support. Hadlee manfully bore a huge workload with the ball, and only really received assistance once Boock regained fitness. Both Reid and Bracewell appear somewhat toothless at this level, and despite victory in the final Test, just the third in New Zealand's ATG history, there must still be doubts over Reid's tenure at the helm of a side that is still firmly rooted to the bottom of the ATG standings.
India - Batting
SM Gavaskar 645 runs @ 71.67, M Azharuddin 552 @ 69.00, VS Hazare 506 @ 56.22, PR Umrigar 402 @ 50.25, Kapil Dev 222 @ 37.00
India - Bowling
BS Bedi 26 wkts @ 26.08, S Venkataraghavan 23 @ 28.13, J Srinath 13 @ 32.38, Kapil Dev 13 @ 37.46, CG Borde 5 @ 49.80
New Zealand - Batting
BE Congdon 515 runs @ 57.22, MD Crowe 342 @ 57.00, GM Turner 357 @ 39.67, JG Bracewell 129 @ 32.25, MH Richardson 269 @ 29.89
New Zealand - Bowling
SL Boock 10 wkts @ 21.20, RJ Hadlee 26 @ 24.46, BE Congdon 5 @ 31.20, BR Taylor 16 @ 37.75, RC Motz 5 @ 57.20
Players of the Series
SM Gavaskar & BE Congdon
1 comments:
Gideon - in reply to your comment on my blog regading the Greatest Test XI.
If you could, a five Test series played in five different countries (on a variety of wickets) would be ideal, as my elevens were picked to play on unknown wickets. And it'd probably better with no injuries.
Anyway, it would be fantastic if you could do the series, and I'll be sure to plug it on my blug.
Thanks again.
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