The very very good stats from the Top Order current Blackcaps Team

Winners are grinners and the current BlackCap have forsaking Grins for very BIG Smiles.  Below is the uptodate analysis of the past 25 innings from each Top Order Batsman.  Aggregates, Averages, Not Outs and 100's.  Have also aggregated the runs scored and the average runs scored  Fair to so wonderful figures.

Updated figures after Latham and Nicholls runs fest.

Blackcaps Top Order Blog.		(NO are in Pink Background)		(Ducks in Green)
			100's in Bold and Italics
Innings	Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nicholls
1	0	55	61	9	30
2	80	36	13	0	0
3	177	55	42	32	13
4	16	2	53	11	26
5	68	27	104	37	53
6	41	15	2	102	4
7	10	32	130	40	98
8	8	52	2	60	12
9	6	36	1	77	118
10	50	30	130	15	7
11	37	80	2	93	0
12	22	88	1	16	67
13	22	42	176	207	13
14	26	84	1	20	5
15	0	5	43	2	145
16	83	17	54	13	0
17	13	7	102	2	13
18	0	46	22	19	28
19	22	31	0	0	55
20	50	2	68	82	0
21	4	45	37	0	77
22	10	0	28	22	1
23	264	42	30	50	126
24	10	6	89	27	50
25	176	74	48	40	162
Aggregate	1195	909	1239	976	1103
Average	56.90	37.88	53.87	46.48	50.14
100's Per Innings	8.33	25.00	5.00	8.33	6.25
Total Top Order Aggregate		5422
Top Five Order Innings Average		243	Runs per Innings in tolal scores.
Top Five Combined Batting Averages.		49.05

OLd figures. Blackcaps Top Order Blog.		(NO are in Pink Background)		(Ducks in Green)
Innings	Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nicholls
1	0	55	61	9	30
2	80	36	13	0	0
3	177	55	42	32	13
4	16	2	53	11	26
5	68	27	104	37	53
6	41	15	2	102	4
7	10	32	130	40	98
8	8	52	2	60	12
9	6	36	1	77	118
10	50	30	130	15	7
11	37	80	2	93	0
12	22	88	1	16	67
13	22	42	176	207	13
14	26	84	1	20	5
15	0	5	43	2	145
16	83	17	54	13	0
17	13	7	102	2	13
18	0	46	22	19	28
19	22	31	0	0	55
20	50	2	68	82	0
21	4	45	37	0	77
22	10	0	28	22	1
23	264	42	30	50	126
24	10	6	89	27	50
25	124	74	48	40	64
Aggregate	1143	909	1239	976	1005
Average	54.43	37.88	53.87	46.48	45.68
Total Top Order Aggregate		5272
Top Five Order Innings Average		210.88
Top Five Combined Batting Averages.		47.67

The Fulton Debate

I have been reticent in calling for either openers replacement and on record have suggested both current openers go to the West Indies in the least, if not beyond.  I hear on talkback radio people baying for Fultons blood but to be honest what has he done wrong as an opener?  If one were to look at the innings both he and Rutherford have fashioned there are some stark similarities.  However if one were to focus on the last ten innings then yes Fulton is a fair game candidate for derision, but not axing.

I hear too on Talkback the calls for Latham to be included.  Yes he has promise, but fair to say too early and being dumped into the team versus a West Indies team that will have most of it's best players (and bowlers) back is like sending Ken Rutherford back into the fray with probably the same results.  Stick with the current partnership for this series, if changes need to be made, then make them after two tests or for Pakistan.

The stats.

Incumbent NZ Openers since Feb 2013 v England
	Fulton					Rutherford
	55					178
	1					23
	45					15
	136					37
	110					0
	2					4
	1					9
	28					27
	5					42
	73					34
	59					32
	14					13
	61					62
	3					20
	6					11
	11					10
	10					48
	13					6
	5					0
	13					12
	1					35
Aggregate	652	137	Last 10 innings		Aggregate	618	217	Last 10 innings
Average	31.0	13.7	Average last 10		Average	30.9	24.1	Average last 10

NZ Cricket and the Opener Quandary.

And what a quandary to have.  A team that has matured into a winning unit is good for the future going forward and would be even better should the one or both of the openers stuck around.  Fulton and Rutherford  are the incumbents and they have been largely ineffectual since the England Home series last year.  Looking at their opening partnership one gets the feeling they have been missing in the team profile, especially as their opening average is weighted by that 158 at Dunedin. There is plenty of calls for the likes of Guptil to be reinstated but looking back 3 years of New Zealand Test cricket suggests he's not actually the answer.

But looking back the previous 3 years throws up some interesting retrospective analysis.  We need someone.  Rutherford needs to be persevered with, so who best to partner him?  Well there are two tours this year prior to the CWC 2015, one away to the Windies and another away to UAE versus Pakistan.  Dare NZC stick with Fulton/Rutherford for the Windies matches, and then drop Fulton if he doesn't fire and put Latham in versus Pakistan?  Yup baptism of fire but it has to be done sometime and when you have Achilles Heels stopping you getting an extra 40+ runs regularly at the top you need to make changes.

Anyway, the summary of runs scored as an opening partnership since 2011.  Flynn and Rutherford?

New Zealand Opening Partnerships since 2011.
Flynn/ Guptill 2011
97
47
86
1
231	Aggregate
57.75	Average
Guptill/Watling 2011
10
55
65	Aggregate
32.5	Average
Nicol/Guptill 2011
7
16
11
1
35	Aggregate
8.75	Average
McCullum/Guptill 2012
7
0
2
40
29
18
4
32
25
26
0
30
213	Aggregate
17.75	Average
Ruhterford/Fulton 2013/14
19
23
1
1
95
3
14
18
33
57
48
31
5
1
55
21
158
6
25
79
4
697	Aggregate
33.2	Average