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So we head to Brisbane with the series drawn at 2-2. Tuesday night's loss had turned this series into a real nail bitter.

It was another typical belter at Adelaide, a ground known for its great batting decks, this one, no different. Dan won the toss and we wanted to bat first, so we did.

Before play both teams lined up for a moments silence in memory of the people that have lost their lives in the bushfires in Victoria. This has been a very surreal event to be over here and living through. The news is constant, the papers are full of pics and stories and I really just can't handle it. I'm on the outside looking in and I just can't watch or read any media. It just gets to me so much, my over active imagination starts thinking of what if it was my family over here going through this. What if it was our house that had gone, if my parents, my family had been caught up in it? I just can't imagine what these people are going through. I just play cricket for a living, it's the best job in the world, I'm so happy about where I'm at and what I'm doing and then there are these people that have just lost everything, and more! My deepest sympathies go out to all the people involved and the ones directly affected. And to the people out there fighting the fires, dealing with the misplaced families, the volunteers and the people that have given so generously to the funds, you people are amazing!

Continue reading "The tragedy of bushfires, and a cold day in Adelaide"

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No big party last night, alas.

Although we did take it closer than some thought and hushed the crowd towards the end of the match. Bowling first, again, after Dan won the toss on a track that looked pretty good for a one-dayer; and it was. There was a change at the top of the Australian order with Warner missing out and Haddin opening; what a week for him.

Haddin and Clarke played with more positivity than we'd seen so far in the series at the top. They played well, hit the bad balls, and turned good balls into boundary options by moving around the crease. I think they trusted this pitch a little more too, or gambled harder, hitting some good balls, through the line and over the top.

Continue reading "There's a Buzz about Elliott"

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Welcome to the 'G'. What an amazing place to visit, to watch sport, let alone have the honour to play in front of sports-loving Melbourne crowd.

I had never been here before, been to Melbourne a couple of times in the past but I had never even visited [the MCG]. Training this week was hard; we came from a great last-ball win in Perth and had to work hard on staying honest with our training as the heat and tiredness from the last game had taken its toll, on me at least. Heading out to fielding training in the middle was pretty special. The Great Southern Stand, not looking so 'Great' anymore as the new stand is a whole lot bigger, it is still so impressive; we could do with something like this in NZ, obviously not as big, but certainly as intimidating. The near vertical seating looms so high above you and you know they have a great view no matter how high they are up.

Continue reading "Two-nil at the 'G'"

That is as good a feeling I have ever experienced in cricket. The elation in the changing room after Dan hit the last ball of the match through the field for the winning run was pure, an amazing feeling. That's the most 'man love' I have ever seen in a changing room. It was just one match in a series of five, but after a game that roller-coasted until the last ball, our loss to the PM's XI and in the heat and conditions that we played in, we were one very happy bunch of boys!

I was nervous, and excited, heading into this match. My last ODI, my first one, didn't go so good; six overs, 1 for 59 in two three-over spells. Not good enough, hence it was my one and only match before yesterday. We lost the toss and bowled first, we probably would have batter first too had Dan [Vettori] kept up his run with the tosses. It was hot, and humid. This was going to be hard work which was part of the reason we were keen to bat first so that we could bowl in the cooler conditions. I passed Shaun Tait as we were walking heading off from warm-ups, just after the toss, he was pretty pleased he didn't have to bowl first up in the heat, and I couldn't blame him. Our 'Dirtys' and management crew did a great job around the boundaries and onto the field with the drinks. The boundary riders got drinks handed to them from the other side of the rope and the inner-circle fielders got drinks run out to them at great pace so to not slow down the play by the 'Dirtys'. These small efforts often go unnoticed but can add so much to the team's performance.

Continue reading "'Even this useless mob can beat them'"

I'm currently in one of the lounges at Sydney Airport waiting to board our fight to Perth. Yesterday we played a match against the Prime Ministers XI and, well, to put it mildly, we didn't do too well.

But before I cover that match off I'll take you back to the last round of the domestic one-day competition, we were in Invercargill, the bottom (pretty much as far south as you can go) of the South Island. We were certainly made to feel welcome, that was until we stepped out onto the pitch, that is. It was a typical home crowd that you come to expect in the South Island; they love their own players and love to hate the others, and it was going to be a fun afternoon.

