Newcomer Dilshan Munaweera, looking to fix his spot as a long-term opener in the Sri Lanka squad, will face a stern test against South Africa on Saturday

Andrew Fernando in Hambantota21-Sep-2012One game into the World Twenty20, it is clear Sri Lanka have invested a great deal in Dilshan Munaweera. The team has split up a successful opening pair, moving their best batsman Mahela Jayawardene to a less favoured batting position to accommodate Munaweera in his familiar spot. It would have been easy for the seniors to pull rank and ask Munaweera to inject energy into a middle order carrying two accumulators, but they’ve been careful to make his international baptism a gentle one. Largesse towards youngsters has been a hallmark of a side that understand the leap Sri Lanka players must make when they move from the local circuit to international cricket.It also emphasises Munaweera’s importance to Sri Lanka’s campaign. Dinesh Chandimal waits on the sidelines to replace the first batsman to falter, but if he joins a lineup already looking short of firepower, Sri Lanka’s finishers may have to work even harder towards the close. With one of the most aggressive top threes in the tournament, Sri Lanka have banked on sustained hitting during the Powerplay, and Munaweera must play his part for the strategy to prove worthwhile.Saturday’s match shapes as the biggest test of Munaweera’s career. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have bloodied more hardened men than he, and a nervous start to international cricket and an awkward first dismissal cannot have boosted Munaweera’s confidence greatly. Moreover, South Africa will have studied him closely in their team meetings. They will know he is, at present, over-reliant on boundaries to make a score. They will know he cuts and pulls well but drives poorly. They will endeavour to keep him on strike, knowing he has trouble rotating it, and the customary dose of newbie-abuse will no doubt be gleefully given as well.”It’s always going to be tough, especially when you’re an opening batsman,” captain Mahela Jayawardene said of the trial awaiting Munaweera. “It’s a great experience for him to play one of the two best bowling combinations in the game right now. He has Dilshan at the other end to guide him and a couple of other senior batsmen to follow.”Not only will Munaweera’s mettle be tested by bowlers much faster and capable of generating more bounce than he has encountered at home and on A-team tours, he will also be playing on a foreign surface. The Bloomfield Cricket Club pitch he has thrived on has a reputation for being low and slow. Both pitches in Hambantota so far have had plenty of bounce and carry, and South Africa’s seamers will squeeze every inch of movement available as well.It is perhaps unfair to expect Munaweera to pass the test with flying colours, given his inexperience and the gulf between domestic and top-level cricket he must learn to bridge in the next few weeks. A young Mahela Jayawardene was among the most complete batsmen Sri Lanka’s system ever produced, and even he was forced to make drastic improvements in his early years to compete against the finest.”For me Wasim Akram was the guy I struggled against early on because of his quality and variations,” Jayawardene said. “Every time I played against him early I struggled early on. Every time after the game he would pat me on my back and say keep learning, and that’s what I did. It was a good experience for me. I was one of the victims of his hat-trick early on. After 12 years of international cricket he started getting hat-tricks against Sri Lanka. It was tough playing him.”One of Sri Lanka’s biggest selection regrets has been the meandering career of Chamara Kapugedara. No one can doubt the batsman’s talent, having seen it in spades in domestic cricket as well as in patches for the national team, but perhaps his failure to grow into a match-winner was hampered by inconsistency in selection and a tendency to bat him out of position. So far Munaweera far has avoided that fate.”The good thing is that he’s got a free hand. When you have a youngster coming into the set-up, there’s not much pressure on you. You just go out there and enjoy yourself and back yourself to play your game. That’s what is exciting about young cricketers coming in. We’re just going to give him the license to go out there and enjoy himself.”A poor outing against South Africa’s pace may not warrant Munaweera’s exclusion at the Super Eights stage, but it may earn a him a reputation for being a soft target. He will be watched, analysed, and attacks will formulate plans specifically for him in the coming weeks. It is a different world of pressure at the top, and Munaweera will get a healthy taste of that on Saturday. How he responds in that game and the matches to follow may not shape his career, but having provided Munaweera with the best chance to succeed, Sri Lanka will hope their investment pays off.

