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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Last week, I touched on India’s return to Bay Oval in November, when they will face the Black Caps in two ODI encounters.
The November fixtures, on Friday 13 and Sunday 15, will mark the sixth and seventh meetings between India and New Zealand at Bay Oval.
In January 2019, the two sides played two one-day internationals, before India returned in February 2020 for a T20 International and ODI series, escaping the start of the Covid pandemic by a whisker.
The return to normality after the Covid lockdowns brought the world cricket powerhouse back to the Bay Oval for a lightning visit.
On November 20, 2022, Indian master-blaster SA (Suryakumar) Yadav hammered a remarkable 111 not out in the T20 International match.
The scoreline in the five India v New Zealand encounters at Bay Oval stands at India 4 – NZ 1.
Much of the success behind the powerhouse Indian national sides of recent times is the big emphasis India puts upon their age group programmes.
There is no better example of Indian age-group players’ progression to the national teams, than the ICC 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup (CWC), played in New Zealand.
The Indian squad would go on to produce six national team members and a further three who have played for India A.
Blake Park hosted seven matches, which included the tournament opener and the grand final.
More importantly, local cricket fans got to see the Indian Under-19 representatives pulverise their opponents on four visits to the Bay Oval wicket block.
Two days into the tournament, India laid down the gauntlet to the other contenders.
India hammered 328/7 before bowling Australia out 100 runs short of their target.
Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe provided India with token opposition at tournament headquarters before the Indian team returned to the Bay Oval to contest the tournament final, on February 3, 2018.
ICC Cricket history recorded that India bowled Australia out for 216, and took out the Under-19 CWC final, losing just two wickets on the way to their eight-wicket win.
Shubman Gill is the most prolific player to emerge from the 2018 Indian age-group side.
Forty-two tests, nearly 3000 runs and a best of 269, are just the start of Gill’s glittering array of statistics.
Gill is the current India test and ODI captain and is likely to return to Bay Oval in November.
Many local cricket fans would have seen plenty of Arshdeep Singh in this year’s edition of the IPL (Indian Premier League).
Singh has played 18 ODI encounters but it is T20 cricket where he has really made his mark.
Ninety-one T20 International matches, 165 wickets, and best bowling figures of 5/51 have made him an Indian cricket idol.
Riyan Parag Das became a legend among Indian cricket fans when he etched his name into IPL history as the first – and only – batsman to smash six consecutive sixes in a single over.
Three other Under-19 squad members were selected for future Indian national teams; captain Prithvi Shaw, Abhishek Sharma, and Shivan Mavi.
It is interesting to note, just Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra from the New Zealand 2018 Under-19 CWC squad have progressed to selection for the New Zealand Black Caps.