England 1999
Nash, the unofficial Vice Captain, was selected in the Black
Caps World Cup squad as a matter of course. New Zealands
World Cup campaign got underway against Bangladesh at Chelmsford
on May 17. Dion Nash played that game and was to be selected
for every game of the 1999 World Cup. New Zealand defeated
Bangladesh, not yet then a Test nation, by six wickets. The
match was unremarkable, as were Nashs bowling figures
of 0/30 off ten overs: economical, but wicketless. He wasnt
required to bat. Nashs performance at Chelmsford was,
on the whole, typical of his World Cup form. Something had
changed, however, since the preceding home season. Nash was
now opening the bowling alongside Geoff Allott, with Chris
Cairns coming in at first change.
Aside from the fact that Cairns was returning from an injury
a ruptured calf muscle sustained against South Africa
New Zealands reasons for the change were not
obvious and, each time the Black Caps took the field, Martin
Crowe challenged the move from the commentary box. Crowe described
Nash as a first change bowler, while Cairns, he maintained
adamantly, should take the new ball. Crowe did not get his
way, and Nash continued to open the bowling with Allott. The
fact that Nash took just three wickets in nine World Cup outings,
while Cairns had some success at first-change, might be seen
to suggest that Crowe was right. It is significant, however,
that Geoff Allott took a world-record 20 wickets from the
other end. Nashs tight, economical bowling which
frequently teased the edge without actually creating a catch
behind the wicket probably had something to do with
that.
Both
Nashs team-mate Gavin Larsen and the New Zealand
Heralds Richard Boock commented that Nashs
contribution during the World Cup was under-rated and the
all-rounder was, in fact, an essential part of New Zealands
success if only as a "foil" to Allott. Meanwhile,
Nash did produce several laudable performances in his own
right. In the Super Six stage of the competition, Nash claimed
the vital wicket of Tendulkar when New Zealand defeated India
at Trent Bridge; his figures of 1/16 off 10 overs in New Zealands
crucial match against Scotland were amongst the most economical
of the tournament. He was seldom required to bat, but when
he did, Nash as so often tended to show his
strongest resistance when the team was struggling.
Wins against Bangladesh and Australia and a quick-fire demolition
of Scotland ensured that New Zealand reached the Super Six
stage of the competition, where a rained-out no result against
Zimbabwe and a defeat by South Africa meant that New Zealand
had to defeat India to progress. That they did, the Black
Caps securing themselves a Semi Finals birth with a stirring
team effort to defeat India. Making the final four was a triumph
in itself, and allowed New Zealand Cricket to represent the
1999 World Cup campaign as a success which would be remembered,
in particular, for New Zealands wins against India and
Australia in Cardiff. In the Semi Final at Manchester, however,
New Zealand were undone yet again by the Pakistani batsmen
after posting what looked to have been a defensible total.
In the heat of the moment, at least, Dion Nash was unable
to appreciate the honour of playing in a World Cup semi-final:
all that mattered to him, in the aftermath of defeat, was
that his team had lost. Gavin Larsen told in his World Cup
diary Grand Larseny how Nash sat in a corner of the
change rooms for a long time afterwards, distraught and unmoving.
Nash was always hyper-competitive and emotional on field.
The flip side to that, as Larsen put it simply, was "he
hates losing".
The
Black Caps had little time to dwell on their Semi Finals disappointment,
as a four-match Test series lay ahead. There were positive
signs of improvement from Nash in the lead-up to the First
Test when New Zealand played a British Universities XI in
Oxford. He claimed 5/24, helping New Zealand to victory by
an innings and 44 runs. As coach Steve Rixon saw it, the game
was a vital confidence-boost for Nash, who had bowled well
during the World Cup, frequently beating the bat, without
the reward of wickets. At Birmingham, however, the First Test
did not go well for New Zealand. Nash took four wickets and
scored 21 in New Zealands troubled first innings, but
the Kiwi total made respectable only by the lower order
efforts of Parore and swing bowler Simon Doull was
humiliatingly overhauled thanks to a mammoth effort from English
nightwatchman Alex Tudor and England won by seven wickets.
New Zealand was one-nil down in the Test series, but Nashs
bowling was showing marked improvement since the conclusion
of the World Cup. He showed the full extent of his all-round
talent during the tour match against Hampshire from 9-12 July.
