STATISTICS: A summary of Test statistics and milestones following the Test match against Zimbabwe.
Doug Bracewell and Dean Brownlie became the 251st and 252nd Test-playing BLACKCAPS.
Dean Brownlie is the fifth Australian born player to represent New Zealand in Test matches. The first two, Dennis Smith and Ken Hough, were both medium-pacers. The other two, Mathew Sinclair (214) and Scott Styris (107) scored centuries on debut. So while Brownlie will be happy with his debut innings he will be disappointed he failed to match his two predecessors and go on to get a ton.
Brendon and Doug Bracewell are the ninth father and son combination to play Tests for New Zealand. Kyle Jarvis and his father Malcolm are the first father and son pairing to play for Zimbabwe against New Zealand and the ninth father and son combination for all Test countries against New Zealand.
Brendon Bracewell became the first New Zealand player to have both a brother and son play Test cricket. Full article »
Doug Bracewell became the seventh New Zealand player to claim a five wicket bag in his first Test and is just the second, after Paul Wiseman, to do so in a winning cause. He is also the fourth New Zealander to achieve this feat in their first match against Zimbabwe while Kyle Jarvis is the first Zimbabwean bowler to do so in his first Test against the BLACKCAPS. Dipak Patel, Paul Wiseman and Chris Martin are the previous New Zealand players to perform this feat.
The pair of 76's that Ross Taylor scored follow scores of 78 and 52 in his previous Test against Pakistan at the end of last season. His four consecutive half-centuries equals the New Zealand record currently shared by Martin Donnelly, Bert Sutcliffe, Bevan Congdon (twice), Jeremy Coney and Ken Rutherford.
Daniel Vettori was once again the backbone of the New Zealand bowling effort. His 5-70 in the first innings was his 20th five wicket bag and took him to 350 test wickets. It was also the 34th occasion he has bowled 40 or more overs in a Test innings. During the six Tests the BLACKCAPS have played in the last 12 months (series away to India, home to Pakistan and the one-off Test against Zimbabwe) he has bowled 391.4 of the 1,161 overs bowled by New Zealand - just over one in every three overs bowled and at an average of 43.3 overs per innings!
Chris Martin became the fourth New Zealander to achieve the 200 wicket milestone when he claimed his first wicket of the Test. He now has 202 wickets and stands 16 wickets behind Chris Cairns in third place. Daniel Vettori now has 353 wickets and will be setting his sights on Sir Richard Hadlee's New Zealand record of 431.
Martin Guptill became the fourth New Zealander to score a century in his first Test against Zimbabwe. Rod Latham, Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum had done so previously. In the process Guptill passed 1,000 Test runs.
Only three of the BLACKCAPS had played Test cricket against Zimbabwe previously, Brendon McCullum, Chris Martin and Daniel Vettori. Zimbabwe were in a similar situation with just four players having played against New Zealand in Tests. Hamilton Masakadza, Christopher Mpofu, Tatenda Taibu and Brendan Taylor all featured in the 2005-06 series between the two countries.
The unfortunate Christopher Mpofu scored his second pair against the BLACKCAPS in three Tests.
