Spectator always enjoyed a fearsome tear away fast bowler bowling in full flight & shattering the stumps of opposing batsman. They always like to see fear in the batsman’s eyes. Captain feels good if he had a big barrage of fast bowlers at bench or uncut supplies of talented fast bowlers in their armory.It started with Caribbean giants when in 70’s they formed pace attack which aim to destroy world batters than the trend continues & we saw Australia, Pakistan & South Africa showcasing their bunch of faster bowlers at will. Black caps always have good fast bowling resources mainly starting from Sir Richard Hadlee who serves KIWI’s for good part of 20 odd years but others around him always come & go includes Ewen Chatfield, Lance Cairns.
Than in early 90’s we saw emergence of Chris Cairns, Dion Nash to support Danny Morrison who was always considered as a successor of Sir Hadlee. Later on international #cricket witnessed Daryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills & Chris Martin sharing the work load of Kiwi pace attack.Then comes the golden boy Shane Bond whose career halted by several setbacks such as injuries & rebel leagues but he was always rated as one of the best & complete fast bowlers world cricket witnessed.
All above mentioned KIWI fast bowlers played in short stints due to injuries or lack of form & whenever one goes out it creates a weak link in their fast bowling department. Now for the first time we are witnessing New Zeland building a barrage of fast bowlers & they are keep coming. In this article we gonna look at some of the missiles from New Zeland’s fast bowling artillery.
Trent Boult
Leading the attack is young Trent Boult who can easily be rated among the best left arm fast bowlers in world of cricket at the moment. He bowls with a decent pace in high 80 mph & maintain accuracy in his line & length. He topped bowling charts in recently concluded world cup 2015. He is young & can serve New Zeland cricket for longer time if handled with care & proper load management.
Tim Southee
Another bowler from New Zeland in mid 20’s age but already had a plenty of exposure at international level. Southee is new ball partner of Boult but totally in different mould. He is a medium paced swing bowler with complete control over his bowling attributes. At young age of 26 Southee already have 100+ wickets in test & ODI cricket.
Neil Wagner
South Africa born fast bowler who tried his luck in New Zeland after learning trade & tricks of bowling in South Africa. Wagner is complete swing bowler either it is a conventional or reverse. Wagner always considered as test specialist & yet to make his ODI debut. Like Boult he is also Left armer but with a lesser pace.
Mitchell McClenaghan
Another left armer in New Zeland’s new crop of quick bowlers. He is medium paced but hit the deck sort of bowler who put his all energy behind the ball. McClengham is already having successful limited over career with more than 50 wickets to his name just on an average of 25 runs per wicket. In contrast to Wagner he is considered as a limited over format specialist.
Matt Henry
Another young fiery fast bowler from black caps brigade who initially has some injury problems but he did his best to overcome on it & enjoying a short but successful limited over career so far. He claimed best figures on debut for KIWI’s when he got 4 wickets against India in his debut match. Henry is yet to represent black caps in whites but he is jus 23 & can be considered for a longer & successful career.
Adam Milne
When you talk about serious pace Adam Milne’s name popped out. A seriously quick right armer from New Zeland clocked up to 150 kmh at international level. Although he hasn’t got the same impressive figures like Matt Henry or McClengham but his serious pace & bounce is making him the talk of the town.New Zeland also having other few options in fast bowling department such as Jimmy Neecham, Correy Anderson, Doug Bracewell & Hamish Bannett but the names I mentioned above are the stars for the future (in my opinion). With series in England coming up New Zeland’s pace brigade can create severe damage to England’s hope of restructuring their side due weather & pitches conducive for fast bowling.
