Standout performances for the ages

New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum jubilant after scoring his triple-century on day five of the second ANZ cricket test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

The Boxing Day feats of Brendon McCullum have underlined his favouritism to win this year’s supreme Halberg Award. Andrew Alderson selects another six of the finest performances by New Zealand test cricketers in a calendar year.

1) Martin Donnelly - 1949
462 runs at 77.00; New Zealand draw four tests.

Martin Donnelly

New Zealand did not win a test until almost seven years afterwards, but the left-handed expatriate led the way establishing the country's pedigree and earning tests of more than three days' duration. He passed 50 in four out of six innings, including 206 at Lord's, then New Zealand's highest individual score. Half-centuries in the next test at Old Trafford had him described by doyen Neville Cardus as having "staked another claim to a position amongst the finest of contemporary batsmen". Donnelly never played for New Zealand after 1949, due to work commitments but left a legacy in the middle order.

2) Sir Richard Hadlee - 1985
64 wickets at 17.43, 379 runs at 27.07; NZ complete four wins in 10 tests.

Any New Zealand fan switching on the telly on the afternoons of November 8 and 9 witnessed Australia disintegrating at the 'Gabba, courtesy of Hadlee's entry for one of pace bowling's finest displays. Resplendent in button-up shirt and double-striped wristbands, Hadlee was so efficient he could've bowled in a cylinder. His nine for 52, still the best bowling in an innings by a New Zealander, was enhanced by the pioneering stump microphone technology which sounded like someone had driven an axe deep into a ring of macrocarpa every time he rattled the bails. Five other five-wicket bags and two 50s underlined a player in his pomp.

Sir Richard Hadlee's 9-52 against Australia in 1985 still ranks as New Zealand's finest bowling display.

3) Martin Crowe - 1985
820 runs at 51.25; NZ complete four wins in 10 tests.

Martin Crowe was poetry in motion.

Crowe's batting complemented Hadlee's bowling as New Zealand built their 1980s era. The highlights were his 188s in Georgetown and Brisbane. The first came against a West Indies attack featuring Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding on what was described, mercifully, by Men In White as a 'docile' pitch. The second came against Australia in humid, swing-friendly conditions which saw Hadlee finish with 15 wickets. When the ball was pitched up, the sight of Crowe's drive was the essence of batsmanship.

4) Chris Cairns - 1999

47 wickets at 20.51, 548 runs at 39.14; New Zealand complete four wins in 13 tests.

Chris Cairns.

Cairns was joint man of the series when New Zealand won their second test series in England. Persistent, accurate bowling saw him top the wicket charts with 19 at 21.26 and his batting saved the final test and series at The Oval. New Zealand were 39 for six when Cairns arrived to plunder 80 off 93 balls. Later in the year, he took test-best innings figures of 7-27 as man-of-the match in the first of two wins against the West Indies. Cairns took four five-wicket bags and scored a century against India.

5) Daniel Vettori - 2008
54 wickets at 26.12, 672 runs at 35.36; NZ complete four wins in 14 tests.

Daniel Vettori

This began an era when Vettori was burdened with so many responsibilities that rumours surfaced of him driving the team bus. In 11 of 14 tests, he scored 50 or more runs or took four or more wickets to cement his all-rounder status. Who knows where New Zealand might have sunk in the rankings without Vettoris tenacious bowling and rearguard batting during this period? His finest moment came in the three-wicket victory over Bangladesh in Chittagong. Vettori took 9-133 with the ball and made 55 not out and 76 with the bat. The latter innings came at No 4 with New Zealand posting 317, their second-highest successful fourth-innings chase.

6) Ross Taylor - 2013
866 runs at 72.16; NZ complete two wins in 12 tests.

Ross Taylor laid the foundation for the current team's self-belief.

Until the McCullum/Kane Williamson extravaganza, Taylor's performance was the best by a New Zealander since John Reid's 871 runs at 36.29 in 1965. New Zealand won two tests against the West Indies when he became the second Kiwi to notch centuries in three consecutive tests. The reason his performance holds so much weight is that he turned around the loss of the captaincy and channelled his energy into batting which set the platform for the team's self-belief. He also made four half-centuries and retained his status as cricket's most reliable first slip.