Nash, who captained the New Zealanders for that game, claimed
both his highest First Class score (135 not out) and his best
First Class innings bowling figures of 7/39 off 20.4 overs,
which included 11 maidens. In what was truly a one-man
band effort, Nash went on to score 62 when New Zealand
batted again. A sore back, however, restricted Nash to just
seven overs in Hampshires second innings and aided the
county in batting out a draw. Nashs bowling in the First
Test and emphatically against Hampshire, said
coach Steve Rixon, was "streets ahead of the rest".
The problem for New Zealand with Nashs all-round fireworks
was, as Rixon remarked, "hes doing it all himself".
With a question mark now placed over Nashs fitness for
the Second Test, his dramatic improvement in form would not
necessarily aid New Zealands cause at Lords ten
days later.
Nash was rested from New Zealands next tour match against
Kent, and was passed fit to play the Second Test. Lords,
the arena where Nash made his name with his 11-wicket haul
in 1994, was to be the scene of another important discovery
involving Dion Nash. Geoff Allott had been ruled out with
a back injury; Chris Cairns and Dion Nash now opened the bowling
together. That new ball pairing proved to be a truly match-winning
combination and a vindication of Nashs use as an opening
bowler from the start of the 1999 World Cup. Bowling together,
Cairns and Nash helped lift each others performance
and the team to new heights. That fact was not lost on Nash.
"Weve been pretty close, and weve competed
against each other a lot to the benefit of the New Zealand
team," Nash said three years later. "There was an
admiration for each others ability." When he retired
in 2002, Nash said that one of his greatest regrets was that
injury prevented himself and Chris Cairns from playing together
more: "if there is one thing I am sad about," Nash
said, "it is we didn't get to play together at the top
of our games. If we had two or three years together we might
have taken the game somewhere."
Unfinished
business perhaps, but the Nash/Cairns pairing was effective
while it lasted. New Zealands nine-wicket Second Test
victory their first at Lords was largely
attributable to the role of Chris Cairns and Dion Nash. Nash
played second-fiddle to Cairns, but bowled economically and,
by now, seemed to have corrected the problems with length
he experienced during the World Cup. He finished with four
wickets in the match, snaring Alec Stewart, Mark Ramprakash
and Aftab Habib in the first innings, all off good deliveries.
Nash continued to play well in the Third Test at Old Trafford:
he picked up 26 runs and four more wickets, including 3/46
off 31.1 overs, before the Manchester rain ensured the match
which appeared to be poised in New Zealands favour
ended as a draw.
Ten days later, New Zealand and England met at The Oval for
the series-deciding Fourth Test. It was a tense match, with
the advantage passing between the two teams several times
over the five days. Half-centuries from Stephen Fleming and
Daniel Vettori saw New Zealand to 236 in the first innings,
and Chris Cairns took 5/31 to bowl England out for 153. At
6/39 in the second innings, however, New Zealand were in trouble
again, and again Cairns responded. He smashed 80 off just
94 balls, taking New Zealand to 162, with Nash left not out
on ten. England were set 246 to win, and lost two after tea
on day four, leaving New Zealand needing eight wickets on
the final day to win the Test and the series. Early on day
five, however, the English top order seemed to be taking the
game away from New Zealand. Something special was needed from
the Black Caps bowlers, and it took the form of Dion
Nash. In one of his finest spells of Test bowling, Nash captured
three crucial wickets in 12 balls. First he removed Atherton,
who had spear-headed the chase, caught behind for 64. Stewart
and Ramprakash followed, and the other bowlers cleaned up.
Nash had succeeded in triggering an English collapse from
2/123 to 162 all out, and giving New Zealand victory by 83
runs. Nash finished with innings figures of 4/39 off 13 overs.
It was said, afterwards, that while Chris Cairns was Man
of the Match at the Oval, Nash was unquestionably the man
of day five. Looking back on his career when he retired in
2002, Nash identified the 1999 tour of England and
the Oval Test in particular as the highlight of his
career. It was only New Zealands second series victory
in England. "Thats the highest Ive ever been,"
said Nash. The series victory in England was a moment of revelation
not only for Nash but also, he felt, the team as a whole.
"Personally, I felt that once wed moved on from
that Test we all felt like we were men playing cricket, as
opposed to boys". The increased maturity and role of
New Zealands senior players was, as Nash describes it,
a huge part of that coming of age. Arguably, the
two most important senior players during the 1999 tour of
England were Chris Cairns whom Nash describes as "the
best player I played with for New Zealand" and
Dion Nash himself. The pair finished as, respectively, the
highest Test and First Class wicket-takers on tour and their
contribution to the team was acknowledged when the pair shared
the title of Shell Cricket Almanack Player of the Year.
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