We bowled first and during the middle stages we were looking down the barrel of a chasing a score of around 280, that was going to be a lot, even with it being a small ground and a good deck. A couple of very good innings from three of Otago's more experienced boys certainly set them up for an onslaught towards the end of the innings. We picked up a couple of crucial wickets at game changing times and managed to peg them back to 244.

I didn't feel like I started this game too well with the ball. It wasn't quite the start I had been having in the previous couple of matches. The thing that was very pleasing was the way I came back at the end of the innings and bowled during the batting power play and death, my areas and variations, alongside the field I had set worked really and contributed to the pegging back process.

This match finished in great style. Last ball of the innings, scores tied, Franklin, who had been in since the 16th over and was on 86 off 97 in a perfectly paced innings, cleanly hits one through the leg side field to the boundary. We win, and I'm out there with him, because we're nine down. I came in with four balls left in the innings, five runs needed, Franklin on strike.

Franky and I had a quick chat, I wanted to know what he thought the plan should be, were we going to take the single if it was there or was Franky going to take the strike and look for twos and boundaries? Franky backed me to get him back on strike so we decided that we'll take every run we could get. A single off the third ball of the over - that brought me on strike. Three balls left, four were needed and I needed to get off strike, thus somehow getting a single. I know you really shouldn't premeditate, but in this situation I thought it was maybe best. It was either going to be a yorker or a bouncer.

A yorker it was, fast and into my pads. I wasn't quite quick enough to catch up with it and maybe hit the winning runs fine of fine leg, but I did get enough pad on it to squirt it out to square leg for a single; that was once I picked myself up off the ground when the ball hit it knocked me off my feet and I didn't have a clue as to where it had gone. Franky, charging down towards me shouting yes, said it had gone somewhere safe for a single.

Two balls, 3 runs needed and Franky nudges two to get himself back on strike and tie the scores. He walks down to me at this stage and we agree that we're just running, no matter what. Winning run off the last ball and that finishes the innings and our campaign with a not-so-good four wins from 10 matches.

It was a quiet night in Invercargill, early flight out in the morning and back to Wellington for the day. I had a couple of things planed to do in the afternoon; catch up with a mate and get along to a clothing shop were sponsoring me some T-shirts. Quite a while ago, before I started playing cricket for Wellington, I worked in a photocopy shop. I started out as a production worker, then moved out to reception and worked in customer services. During this time I met some pretty talented people that needed photocopying done. Students for their assignments, architects with their building plans, writers producing books and artists getting originals copied so they could sell the prints or send them off for possible job offers. There was one guy who was amazing, Marty F Emond. His stuff was cool, as he was, and I spent quite a bit of time doing his copying. Since I knew him back then he and a mate started up a clothing company using his works as designs. I loved his work then and have a couple of signed bits stored away to get framed at some stage soon. Marty has since passed on but his work lives on through the "Illicit" clothing line. I wanted some of Marty's t-shirts. So I got in touch with Illict.co.nz, pleaded my case, and happy days. Thanks Steve.

Continue reading "My former life in a photocopy shop"

It's Friday night, I'm sitting on my bed in my new place, that I only moved into last Thursday, watching South Africa bowl to the Aussies on the telly, and I couldn't be happier.

My place is hardly huge; it's one room and an en-suite. Kitchen, lounge and bedroom all in one; it'll do for now as I don't need too much space for myself and my couple of bags that I've been living out of for the last five months, although the bar next door could do with being a little less noisy. In saying that, as soon as I make this place home I have to leave, and, again, I couldn't be happier.

I head off to Australia for the Chappell-Hadlee Series on Tuesday and in doing that I will check out of my accommodation and then move back in when I return, into a bigger apartment though that time!

I got a very good phone call on Wednesday afternoon; it was the one that told me I was in the squad of 14 for the one-day series. I knew that the phone call was going to be that afternoon so the phone wasn't too far from me and it didn't have to ring to many times before I picked it up. It was either going to be good news or 'keep trying, you're real close.' It was the 'good news' call. Happy days!

Continue reading "Happy Days was filmed inside a studio apartment"