New Zealand's Next Top Allrounder

Daniel Vettori has admirably filled the void left by the test retirement of Oram, but longer term there are some interesting potential stars emerging. Glancing at the recent domestic results, the 19 year old Corey Anderson has featured strongly with bat and ball.

Anderson became the youngest person to play first class cricket in New Zealand since the 1940's when he debuted for Canterbury shortly after his 16th birthday. The NZ selectors obviously recognise his talent as he was picked for NZ A last year and enjoyed success with the bat. The left hander bats in the top six and seems capable of playing destroying attacks with power hitting (see below). What is encouraging about his recent results is that he is now breaking through with his bowling after recovering from shoulder surgery. Hopefully Anderson will continue to impress and it seems a matter of time until we see him in NZ colours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaqZRnePIbY&feature=related

Watling Stars as Rain Denies NZ

So much for my 'realistic prediction' that we would be struggling for survival. Instead, for the second time in 2009, a potentially match and series winning innings for New Zealand has been stymied by the weather. Guptill's blazing unbeaten innings in the Hadlee/Chappell decider brought us within 30 runs of victory before the rain arrived. This time we needed 118 from a minimum of 23 overs to win the series. Again, it was a newcomer leading the charge with debutant Watling flying to 60 off 62 balls. The idea of a match winning innings, much less a match winning century on debut, would be a dream start for any player. But for the rain, it just might have happened.

It would have been a great end to the cricket year, a fairy tale debut and a fairy tale ending for Iain O'Brien. But that's the way it goes. Which calls to mind the comment of a veteran sports writer, Dan Jenkins, after Tom Watson fell just short of winning the British Open this year at the age of 59: "You know, maybe we're just not good enough people to have a story this good happen to us."

Still, after Watling's fine debut and the teams improvement in this test there should be some good stories to look forward to this season.

O'Brien's Last Hurrah

Can this stalwart bowler deliver victory for NZ tomorrow? Perhaps a final 5 wicket haul on his last day of test cricket? As Joseph Romanos wrote last week, "cricket fans here love honest battlers", and O'Brien exemplifies those qualities of guts and determination that people admire.

So tomorrow, hopefully the weather holds and O'Brien can exit the test match stage on a deserved high.

(Realistically, we'll probably find ourselves chasing 250+ and struggling to keep out Kaneria on a turning wicket)