Dimitri Mascarenhas has criticised the pitch in Centurion, calling it “no good for 20-over cricket” after Hampshire were knocked out of the Champions League

Firdose Moonda in Centurion10-Oct-2012Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas has criticised the pitch at SuperSport Park in Centurion, calling it “no good for 20-over cricket” after his team was knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers having played only one match. Hampshire posted 121 on a surface with inconsistent bounce that did not allow the ball to carry through quickly, and Auckland reached the target with 33 deliveries to spare.”When we saw the pitch yesterday, we thought there was no way we could play on the wicket,” Mascarenhas said. “We knew that whoever won the toss would win the game. I heard there was a chance the match would be moved to the Wanderers but obviously that didn’t happen.” There has been no confirmation that a request was put in to change the venue and the second match continued as scheduled in Centurion.When the Hampshire team saw the pitch on Monday it was being watered, which groundsman Hilbert Smit said was “standard practice.” He admitted he may have “misread the weather,” when he watered the pitch during last week’s heat wave in anticipation of no rain early this week. Instead, 38 millimetres fell on Monday in the summer’s first storms, and the water table rose substantially.”Because of that [the rain] we knew the pitch would be slow and a few deliveries would hold back. But one team still scored at more than eight runs to the over and there is nothing wrong with that,” Smit said, referring to Auckland’s chase.Mascarenhas said the pitch had eased after the heavy roller was used in the innings break and it “definitely got better” to bat on. He thought his team had lost the match because of the batting performance. “Not many teams defend scores of around 120. When you are, you’re desperate for wickets and in doing that, you will give a few away.”Rather than a low-scoring game, Mascarenhas would have preferred a strip with runs in it. “In 20-over cricket, you want a flat wicket and you want to see runs on the board. You don’t want the ball to be dominating the whole time,” he said. “I am a bowler and even I don’t want the ball to dominate.”Auckland captain Gareth Hopkins was less scathing about the surface. “The toss did play a little part in it and it was easier to bat on second, but I don’t think it was too tricky up front,” he said. “It was a little bit slower than the pitch we had last night at the Wanderers and one or two balls did something funny.”Hopkins was the happier of the two captains not just because his team won but because Auckland have now qualified for the main draw. Their victories in both group matches mean they will progress irrespective of the result between Hampshire and Sialkot tomorrow.Hampshire were gutted not only to be out of the competition in the space of a day but because, as Mascarenhas said, “The most disappointing thing is that it was all in the toss, it was decided on that.”

Pitches similar to those in the Caribbean will help West Indies in their tour of Bangladesh, West Indies vice-captain Denesh Ramdin said

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Nov-2012Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies wicketkeeper, believes that the presence of two attacking spinners in their line-up on pitches similar to the ones in the Caribbean will give West Indies useful attacking options in the two-Test series which begins in Dhaka on November 13.”The pitches here are similar to a lot of pitches back in the Caribbean. Slow and the ball spins a bit,” Ramdin said. “It will be to our advantage with Sunil Narine and Veerasammy Permaul, who’s on debut. If we go into the Test with two spinners, we’ll have to try and bowl them out.”This is West Indies’ third full tour to Bangladesh, having won the Test series in 2002 and 2011. On the first occasion, a four-man pace attack was enough to see off the hosts who were only in their third year of playing Test cricket. Last year, Fidel Edwards hurried the batsmen throughout the series but in the crucial second innings of the second Test, legspinner Devendra Bishoo took a five-for to finish off Bangladesh. This time West Indies not only have Narine and Permaul, but also the likes of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Narsingh Deonarine.”It is a good pitch at the stadium here [Mirpur, the venue of the first Test]. The bowlers will give us the wickets, Sunil Narine will be playing here for the first time. The pitches here will assist him and hopefully he’ll continue where he left off against New Zealand,” Ramdin said.The tourists, who arrived on Monday morning, will hold their first training session on Wednesday. They play a three-day practice match against the BCB XI from Thursday at the BKSP ground – West Indies’ first longer-format match in three months. However, unseasonal rain threatens the start of the game.”We have to take the batting practice in the three-day game and adapt to the conditions. I believe the guys have the capability of playing long innings. All of us have to go out there and express ourselves and get runs for the team,” he said.”We would like to win the series 2-0, but it all depends on the weather and how the practice game goes.”Ramdin mentioned that his finger injury, suffered while batting in a three-day practice match against Sagicor High Performance Centre on October 31, is healing after seven days of rehabilitation.The West Indies team has had a good year and after noticeable performances against Australia at home and in England, they beat New Zealand 2-0 in the Test series at home. The return of players like Chris Gayle has also added potency to the once fragile top order and with the recent win in the World Twenty20, expectations run high.”It is very important that we keep that momentum going,” he said. “We have played a lot of one-dayers and T20s in the past three months. It is very important that we start well. We have a number of good players back in the team like Chris Gayle, who scored a century against New Zealand.”Marlon Samuels did well, so did Sunil Narine. The experienced guys like Shiv Chanderpaul are here, hopefully these guys can give us the impetus to do well in the series.”

