The winners and losers from the Black Caps' 3-0 series whitewash of Bangladesh.
Scored back-to-back centuries to take his ODI total to 16 hundreds in a perfect return to the crease following injury woes and a dip in form in the Indian series. He'll be locked in for one opening spot for the World Cup and Gary Stead and the selectors can only hope his increasingly fragile body co-operates.
This was not a great series, to the point where one NZME sports reporter labelled it the "most boring series of all time". Here's a well known fact - the middle overs of ODIs are not particularly exciting. The best parts of the 50-over format are the first 10 overs (if a side makes a fast start or is forced to chase a big total) and the death overs (if a team has wickets in hand or are chasing hard). This series had a lot of middle overs and not a lot else.
All three games were never in doubt as Bangladesh fell to 71-5, 93-5 and 61-5. On the other hand, New Zealand's No 5 was only called onto bat once. To make matters more dull, New Zealand wasn't in a rush to chase down small totals in games one and two. We finally saw some death hitting in New Zealand's innings in the third and final game when James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme entered.
The Trent Boult-Matt Henry combo has been looking pretty good over the summer, and Henry's brilliant season in the UK last year must be taken into account for World Cup selection. But Southee threw a slower-ball among the pigeons yesterday with a 6-65 haul, even if it was the most expensive six-wicket haul in ODI history.
It's hard to say it about the city I grew up in but the turn-out at McLean Park was embarrassing. The lack of atmosphere just made it seem like a training run. Yes it was midweek, yes it's 'only' Bangladesh, yes they'd just hosted India a few weeks earlier and yes it probably didn't help that Bangladesh were batting first and made a poor start which no doubt turned away any walk-up fans. But this was a return of actual cricket to the city following two abandonments and a subsequent multi-million dollar surface overhaul. Christchurch and Dunedin then stepped up with impressive crowds in the following matches which made the Napier no-show even worse.
Taylor became the leading ODI run-scorer for New Zealand yesterday moving past Stephen Fleming on the all-time list. And he did it in 66 fewer innings - which is a staggering achievement. He also became the fourth fastest batsman to score 8,000 ODI runs (203 innings) – behind only Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Sourav Ganguly. Because of Kane Williamson's all-format excellence, we sometimes forget that Taylor remains hands-down New Zealand's greatest one-day batsman.
Both only got one chance to impress in the series and both didn't make the most of it. Munro only played in the final match and scored just eight from seven balls, to finish the summer with an average of 24.87 and a high score of 87 in his eight innings. If he's there to give the side a fast start, he's not really achieving it with a strike rate of just over 104. He probably didn't do himself any favours with the selectors or coaches when he confessed he was not sure what his role was as an ODI opener and has probably signed over that role to the more stolid Henry Nicholls.
Astle played in the second match and finished with 2-52. It's clear that Mitchell Santner is the first-choice spinner, though it's unclear whether Stead favours Astle or Ish Sodhi as his second option.
Has any single advertiser ever covered as much ground space as the Bangladeshi LED television manufacturer?
Honestly, how has he not been given a go to stake a claim as the spare batsman yet? He's been on the radar for some time and has done everything right this season. Does he need to move to Canterbury or ND?