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An extraordinary first for New Zealand, Sinclair joins a short list and Fleming and Parore pass some milestones Francis Payne - 20 March 2001
When Mark Richardson and Matthew Bell put on 69 for New Zealand's first wicket on the last day of the second Test at Christchurch it was their third successive opening stand of fifty or more. The pair put on 91 in the second innings of the first Test and 102 in the first innings of the second. The question was raised - "when was the last time New Zealand did this?" The quite staggering answer is that three successive opening stands of fity or more had never happened before (with either the same or different opening combinations) in New Zealand's entire Test history.
In the second Test Stephen Fleming passed John Reid's long-standing record of most Tests as captain. The players who have captained New Zealand most often in Tests are now:
When Adam Parore caught Waqar Younis on the last morning of the second Test it was his 169th catch in Test cricket, a New Zealand record. It also gave him 176 dismissals in total, equalling Ian Smith's record.
However, as three of Parore's catches were taken in the field, he is still two short of Smith's New Zealand wicket-keeping record for catches and three short of the dismissals tally. Ironically, though, two catches taken by Parore as a substitute when he deputised for Smith in Pakistan in 1990/91, cannot be included in his record.
The leading New Zealand wicket-keepers are:
* plus three catches as a fielder
Mathew Sinclair joined a very short list when he reached 150 during the course of his double century in the second Test. He became just the fifth player in Test history whose first three centuries were all 150 or more. Those players are:
Australia's Bobby Simpson is not on the list but deserves a mention. He had a sequence from his first Test hundred of 311, 153, 115, 201, 225 and 153.
Sinclair has now scored ten first-class hundreds, seven of which have been 150 or more. They are:
Sinclair's double century was just the ninth in New Zealand Test history and Sinclair became just the second New Zealand batsman after Glenn Turner to score two. He also became the first New Zealand batsman to add a fity to a double hundred in the same game.
The most runs in one game for New Zealand are now:
Sinclair and Yousuf Youhana (203) both scored double hundreds in the second Test - not an unusual feat (it had happened 18 times previously) - but only the second time it had happened in New Zealand. Aravinda de Silva (267) and Martin Crowe (299) achieved the feat at the Basin Reserve in 1990/91 while the only other instance involving New Zealand came at Kingston in 1971/72 when Lawrence Rowe scored 214 and Glenn Turner 223 not out.
West Indies and Australia achieved a unique feat at Bridgetown in 1964/65 when they amassed three double hundreds in the one match. Billy Lawry, Bobby Simpson and Seymour Nurse all reached two hundred.
Pakistan kept New Zealand in the field for 210 overs in the second Test but this was by no means a record. The full list of 200 over innings which New Zealand has fielded through are:
* eight-ball overs (equivalent to 208.3 six-ball overs)
Yousuf Youhana and Saqlain Mushtaq put on a mammoth 248 for Pakistan's seventh wicket at Christchurch but this, too, was well short of being a record for that wicket against New Zealand. The highest are:
Chris Drum had a bizarre introduction to Test cricket which went from joy to despair. His first ball was a no-ball to Ijaz Ahmed but his next delivery had the Pakistan batsman dislodging a bail and being out hit wicket. Drum was following the path of the ball from the bat and failed to see his moment of glory only realising what had happened when his team mates alerted him to it.
Later in the game Drum fell on his shoulder while fielding and injured himself so badly that he had to spend the rest of the game with his arm in a sling.
Drum does not, of course, join the list of players who have taken a wicket with their first ball in Test cricket. The only two New Zealanders to have done so remain Matt Henderson against England in New Zealand's first ever Test (Christchurch, 1929/30) and Dennis Smith - again at Christchurch and again against England - in 1932/33.
© CricInfo
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