Abdur Rehman, the Pakistan left-arm spinner, will again play for Somerset in 2013 having signed for the latter part of the domestic season

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2012Abdur Rehman, the Pakistan left-arm spinner, will again play for Somerset next season after spending the latter part of the 2012 season at Taunton.Currently, the exact dates of the deal are unclear but will include the final stages of the County Championship and the CB40. But the club are keen to try and extend Rehman’s stay to include the Friends Life t20 earlier in the season if his Pakistan commitments allow.Rehman played four Championship matches in 2012, taking 27 wickets at 14.18 which included nine wickets in an innings against Worcestershire. He also claimed nine wickets in three CB40 matches with a best of 6 for 16.But Rehman made the headlines for off-field reasons, too, and is currently serving a 12-week ban having tested positive for cannabis during his spell with Somerset.Guy Lavender, the chief executive, said: “The club in no way condones the use of illegal drugs. It was heartening to see that he admitted his mistake and has been punished accordingly. It is now time to move on and I am very confident he will do extremely well for us next season”.Rehman added: “I really enjoyed my time there last year and will look to play with the same intensity and passion, I would also like to thank the Somerset management and fans for their support in what has been a difficult period for me.”Somerset, who are still awaiting to appoint a new director of cricket, have Alviro Petersen, the South Africa batsman, joining them for the first part of the season.

New Zealand Women beat Australia Women by six wickets with two balls to spare in the first Twenty20 match of the series in Melbourne on Tuesday

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2013
ScorecardEllyse Perry took two crucial wickets, but it couldn’t prevent defeat for Australia•Getty Images

New Zealand Women beat Australia Women by six wickets with two balls to spare in the first Twenty20 match of the series in Melbourne on Tuesday. The two sides will play the second match of the series later in the day.Captain Suzie Bates led the New Zealand team’s chase of 151, with an important knock of 42. Bates and Sophie Devine set the foundation for a New Zealand win, adding 67 runs for the third wicket, before Frances Mackay and Nicola Browne took their side past the target with an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 54.Earlier, Australia managed to score a respectable 7 for 151 after they were reduced to 3 for 15. Left-arm spinner Morna Nielsen and medium-pacer Lea Tahuhu struck early to dismiss Jess Cameron and Lisa Sthalekar in quick succession after opener Alyssa Healy was run out in the first over.The Australia innings recovered following a 75-run partnership between Meg Lanning, who top scored with 76, and Alexandra Blackwell for the fourth wicket. However, Australia again lost a flurry of wickets towards the end of their innings that limited them to 151.

Quinton de Kock’s disciplinary hearing for allegedly pushing an opposition player in a first-class match will not take place before next Wednesday

