Karl on The return of S.E. Bond

Not much has come out of the tour of Zimbabwe for New Zealand. The return of Shane Bond, however, is a real positive.

Following the two tests, where he had figures of 3-21 and 10-99, his ranking on the ICC rankings site has moved back up to 14th. After 12 test matches he has taken 56 wickets at an average of 20.8 runs. He has never gone wicketless in an innings yet.

His one-day figures are remarkable. So far in the tournament against Zimbabwe and India, he's taken 10 wickets for 51 runs, after 19 overs. He has now bowled in 29 ODIs (he's played in 30 matches, but one was rained out) and has taken 61 wickets at 16.72. On four occasions he's taken 4 wickets in an innings and on three occasions he's taken more than 5 wickets. Those seven occasions were:
4-37 against South Africa, Jan 2002
5-25 against Australia, Jan 2002
4-38 against Australia, Jan 2002
4-21 against Bangladesh, Sept 2002
6-23 against Australia, March 2003 (World Cup)
6-19 against India, Aug 2005
4-17 against Zimbabwe, August 2005.

As is seen from these figures, he plays very well against Australia. In fact, his career figures against Australia, at a time when they were the best in world cricket, are 22 wickets in 6 matches at an average of 10.45.

This all points to a very exciting summer coming up for New Zealand fans. Five ODIs in South Africa in Oct-Nov, 3 against Australia in December and 4 against Sri Lanka in Dec/Jan, before the West Indies tour in Feb/March should see him rise significantly in the ODI rankings also.