@Virgil said in NZ Cricket best XI's:
@MN5 said in NZ Cricket best XI's:
More on Paddles.......
from his debut until the end of 1979 he was a good cricketer. Worthy of his spot in the team if not the Iegend he would become.
I don't think England would be in a luxurious position to drop him with those stats. Worth pointing out he'd certainly struggle to get a game for the Windies in that period though, Australia too.
In 26 tests he took 107 wickets at 30.14 and 844 runs at 20.09.
Fair to say he took off from 1980 onwards. His long county cricket stint, shortened run up and being more disciplined with his batting all paid dividends.
In 60 tests he took 324 wickets at an amazing 19.7 and for good measure got 2280 runs at 31.23. Mind blowing stats ( Imran Khan did similar for Pakistan while Beefy declined from the early 80s )
No wonder NZ were so hard to beat during that period and God bless the the gutsy battlers who supported the great man along the way.
It wasnt just because of Paddles, Martin Crowe was a big reason for our success in the mid 80's as well
Playing around with cricinfo
between 1984 - 1987 which was likely their peak periods (Hadlee pretty much maintained it til he retired in 1990)
Hadlee played 29 tests, took 173 wickets @ 18.28
Crowe played 32 tests, scored 2375 runs @ 50.53
Beefy peaked at about 20 tests, he was averaging around 50 with the bat and 20 with the ball.
was all downhill after that
Ha, how did I know you'd mention Crowe 
I love me some Marty, very much stands alone as our third best ever cricketer ever. Some distance ahead of those jockeying for 4th.
Crowe suffered ( relatively speaking ) from a poor start and injury woes later on but during that period he was outstanding. the 80s was a tough period to bat and it's worth noting how few guys averaged 50.
In terms of batting John Wright did a sterling job too as did the vastly underrated Andrew Jones.
Going from one of the many cricket books I've inherited I'm fairly sure Beefy was averaging 38 and 23 respectively after 50 odd tests so still an absolute titan. Struggled against the Windies, was made captain when he didn't want it and had numerous off field issues after that which started the decline.
I find it a bit laughable that people try and compare Flintoff and Stokes to him. Batting yeah fair enough but Beefy was a MUCH better bowler than either of them.