Firdose Moonda17-Jan-2013Quinton de Kock’s disciplinary hearing for allegedly pushing an opposition player in a first-class match will not take place before next Wednesday, which has cleared him to play in the first two ODIs against New Zealand. Gary Kirsten confirmed de Kock will keep in all the matches he plays in the series.To help de Kock prepare for his fifty-over international debut, team management roped in the services of Mark Boucher, who trained with him at Claremont Cricket Club on Thursday. “When Mark retired I said to him that his experience in international cricket is something I wouldn’t want to turn away,” Kirsten said. “I think he has a lot to offer. We felt the perfect place for him would be to be with a young keeper like Quinton, to spend some time with him and give him and understanding not only of the skills required but the pressures of international competition.”Mentoring de Kock also seems to be part of integrating him into the national structures because he has only emerged on the circuit quite recently. De Kock is a former South Africa Under-19s player but this is first season contracted to a franchise and Kirsten admitted he does not know much about the 20-year-old. “I’ve met this guy once before and the longest conversation I had with him was one minute,” he said.Kirsten’s assistant, Russell Domingo, may have slightly more information on the youngster. Domingo coached the national side during de Kock’s debut: the T20 series against New Zealand in which he also donned the gloves. All evidence suggests de Kock has been earmarked as a permanent replacement for AB de Villiers, who seems set to give up wicketkeeping in limited-overs. “We want to give AB a chance to just be the captain,” Kirsten said.”We feel that to captain, bat at No.4 and keep is a very hard task. It’s something that we spoke about even before he started the role because I was concerned that it was going to be too much to ask of him. He really wants to focus his attention on his captaincy.”De Villiers was named South Africa’s limited-overs captain in July 2011. He missed his inaugural series as leader against Australia in late 2011 because of injury and Hashim Amla stood in for him. De Villiers was first in charge for the 3-2 win over Sri Lanka last January. He also captained in the T20 and ODI series in England and the World T20 in Sri Lanka. He kept wicket in all those matches but did not play the T20 series against New Zealand, citing fatigue and a focus on his Test keeping.It has now emerged that de Villiers also finds wicket-keeping in ODIs too taxing on his chronically bad back and does not feel he has enough of a grip on the demands of captaincy to do both jobs. “He has had all this on his shoulders,” Kirsten said. “He feels keeping in 50 overs is more intense than in a Test match and he just needs to understand how he is going to go about captaining this team.”Some of the strategies de Villiers will have to get his head around are the floating batting line-up and the possibility of changing personnel. Both are tactics Kirsten will continue with, although he has indicated he may rein in the former. “We’ve tried to rotate the batting order, we feel we need to find a middle road there,” he said. “We are certainly going to be flexible. We believe that is the way forward but, at the same time, we cannot be silly about it.”Kirsten suggested that Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, the two quicks who play all three formats for South Africa, will be rested for some of the three ODIs because the three-Test series against Pakistan is only two weeks away. “Test cricket is our number one and we want to make sure we pick a full strength team in whatever Test we play. We don’t rest players and rotate at that level,” he said. “With the other versions, because there is a lot of cricket, something has to give. These guys are fit enough to play every game but I want them mentally 100 percent ready to deliver.”Although Kirsten’s main emphasis is on Test cricket, South Africa will not have as taxing a year as they did in 2012. Their only away tour in which they will play in the longest format is to the UAE to face Pakistan in October.Contrastingly, South Africa play much more ODI cricket this year. Eight matches at home (three against New Zealand, five against Pakistan) will be followed by the Champions Trophy and a limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka. With one eye on ICC silverware, Kirsten indicated the 50-over game will come into the spotlight in 2013, where he hopes South Africa can step up.”We would like to perform at a higher level than we have done so far,” he said. “We’ve been ok but we haven’t been outstanding. We’ve got a great opportunity this year so there will be a lot more emphasis on ODI cricket this year.”

Mountaineers registered a convincing 55-run win over Mid West Rhinos in the Logan Cup match at Kwekwe Sports Club

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMountaineers registered a convincing 55-run win over Mid West Rhinos in the Logan Cup match at Kwekwe Sports Club.Although Mountaineers dominated the first innings of the match, taking a 69-run first-innings lead, Rhinos did have a chance to make a comeback. A five-wicket haul by Graeme Cremer in the second innings helped Rhinos restrict Mountaineers to 216 – that meant a target of 285, with nearly two days of play left in the game.Rhinos, however, lost their way after a 48-run opening partnership between Vusi Sibanda and Jaik Mickleburgh was broken by fast bowler Shingi Masakadza – he had Sibanda bowled. By the time Mickleburgh was dismissed for 43, Mountaineers’ bowlers had made significant inroads, reducing the Rhinos to 101 for 5.A sixth-wicket partnership of 57 runs between Cremer and Mluleki Nkala gave Rhinos some hope, but once Cremer was dismissed for 29, Nkala ran out of partners and Rhinos folded for 230.

