Dylan Cleaver: Martin has right rhythm if not rhyme

While a side-winding slinger named Malinga is shaping as the focus for New Zealand batsmen looking ahead to the second test, a lanky Cantab with a more classical action is slowly getting his groove back.

Chris Martin, whose name is not given to catchy rhyming epithets, has endured a tough summer.

But his four-wicket haul on another belter of a track at Napier has provided some relief.

Martin concedes that his one-wicket return against Australia had started to play on his mind.

"I felt OK but in the end I asked John Bracewell if my action needed looking at to get me bowling more consistently."

The Black Caps coach told him he wasn't doing anything greatly different than a year previously when he was the bane of South Africa's vaunted batting line-up. "Be patient and it will come," he was told, and last Thursday it did.

Batting and bowling slumps are different beasts. When you're not scoring runs it's because you're making errors in judgment. But not taking wickets does not necessarily mean you're not bowling well.

Take the first morning of the Wellington test against Australia. Martin had it on a string but a catch went down, edges were flying between the slips and what could have a return of 4-50 instead blew out to 0-123.

That's got to hurt?

"A wee bit. A wee bit," Martin said.

Wellington this week again offers Martin some hope. If it swings, Martin could be a handful.

But one thing Martin will never be a handful for is the scorers.

A cover-driven four off Lisath Malinga was, Martin proudly told the Herald on Sunday, his first boundary in front of the wicket. All the Black Caps batsmen have complained about seeing Malinga very late because the ball gets lost in the umpire's dark trousers (cue for numerous bad jokes here).

It was not a problem for Martin, who legend has it never learned to bat because he didn't get his driver's licence until late in life. He would bike to practice and couldn't be bothered carrying heavy equipment like bats and pads.

"I usually see the ball pretty late anyway, so for me it wasn't much different."

Martin offers the theory that Malinga was lucky to have grown up in Sri Lanka. "If he was brought up here, he'd have been 'fixed' by now."

As Bracewell told Martin, if it ain't broke...

- HERALD ON SUNDAY