As someone who played with Shane Bond in his first four tests eight years ago, I was delighted, and pleasantly surprised, by his return to the five-day game at Dunedin last week.

But his latest injury, which has put him out of the current test in Wellington and next week’s third match against Pakistan in Napier, leaves me wondering how long this comeback will last.

The strong suspicion is that his test days are numbered. My advice would be to turn his attention to the one-day game.

The quality of his bowling in Dunedin was no surprise. We’ve long known he has the ability to be among the very best, as a record of 87 wickets in 18 tests shows.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf, a terrific batsman who has seen the best of the modern game, puts him among the finest he’s played.

The aspect which did surprise me was his pace. He’s 34, has been through the wringer in terms of injuries, and yet he was still able to get the ball through at about 150km/h.

If you’re above 140km/h you’re lively; touch 150km/h and that puts you in a different league.

Bond’s performance in its own right was outstanding, but one point seemed to be missed by most commentators - his work created opportunities for the bowlers at the other end.

Take the eight wickets out of the equation for a moment.

If you watched the Pakistan batsmen, Bond’s presence and pace made them change their game plan.

When he was bowling they were all pretty keen to get to the other end.

They were noticeably more aggressive against the other bowlers, which in turn meant they took more liberties against Chris Martin, Iain O’Brien and Daniel Vettori, and that led to Read more…

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It was an old boys’ reunion even the most ardent New Zealand cricket follower would have struggled to envisage.

Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey probably had doubts as well over the intervening seasons, but in Tuesday night’s Tri-Series one-dayer against Sri Lanka they formed New Zealand’s three-pronged pace attack for the first time in more than seven years.

The trio last hunted as a pack at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, in June 2002 – and it was a successful expedition as the West Indies were humbled by 202 runs in the first test to tee up a historic series win in the Caribbean.

Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler.

While Bond’s list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler’s inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations.

New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.

He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while ‘drugged up’ before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler’s words: “Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong.”

Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of Read more…

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GOOD

Daniel Vettori: Batting and bowling, and becoming a genuine all-rounder with Kapil Dev’s 400/4000 mark next on the list. Clearly at home with the captaincy blazer given his return of 74 wickets and 1232 runs in 21 matches in charge, but he can’t keep doing it all himself. There must be temptation aplenty to send him north up the batting order ahead of McCullum and even Oram - but his comments in the aftermath of the 2-0 series loss make it pretty clear that will not be happening.

Rangana Herath: 82 overs, 20 maidens, 209 runs, 8 wickets. This portly left-armer was predicted to be a threat, yet the Sri Lankan selectors overlooked him for their XI in the first test. Small mercies.

Samaraweera: He might not be an opener but he is bloody good: 159, 20, 143 and 25.

Iain O’Brien’s testicular fortitude: He is an unfashionable cricketer but he has some ticker. His 75-ball, 69-run, 20-over vigil with the captain was a terrific effort that put several batsmen above him to varying degrees of shame - he was out in the middle for longer than McIntosh, Guptill, Taylor, McCullum and Patel.

The “penetration”: The bowling struggled to make inroads into the powerful Sri Lankan batting order - only O’Brien and Vettori took wickets in all four Lankan innings. The inability to dislodge can be demonstrated by the scores at which Sri Lanka lost their 4th wicket: 300, 205, 295 and 301.

Chris Martin’s willow-waving: 4 bats, 2 runs, 25 balls, and an average of infinity. Read more…

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It's a lovely day here in London; the weather has been great this last week to be fair, and because of that we have been able to train, play and enjoy our time leading up to the ICC World Twenty20. We arrived in London on Saturday, the day of the FA Cup final and guess what, a group of us managed to get our hands on a few tickets and go. What an event, what a stadium, what a treat. We sat in the Chelsea section - it didn’t really matter as none of us really had an Read more...

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