Another rapid start for Sri Lanka was halted, then aborted, by persistent rain in Hambantota, which arrived at 2:52pm and did not cease until officials were forced to call off the match at 6:44pm

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando in Hambantota25-Mar-2013

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
It kept raining for almost four hours in Hambantota, ensuring the game was called off•AFP

Another rapid start for Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kusal Janith Perera was halted, then aborted, by persistent rain in Hambantota, which arrived at 2:52pm and did not cease until officials were forced to call off the match at 6:44pm. Sri Lanka were 33 without loss after five overs when the covers were called on, with Perera on 18 from 21 balls and Dilshan on 10 from 9 deliveries.Sri Lanka’s openers did not quite match the breakneck pace of Saturday evening’s opening stand, but were brutal on errors in length, which the Bangladesh seam bowlers provided regularly. Dilshan leant back to crash his first ball through cover-point, when Rubel Hossain dug it in short, before Perera blasted two more short deliveries to the leg-side boundary in the next two overs. Dilshan was dropped on 9, by a diving Mushfiqur Rahim, who failed to cling to an under-edge lying low to the left, but there was hardly any time for the mistake to cost Bangladesh, as the rains arrived at the end of that over.The hosts now head to Pallekele for the final ODI with a 1-0 lead. Southwest monsoon rains have arrived early in much of the country however, and a wet finish could well be in store for the series.

Derbyshire’s decision to make Shivnarine Chanderpaul the marquee signing of their return to First Division cricket could not have been demonstrated more amply as he put himself forward with all his customary patience and obstinacy as the cornerstone of a

Jon Culley at Derby24-Apr-2013
ScorecardStuart Broad took four wickets in his first action of the season•Getty Images

Derbyshire’s decision to make Shivnarine Chanderpaul the marquee signing of their return to First Division cricket could not have been demonstrated more amply as he put himself forward with all his customary patience and obstinacy as the cornerstone of a recovery.Chanderpaul, the 38-year-old left-hander with the most recognisable stance in international cricket, last year became only the second West Indian batsman to pass 10,000 Test match runs. Here he passed another milestone when his first-class aggregate rolled over 22,000. He would have supplemented that with his 67th first-class century, you imagine, had he not run out of partners, which might be a recurrent theme of his latest spell in county cricket.Chanderpaul was left stranded on 87 not out but at one stage it looked likely that it would be a good deal fewer as Nottinghamshire, whose visit to the Racecourse has been eagerly awaited since the champagne corks popped on their winning of Division Two title last September, threatened to inflict more embarrassment on the newcomers, less than a week after they were dismissed for 60 by Middlesex at Lord’s.Able to call on Stuart Broad to bolster an attack that under-performed in an opening-round defeat, Notts overcame the loss of Andre Adams to injury early in the day to have their neighbours from along the A52 in serious trouble at 75 for 6, in grave danger of suffering another feeble surrender.Such a fate would have risked significant damage to morale among a set of largely inexperienced players. Broad, moreover, was not of a mind to take pity on them. His first spell was a little erratic, with a sprinkling of no-balls and leg-byes, but he found his rhythm more readily than is sometimes the case at this time of year and his four wickets were a suitable reward. Derbyshire’s younger batsmen were reminded of the potency of his bouncer just often enough to keep their focus sharp but on a green, seaming pitch he bowled a fuller length effectively, getting good swing and finding the edge of the bat with reassuring frequency.He dealt the first blow to Derbyshire in his third over as Wayne Madsen, the skipper, fell into a delivery that umpire Martin Bodenham thought about for a few moments before raising the finger. Billy Godleman, who was beginning to look set after surviving a chance to Ed Cowan at third slip on 10, was then caught in two minds about whether to play or not, thin-edging a catch to wicketkeeper Chris Read as he tried to withdraw the bat.Dan Redfern didn’t help himself with a loose drive taken at gully and Jonathan Clare poked at one outside off stump but the wickets were earned. “He usually takes wickets for us,” Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, said afterwards. “I thought he bowled a good length, a bit fuller than in the past. He is swinging the ball and inducing the edges and I think it is important for him that he is that kind of bowler, who pitches the ball up and who has the bouncer as the surprise.”Broad’s appearances for Nottinghamshire have been rare ever since he moved from Leicestershire, his elevation to international cricket coming sooner than Newell anticipated. This is only his 12th appearance in the Championship for Notts, yet his return in those is 58 wickets at 24.27 runs each, which reflects well not only on his ability but his eagerness to serve his county.It is good news from Nottinghamshire’s point of view that there will be another opportunity for him next week, when Durham visit Trent Bridge and Graeme Swann, who had a net at Derby, will make his competitive comeback. Newell knows already that Adams, who has a suspected torn calf muscle, will not play.”He is going for a scan but the physio is pretty sure there is a tear in there and he won’t bowl again in this match or play against Durham,” Newell said. “We haven’t got another Championship game until the middle of May but if there is a tear it will be at least two to three weeks to heal.”Adams missed the end of last season with a similar injury and at 37 his powers of recovery are not what they were. After relying heavily on his wickets in the last three seasons – 189 of them in total – Nottinghamshire’s title ambitions would undoubtedly suffer should he have a prolonged absence.Broad bowled in five spells, which was probably more than would have been the case had Adams remained on the field. It was a wicket, moreover – one that pitch inspector David Capel will take a second look at – that would have suited Adams ideally, which only reinforces the merits of Chanderpaul’s four-hour vigil. The conditions prompted Nottinghamshire to pick Harry Gurney, a left-armer who bowls a fuller length, ahead of Ajmal Shahzad, who might not have been so effective.As the ball softened, Chanderpaul found support eventually from Clare, who perished frustratingly on 49, and Tony Palladino, who made 39 before becoming a fourth victim for Gurney. Their partnerships with Chanderpaul added 96 and 68.

