The sight of Messrs Ponting, Hussey and Clarke all heading back to the pavilion with a ". . . b Bracewell'' suffix on the scorecard produced a national surge of emotion perhaps second only to the Rugby World Cup after Bracewell bowled Australian tailender Nathan Lyons with only seven runs to spare. It had looked like Australia were about to pull off a fine victory when they had previously looked down and out at 199 for nine, needing 42 to win. Bracewell's priceless inswinger to dismiss Lyons not only ended what seemed a cruise to victory but also breathed life into the ailing lungs of New Zealand cricket.
For that alone, he is player of the year. Bracewell, even at this tender age and lack of international experience, has weapons any fast-medium bowler would want. He has a dangerous outswinger, he can seam the ball, he bowls inswing (doesn't he, Mr Lyons?) and he musters pace close to and sometimes hitting 140km/h with his quicker ball. He is by no means the finished article.
At this stage of his development, he does not look like a reverse swinger of the ball but that is something that can come. There are some negatives. He is broad of back and a muscular individual but his action places a lot of strain on his body. It is worth remembering that his father Brendon played only six tests for New Zealand before his back betrayed him. Having said that, bowlers traditionally hunt in twos or even packs. The sight of Bracewell matching up with the in-form (but outgoing) Chris Martin, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, soon-to-be-newcomer Neil Wagner and the currently injured Hamish Bennett plus Kyle Mills, along with the evergreen Daniel Vettori gives hope that the New Zealand bowling arsenal has finally left behind that dreaded tag of "pop gun''. It should also not be assumed that the Black Caps have righted all their wrongs.
The batting techniques of many was shown up at both the Gabba and in Hobart and Ross Taylor's captaincy is still in its infancy. Taylor can't be criticised - he won the test and backed bowlers such as Bracewell and Southee (an expensive bowler to reply on in a thin runs chase but he also gets wickets) and his tactics worked. However, before Bracewell produced that memorable inswinger, the Australians David Warner and Lyons looked like they were going to romp away with it.
Taylor left large holes in the offside field and stacked slips and gully; backing his bowlers to get the nick or the uppish shot behind square. But the bowlers ended up pitching too wide to Warner, who took toll.
Frustratingly, they tried the same thing against Lyons when, even though the pitch held fewer demons, some aggressive short-pitched bowling at the No 11 and some close-in catchers might have brought the second test to an even earlier conclusion. Taylor can point to the fact that they won - and fair enough too - but if the roles were reversed, the Australians would not have thought twice about employing the more aggressive tactics to win the test.
The year started with Doug Bracewell nowhere in sight. Few New Zealand cricket followers, other than the diehards, had even heard of him. However, he was anything but top of mind when the Black Caps started their 2011 year by suffering an embarrassing 10-wicket hiding in three days from a weakened Pakistan side shorn of several first-liners because of discipline and the infamous spot-fixing furore. And the chief culprit in this embarrassing affair?
As at the Gabba at the other end of the year, some truly woeful batting. New Zealand were all out for 110 in their second innings. They recovered somewhat to draw the second and last test and that was it in the test stakes - what is cricket doing to itself? - until the tour of Zimbabwe last month and a one-off test which the Black Caps won (not without difficulty) by 34 runs.
The five-match test season concluded with the two tests against Australia this month and Bracewell's heroics. New Zealand are still globally ranked eighth in tests, with only Bangladesh behind them (Zimbabwe have not played enough to earn a ranking yet). The Australian triumph should help - but not as much as consistency will.
In five test matches, New Zealand won two, lost two, with one drawn. Their batsmen scored only two centuries - one to Vettori against the Pakistanis in that second test, typically dragging New Zealand back from the edge at 180 for six and taking them to 356 all out; the other was scored by Guptill, 109 against Zimbabwe. In one-day international cricket, the results seem better - although it doesn't pay to look too closely. They were beaten 3-1 by Pakistan in the first six-game series of the summer before New Zealand won the last (one was washed out) to make the score 3-2.
Better things were to come in the World Cup - the Black Caps' real focus of the year. Making the semi- finals of the Cup in India and Sri Lanka was perhaps the highlight of the season, although they were soundly beaten by Sri Lanka by five wickets in that semi. However, their quarter-final win over South Africa was perhaps the single best ODI performance of the year - with Jesse Ryder (83), Ross Taylor (43) and Jake Oram (four for 39 off nine overs) the stars.
Problem is, once you weed out the minnows, New Zealand's ODI performances against the major countries look a little less compelling. In 18 ODIs, they had nine wins, eight losses and one no result. Once that is filtered, the Black Caps record against the major countries was played 10, won four, lost six.
They are ranked seventh in the world in this format, with the West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands and Kenya behind them. In Twenty20 matches, the 2011 record is played two, won two (both against Zimbabwe), although if you include the three T20s against the Pakistanis at the very end of 2010, their record swells to played five, won four.
They are ranked second in the world at T20, behind England, though few will rejoice at this fact, with T20 already showing signs of burning itself out and recognised as adversely affecting other forms of the game.
