2014 Yearender: New Zealand’s performance has proved they cannot be taken lightly at ICC World Cup 2015

The cricketing world witnessed few of the most enthralling contests through the year 2014. Stellar performances ranged from both players to teams. New Zealand is one teams that stood out. Ayush Gupta turns the clock back to study their prolific year.

The ‘Black Caps’ are slowly but surely becoming a formidable force in world cricket. Although, in the past they’d often be stuck at the middle of the table, they are well on their way to becoming a major powerhouse as they possess tons of explosive cricketers.

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The Kiwis have enjoyed a good year in run up to the World Cup at home. As the mega event gets underway from February, this year was generally considered as a build-up to the event, regardless of the format they played.

Considering the longer format of the game, New Zealand have played nine Test matches this year, winning five and having lost a couple. Their biggest win came against Pakistan in November at Sharjah where they won by an innings and 80 runs, while their biggest loss was against the same team in the same series, where they lost by 248 runs and also against West Indies in July at Port of Spain, where the defeat margin was by 10 wickets.

In the limited over format, The Kiwis have played 16 ODIs and have managed to win nine while five have been lost. Their biggest win came in the opening game of the year against the West Indies at Queenstown in January, where they won by 159 runs, while their biggest loss was again against the same team in the same month, which they lost by 203 runs at Hamilton.

They had mixed results in T20’s as well as out of the 10 games New Zealand played, they managed to win six and lost the rest. Their biggest victory came against West Indies in the very first game of the year at Auckland in January where they won by 81 runs, while the biggest loss was against Sri Lanka at Chittagong during the ICC World T20 in March.

In the batting department, Brendon McCullum, the Test skipper was the leading run scorer of the team with 1,164 runs in nine matches, while in the ODIs, it was Kane Williamson who finished with 770 runs from 12 matches. Interestingly, he was also the leading run scorer in the T20s with 234 runs in eight matches.

On the bowling front, pacer Trent Boult was the leading wicket-taker in the Tests with 34 wickets from just nine matches, while pacer, Matt Henry dominated the chart in the ODIs with 19 wickets from six games, and in the T20s, it was medium-pacer, Jimmy Neesham who finished on top for New Zealand with nine wickets from eight games.

New Zealand arn’t left behind in the wicketkeeping department either, as in the Tests, it’s BJ Watling who has 40 dismissals from nine games, while in the ODIs, it’s Luke Ronchi, who has 23 dismissals from 16 games, and in the T20s, it Ronchi again with 11 dismissals from 10 games.

New Zealand have concluded the year 2014 on a high by virtue of squaring the Test series and the T20 series, while they won the ODI series 3-2 against Pakistan in the UAE.

Rankings as of Dec 31, 2014: Test – 7th, ODI – 6th & T20 – 6th.

(Ayush Gupta is a reporter at CricketCountry. A passionate supporter of Manchester United, he idolises Roger Federer)