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ANZ Premiership LIVE from 4pmScotty Stevenson: Buckle up, the Blackcaps are back for another dramatic home summer
Scotty Stevenson • November 27th, 2024 10:30 am
Photo: Photosport
There is something fantastic about watching this New Zealand cricket team.
It doesn't matter how many people write them off, how many people don't believe in them, how many of the pundits say they've got no chance. It's a team that somehow, in really uncanny ways, finds a way to get the job done.
Are there players in this team who will feel under pressure? Of course there are. There are always players in every Test team who might have endured a run of poor form or a string of poor results.
But take nothing away from what this team and its iterations have been able to achieve, certainly over the last decade.
Whether it be white-ball finals, whether it be a World Test Championship, whether it be the thriller at the Basin Reserve between these two very teams last summer, a one-run victory. Wagner and Blundell combining on Anderson. That was a very special moment to be a part of.
And what I've noticed over the last four or five years is that every time you watch a game of Test cricket in this country, something unusual, something fantastic, something absolutely mind blowing will happen. It is just the nature of this particular team.
I love watching them play. I love the fact that we get to set up summer with a three-Test series against England, and I love the fact that it starts in Christchurch.
Predicting the Blackcaps XI for first Test vs England | Mornings
We have, I think, the prettiest cricket grounds in the world. They are set up for the occasion. They are marvellous places to go and watch cricket and we're about to see a New Zealand cricket side, fresh from a 3-0 sweep over the Indians in India.
No one predicted that, and I don't think anyone can predict the results of this three-Test series. That's how close these two teams will be.
New Zealand conditions are great. The series looks great and one thing stands out above all others, and that to me is Tim Southee getting the send off he deserves.
I hope that Tim Southee has something left in the tank to produce one more moment, one more innings, one more five-wicket haul, one more signal to people that Tim Southee will go down as one of the greatest to wear the silver fern and don the Black Cap.
Sport Nation has live ball-by-ball commentary of the first Test between the Blackcaps and England at Hagley Oval - available on all NZ frequencies and the new Sport Nation app - available on App Store and Google Play.
