In the 2nd day and night one-day international match between New Zealand vs England at Wellington on Feb 16, 2002. Nathan Astle stuns the English batsman with his medium-pace bowling. He was the final destroyer who took three wickets for four runs to polish off the innings and he was left on a hat-trick as well. On the slow surface, England stumbled to 40 for six and only narrowly surpassed their previous lowest score 86 against Australia at Old Trafford in 2001. England were dismissed for 89 in 37.2 overs. It wasn't a pretty sight, nor was it a comfortable ride for batsmen unprepared to play themselves in, adapt to the pace, and recognize that boundary-hitting was always going to be a luxury on such a slow outfield. Let's watch the Nathan Astle Spell.
New Zealand had to play the conditions on memory but their handling of a difficult pitch to beat England by 155 runs in the National Bank Series One-Day International on WestpacTrust Stadium in Wellington was a clinical lesson in adaptability.
Recent efforts by administrators and groundsmen in New Zealand have made these sorts of pitches a thing of the past, and it was only because of watering, to eliminate the scars of last weekend's IRB Rugby Sevens at the same venue, being followed by two and a half days of torrential rain, that this pitch slipped through the net.
That New Zealand appreciated this was obvious from their score of 244/8 - in that score there were only 14 fours and three sixes. Or 74 runs out of 244. That left an awful lot of running to be done by batsmen using placement and timing to gain maximum utility from the ground.
England failed to bowl either the right length or line consistently enough to pressure New Zealand. When confronted by those requirements being met by New Zealand's bowlers, their batsmen couldn't cope.
New Zealand have been looking to develop their batting along these lines and recognition of what was required under the circumstances was a hint of greater consistency emerging. This was England's lowest total they have scored against New Zealand. The previous worst was at Lancaster Park in 1982/83 when they scored 127. In simple words, this was a complete rout. Andrew Flintoff provided some final resistance to score 26 and Ashley Giles hit 12 but the final destroyer proved to be Nathan Astle who took three for four to polish off the innings.