New Zealand appear to be moving towards sticking with the 11 players used in the home series against England when the return contest starts at Lord’s next week

Andrew McGlashan at Grace Road08-May-2013New Zealand appear to be moving towards sticking with the 11 players used in the home series against England when the return contest starts at Lord’s next week.An unchanged top-order seems certain after Martin Guptill was left out of the final warm-up match against England Lions, while Doug Bracewell could struggle to force his way into the line-up although has a chance to impress at Grace Road in the absence of Neil Wagner who has been rested.Guptill missed the series in New Zealand due to a hamstring injury followed by thumb surgery and both opening slots in the side have been successfully filled by Hamish Rutherford and Peter Fulton, although neither shone against Derbyshire. That left Guptill battling for a middle-order place but he made just 25 and 8 in the first warm-up match while Dean Brownlie, the most under-pressure of the incumbent batsmen, made 71 in the first innings.Wagner, who formed a three-pronged pace attack with Tim Southee and Trent Boult in New Zealand, took eight wickets in the match against Derbyshire. Brendon McCullum confirmed there were no injury worries over him after he had problems with a toenail towards the end of that game. “Wagner has a huge chance of playing at Lord’s,” he said. “He’s fine, it was just a case of bowlers and toenails.”McCullum has also previously said that he is keen to retain balance in the attack with Bruce Martin’s left-arm spin, although it is not inconceivable that if conditions were persuasive enough New Zealand may consider an all-pace attack at Lord’s and rely on Kane Williamson’s offspin for variation. Williamson was a surprisingly effective bowler in the previous series, taking four wickets in the second innings in Auckland, when England hung on nine wickets down, while Martin went wicketless.”We have got a pretty good squad here and what we think is a reasonable eleven,” McCullum said. “The guys who played the other day performed well and put pressure on the incumbents and we haven’t bedded down our Test team just yet.”Bracewell, who has 46 wickets at 31.89 in 15 matches, made a case for a Test recall with seven wickets against Derbyshire having missed the home series after injuring his foot standing on glass. However, another factor in Wagner’s favour is that England have at times struggled against left-arm pace bowlers. Alastair Cook fell to either Wagner or Boult in four out of his five innings in the recent Test series.”We’ll see how Doug goes but I’m confident both can do a role,” McCullum said. “It’s more a horses-for-courses policy rather than favouring one person.”New Zealand XI 1 Hamish Rutherford, 2 Peter Fulton, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Dean Brownlie, 6 Brendon McCullum (capt), 7 BJ Watling, 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Bruce Martin, 11 Trent Boult