Black C(r)aps

Another batting master class from Black Caps. They are looking likely to score under 250 in both innings- truly pathetic.

A lot of people are commenting that NZ has lost too much talent in the last couple of years, with Fleming, Astle, Cairns, McMillan all departing in a short space. (As an aside, why do people talk about them in the plural form- "NZ has lost a lot of great players, the Flemings, the Astles, the McMillans" ? There's only one of each!).

But have we really lost much? Granted, it's a lot of experience out of the team, which can't be quantified, but looking at their records, they are hardly exceptional players:

• Fleming, ave 40.06, 9 hundreds (and his average only got into the 40s in his last innings, it languished in the 30s for almost all his career)
• McMillan, 38.46, 6 hundreds
• Astle, 37.02, 11 hundreds
• Cairns, 33.53, 5 hundred, 29.04 with the ball, 11 bags of 5 wickets

So what have we really lost? Most of the current crop (Taylor, Ryder, McCullum) are likely to be players with similar sorts of records- mid 30s.