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Sports correspondent & historian with |
The White Ferns and Black Caps rewrite history.
Our two national cricket teams climbed their own Mt Everest in the space of 24 twenty-four hours.
First, the Black Caps pulled off the rare feat of a test match win over India in India, while the White Ferns stunned the cricket world by winning the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The magnitude of the achievements is hard to take in without looking back in time.
New Zealand has experienced how hard it is to win a test match on Indian soil.
Test match pitches on the Indian sub-continent are spin-bowling friendly with slow and flat surfaces.
Since the first tour in the 1955 and 1956 season, the New Zealand representatives have engaged in 37 tests in India, losing 17, drawing 17, with just three victories.
You must return to 1969 to find their first test win at Nagpur, and you must wait 19 years for their next victory in 1988 in Mumbai.
The Black Caps’ 13th Indian tour brought their latest victory when they rolled the dice to bowl their pace attack on day two after the first day was rained out.
Matt Henry led the way with five bowling scalps, with Will O’Rourke grabbing four wickets and Tim Southee chipping in with one, as India were bundled out for just 46 runs.
The Indian total was the lowest score that the superstars of world cricket had scored at home. After the Black Caps had posted 402 runs in their first turn at bat, India returned with 462, setting New Zealand a modest 107 for victory.
Victory on the Indian subcontinent proved just the entree to the White Ferns’ stunning performance. After many losses, New Zealand entered the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, with only the true believers thinking they could win the big prize.
While the Ferns dug deep to defeat India, they were given a reality check when Australia beat them by 60 runs in their second game.
Hard work with both bat and ball took them to the semifinals after passing Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
A hard-fought semifinal victory over the West Indies propelled them to the World Cup title decider with South Africa.
The White Ferns never took their foot off the pedal from the opening ball, and the New Zealand total was 158 for the loss of five wickets.
The win was set up by Amelia Kerr’s magnificent performance, which included 43 runs and three wickets. The experience of the old guard Suzy Bates, Sophie Devine, and Lea Tuhuhu was the backstop to the ultimate victory.
In a small way, the Bay Oval could have played a small part in both upset victories. Teams need an edge to give them small advantages on the field of play, which can be translated into victory.
The Bay Oval Indoor grass wickets allow turf manager Jared Carter and his team to replicate overseas international grounds’ turf and wicket conditions at home.
While we will never know what advantages the Bay Oval Black Caps and White Fern pre-tour visits to the Bay Oval provided in the two big upsets – the Bay Oval has been rubber-stamped as one of world cricket’s premier centres of training excellence.