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Your favourite partnerships

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
Firstly, I don't mean Elton John and David Furnish... these are some thoughts I threw together for my weekly column... please, share your favourite partnerships with CW. Come on in, the typing's fine.

A batting marathon by the Indian batsmen over on the roads masquerading as pitches in Pakistan sent me down memory lane tonight.

Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid decided to respond to Pakistan's monstrous first innings total of 679/7 by batting.

And batting.

And batting.

As I listened to updates of their partnership and heard they were getting close to a few batting records, my mind wandered to some of New Zealand cricket's great partnerships in recent years.

Anyone who takes more than a passing interest in the Black Caps - or "The Team Formerly Known as the Young Guns" if you're a fan from the 1990s - will know that massive matchwinning partnerships aren't really New Zealand's "thing".

Ones that immediately come to mind are one of the rarities in cricket - tailenders actually batting the team through to a win.

Possibly the most famous effort of all New Zealand partnerships was probably one of the smallest winning partnerships you'll read about - Gary Troup's and Stephen Boock's four-run partnership against the West Indies in Dunedin. Fans with shocking haircuts and terrible pairs of Stubbies shorts sprinted onto the field after the pair scrambled through for a leg bye that ultimately won New Zealand the series over the West Indian juggernaut (with a little help from umpire Fred Goodall).

Dunedin's shocking fashion sense was on display a few years later when everyone's favourite courier driver and batting bunny Ewen Chatfield must have pulled some batting talent out of his van. He and the Mantis, Jeremy Coney, managed to put 50 runs together to win the test against Pakistan, despite facing up to a youthful Wasim Akram, who had earlier knocked out Lance Cairns.

I'll skirt past Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones' partnership of 467 against Sri Lanka in 1991, mainly because it doesn't quite have the folk hero status of the others.

Now, if you want a partnership that showed more bravado than a certain local cricketer who was in the Globe on Saturday night in cricket spikes, how about Danny Morrison's wonderful supporting role to Nathan Astle against England in 1997? Morrison's batting was more famous for its brevity previous to this match, but he showed a wonderful rearguard action against the, ahem, "might" of an English bowling attack containing the likes of Dominic Cork and Alan Mullaly.

And what did he get as thanks from the selectors? A "don't come Monday" message - and that was the end of Morrison's international career.

Geoff Allott gave his best shot at reaching tailender fame with his unbeaten 0 off 77 balls against South Africa in 1999. Yes, 77 balls - you read that right. He does lose style points, however, for the contrived nature of his 0, as he was turning down singles towards the end of his innings.

Possibly my favourite New Zealand partnership though, was also at Dunedin - this time in a one-day match against Australia. A name formerly mentioned in this column, Danny Morrison, was joined at the crease by Willie Watson with the score at a disgraceful 97. Obviously, a win against the odds was not on the cards as Australia's total was 160 runs away.

We had been allowed to leave school early to go and watch the match, so needless to say, we were more than a touch disappointed by New Zealand's feeble showing.

But Morrison and Watson put some warmth into the chilly Dunedin day as they dispatched Australian offspinner Tim May for a six each, and a few fours for good measure. Sure, the innings was over at 129, but at least we left the ground with something.

And at least Watson finally had something else to be remembered by, instead of being the guy who admitted he felt like he was "bowling in the highlights" when he was dispatched over the Eden Park grandstands by Viv Richards.
 

Top_Cat

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Just about any time Sehwag and Sachin bat together. Sehwag, as mature and professional as he looks most times, when he's batting with Sachin he always has this look on his face that he can't believe he's finally getting to bat with his hero. I'm half expecting him to get down on all fours screaming "We're not worthy!" when Sachin hits a boundary.

From an Aussie perspective, Gillespie and McGrath is pure magic.

:D

Seriously, the partnership between Langer and Gilchrist in Hobart 1999 is tough to beat. May and McDermott against the WI in 1992, Steve and Mark Waugh in the WI 1995 and Dravid and Laxman in 2004 at Adelaide are all up there too.
 

howardj

International Coach
Laxman & Dravid - Kolkata, Border/Gavaskar Trophy 2001 (The best blend of attack and defence that you could ever wish to see).

Gilchrist & Hayden - Mumbai, Border/Gavaskar Trophy 2001 (Gilchrist was on another planet during this innings, and Hayden really launched his career).

Flintoff & Jones - Nottingham, Ashes 2005 (Such a brave, and truly great, partnership, in the circumstances)

Laxman & Dravid - Adelaide, Border/Gavaskar Trophy 2003/04 (The endurance shown by Dravid in this match was the best Ive seen)
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Lee and Kasprowicz at Edgbaston, on the subject of tailend partnerships. And throw in Warne's one with Lee as well.
 

savill

School Boy/Girl Captain
Giles and Pietersen at the Oval as well will always be remembered, especially with the circumstances of the match.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Thorpe + Hussain v. Australia at Edgbaston '97...
was my first personal experience of a big England victory
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
Azharuddin and Tendulkar in SA.
That was one real "Master Class".
Azhar's 115 in that same innings i reckon is one of the best hundreds one can ever wish to see.
 

PY

International Coach
Freddie and Simon Jones @ Edgbasten was quite amazing as Freddie was injured for most of it and it was crucial in the end as well.

Other than that, key partnership for me which was when I started to see something I hadn't seen in England for a long time....fight. After conceding 484 in the first dig against South Africa at The Oval and under the cosh at 78/2, Trescothick (219) and Thorpe (124) got together for 268 runs putting England in a position to post 604 and go on to win the Test and level the series.

Didn't lose another Test at home for 22 months until the Aussies visited. Can't argue with that, I was able to watch the whole thing and it was a delight to see Thorpey back in the groove after being out.
 

Beleg

International Regular
Inzy + Mushtaq Ahmed at National Stadium (1994 against Australia)
Inzy + Miandad at Eden Park (1992 WC against New Zealand)
Inzy + MoYo (2004 against India)
Langer + Gilchrist at Bellerive Oval (1999 against Pakistan)
Brian Lara + Desmond Hanyes at Melbourne (1992 WC against Pakistan)

And for the sheer hilarity of it,

Wasim Akram + Saqlain Mushtaq at Sheikhupura (1996-97 against Zimbabwe)
 

Armadillo

State Vice-Captain
That one between Inzy and Mushtaq Ahmed was pretty special, did that miss cost Healy his career?
On a side note, the opening partnership between Gilchrist and Katich against SA the other day was pretty special.
 

Beleg

International Regular
Armadillo,

Considering Healy went on to play test cricket for another five years, it didn't cost him anything of that sort.
 

open365

International Vice-Captain
Even though they didn't exactly work wonders,i allways rate KP and Freddie batting together because it shows off how far English cricket has come and will fill the stands.

Seeing Inzy and Yosuf bat together is great because they are both elder statesmen,showing the new kids how to do it.

Bowling wise,McGrath and Gillespie was just awesome.
 

Tony Blade

U19 Cricketer
Langeveldt said:
Adams and Walsh against Pakistan a few years ago, I think it was in Jamaica, that was pure class
I might be thinking of another match but didnt they barely scrape home due to extremely poor umpiring?
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
they scraped home yeah, not sure about the umpiring, but it was fun for me being a neutral, great drama not to mention cricket..
 

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