Cricket: Collapsible top order can pack for African trip

By RICHARD BOOCK

As ludicrous as it sounds, New Zealand's beleaguered top-order batsmen can virtually start packing their bags for the tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa at the end of the year.

Despite being repeatedly put to the sword by the Australian attack, batsmen Matt Horne, Craig Spearman and Mathew Sinclair received a vote of faith from the New Zealand selectors and will almost certainly be retained for the African tour in September.

At the end of a summer which started so swimmingly, New Zealand have found their top-order batting glaringly exposed by the Australian bowlers, but are likely to confine their search for solutions among the incumbents, with perhaps a New Zealand A candidate in the mix as well.

Of the form-less three, the selectors will persevere with Sinclair and have no intention of discarding Horne (who has three test centuries to his name), while Spearman, in the best traditions of "Dag Parker," probably did just enough in Hamilton to keep the selectors interested.

Spearman, the Central Districts skipper, was perhaps the most vulnerable, having yet to reach three figures in 16 tests, but ended the season with an encouraging, albeit modest, average of 27.38, and with a brave showing against Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath.

For all that, New Zealand's fold-away top order collapsed in all three transtasman tests and created huge problems further down the order, where Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle invariably found themselves facing the new ball and trying to patch the innings back together.

They enjoyed only moderate success in this and it was, in fact, the middle-to-lower order batsmen - Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan and Adam Parore - who ended up leading most of the salvage operations.

Cairns, this week named the International Player of the Summer, enjoyed his best season for New Zealand, finishing at the head of both the batting and bowling averages, and is expected to figure prominently tonight at the New Zealand Cricketer of the Year awards.

The 29-year-old allrounder scored the most runs for the season and trailed top wicket-taker Daniel Vettori by just two wickets, and was perhaps the main reason New Zealand remained competitive in the tests against Australia.

McMillan, after losing all form during the one-day series, rediscovered his touch in time to play a couple of critical innings in Auckland and Hamilton, while Parore also played a useful hand with the bat, looking composed against the in-form Australian attack and featuring in a couple of important late-order partnerships.

Although his glovework deteriorated to the ragged stage in Hamilton, the New Zealand wicketkeeper remains a valuable batsman and was described by Australian skipper Steve Waugh in Wellington as an under-used player who was well equipped to cope further up the order.

A salient point is that Australia's batsmen collected 13 centuries between them in nine tests this summer - as many as New Zealand have scored since the end of 1996.

On the bowling front, New Zealand were always destined to struggle after the loss of Geoff Allott and Dion Nash, and when Daniel Vettori was forced out with a stress fracture as well, the attack - comprising Cairns, Shayne O'Connor, Daryl Tuffey and Paul Wiseman - was hard pressed to contain the Australians.

However, Wiseman, who started the season with 15 test wickets, performed capably while adding another 11 to his tally, and O'Connor again demonstrated his ability to remove top batsmen when conditions suit - and when Fleming gives him the chance.