Midweek Fixture: Time to talk about Tim Southee... and more

Sports Editor at Large·NZ Herald·

13 Dec, 2017 01:15 AM5 mins to read

Tim Southee bowling against the West Indies. Photo / Photosport

Ten way too hasty conclusions to draw from the West Indies series.

1. New Zealand were clever and comprehensive. They won the toss and bowled in Wellington, the Kookaburra didn't swing and Trent Boult and Matt Henry were strangely toothless. After 21 overs the West Indies were 54-0 and cruising. Kane Williamson changed tack, Neil Wagner grew fangs and less than 24 overs later the visitors were all out, the victims of a bumper barrage their predecessors would have recognised and loved. In this all-too-short series, whenever New Zealand were presented with a potential problem, they solved it.

2. The West Indies batting was pathetic. You can give them a pass for that initial collapse. Wagner's relentless aggression has accounted for more accomplished line-ups in recent years, but the fact that by the fourth day in Hamilton the Windies were still none the wiser as to how to combat it speaks volumes to the decline and further decline of Caribbean cricket.

3. Ross Taylor is a bona fide great of our game. For a time his excellence was obscured by the pyrotechnics of Brendon McCullum then the understated excellence of Kane Williamson, but all he does is score a lot of runs for New Zealand. Taylor's unbeaten 107 at Seddon Park was not his most stressful innings, but then again, only the really good ones make batting look simple.

4. It is time to re-evaluate Tim Southee. The Sexy Camel has taken some heat in recent times – some of it deserved, some way over the top. He's always been a good cricketer but not always a smart cricketer. He is now. New Zealand was clearly a better team when he returned after missing the first test. You can mount an argument that some of the Southee antipathy was due in large part to a misunderstanding on debut. That 77 not out, including nine sixes, tricked people into thinking he was an allrounder. He was never that, though he's clearly added a bit of fortitude to his technique in the off season. If New Zealand is on top, bat him No 9 ahead of Wagner because he remains an amazing striker of the ball (he will one day break the record for most sixes in tests); if tough runs are needed put him No 10. Either way, his core role is to be an accurate, intelligent bowler. It would be nice, however, to get him back with Shane Bond for a few months and rediscover that extra 5km/h he seems to have lost.

5. The middle order is an unresolved puzzle, though Colin de Grandhomme is secure. He won't get a lot of good players out and I remain unconvinced about his technique against quality attacks, but you can only play what is in front of you and he has earned the right for an extended stay in the team. You'd imagine BJ Watling has enough credit in the bank to come back against England (and force CdG down to No 8), though his leash will be short now we've seen Tom Blundell has a bit about him. You can't see the selectors jettisoning Henry Nicholls either, having invested so much (faith that has neither been repaid nor wasted). Mitchell Santner is the interesting one. Neither a frontline test spinner nor an international class No 6, he appears to be a black-shirted sheep dressed in white clothing.

6. Slow pace of play is a festering boil that must be lanced. Even the suspension of their skipper couldn't spark the Windies into action and they were subsequently fined for a slow over-rate during the second test. There is no excuse. If teams fall behind they must catch up. If that means using spinners on green tops, or the captain standing at mid-off to avoid having to jog to conduct conferences with the bowlers between deliveries, so be it. The sanctions are not working at the moment, so let's trial somethying more radical, like penalty runs – how about 20 extras for every over not completed. Captains will pull finger then. Slow play is a pox on our house.

7. 99 days until the next test starts. In this time of Trump there is only one word. Sad.

8. Don't even try to use the small-crowds card to justify the schedule. You know as well as anybody why you're never going to get a heap of people to a test match against a low-key opponent on a midweek day in a pre-Christmas fixture. Engagement with a product comes in many forms.

9. Debbie Hockley gets a free pass, just this once. It's great to hear new voices in the commentary team and a female voice is long overdue but I'm not sure they ran a particularly rigorous recruitment process. (The net was cast far and wide and the best brains in the broadcasting and cricket business came up with… the president of NZC). However, Hockley's "Is that Serena Williams?" call as the camera panned to two Caribbean women in the crowd was just plain awful. The embarrassed silence that followed was deafening. If it was Mark Richardson who'd uttered it, The Spinoff would have written an article.

10. The Super Smash starts tonight. Woo hoo!

There have been some interesting reactions to this story, which was months in the making. Some sensible, some stupid. After the dust has settled, I will address them next week.