Michael Appleton

Ben is right. If @BLACKCAPS & 🇦🇺 both play to their potential, the Test series this summer will be competitive - and there’s no reason 🇳🇿 cannot win it. (I’d also note the only time 🇳🇿 has won a Test series in 🇦🇺, their opponents were also in transition / far from their best.)

🇦🇺 are the best Test side overall this century. But their weak point has been winning Test series in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇮🇳 🇿🇦 🇳🇿 🇱🇰 🇿🇦 🇮🇳 have won a series in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 more recently than 🇦🇺 🇿🇦 🇳🇿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 have won a series in 🇮🇳 more recently than 🇦🇺 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇱🇰 have won a series in 🇿🇦 more recently than 🇦🇺

What a barnstorming performance from 🇿🇦, coming from behind to win the 🇦🇺 series. For all the Big 3 dominance economically & politically, Test 🏏 is having a great, competitive decade on the field. 🇮🇳 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 & 🇿🇦 have all been ranked number one - & 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🇿🇦 have all won the WTC.

Win 3-Test series after lose 1st Test 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇦🇺 1882/3 1888 🇿🇦 v 🇳🇿 1994/5 🇵🇰 v 🇿🇼 1994/5 🇱🇰 v 🇵🇰 1995/6 🇱🇰 v 🇳🇿 1998 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇱🇰 2000/1 🇮🇳 v 🇦🇺 2000/1 🇿🇦 v 🇮🇳 2006/7 2021/2 🇿🇦 v 🏝️ 2007/8 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇳🇿 2007/8 🇮🇳 v 🇱🇰 2015 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🏝️ 2020 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇿🇦 2022 🇵🇰 v 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2024/5 🇳🇿 v 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2026 🇿🇦 v 🇦🇺 2026/7?

One News giving New Zealanders a retrospective on our country’s little-known 2024 general election.

This was the 248th T20I innings played in New Zealand - and 259/7 is the highest score ever achieved. The next highest: 🇦🇺’s 245/5, also at Eden Park, in 2018.

Congratulations, 🇮🇳! A modest proposal: With the T20I series over, and a Cricket World Cup just around the corner, let’s convert the next two matches into fifty-overs-a-side and have a good, old fashioned seven-match ODI series.

In Tests in 🇿🇦 in the last decade: -the team bowling first has won 12 & lost 27. -the team to win the toss has chosen to bat 70 percent of the time. Curious decision from Cummins.

26, 17, 21, 20, 16, 18, 15, 23, 6 There may have been a case for Santner to bowl earlier than the ninth over …

Santner not bowling himself with 🇮🇳 within 65 runs of @BLACKCAPS is an, umm, interesting approach.

In T20Is between teams with Test status, the highest run rate in a successful chase of 180+ is 13.75 (when 🇿🇦 made 259/4 vs 🏝️ in 18.5 overs in 2023). To break that record here, 🇮🇳 need to reach this target of 199 in about 14 overs. Reckon they’re going to smash it.

The only silver lining to this @BLACKCAPS bowling performance is that, unlike the first two games, there’s no hope being built up only to be dashed…

We New Zealanders are blessed to live in an open, vibrant, competitive democracy in which we get to choose between alternative visions for how to make our amazing country (even) better. Get out and vote! vote.nz/2026-general-electio… 📸 Samraj on his first ever election day (2020).

Absolutely love The New Zealand Cricket Almanack. We’ve certainly had some memorable editions this decade for @BLACKCAPS, including 2021 (WTC victory), 2025 (Test series win in 🇮🇳) & 2026 (Test series win in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿).

Very excited for the @BLACKCAPS - 🇮🇳 series. My predictions: T20s: 🇮🇳 4-1 ODIs: 🇮🇳 3-2 Tests: 🇳🇿 2-0

🇮🇳’s 12 games in 🇳🇿 - 5 T20Is, 5 ODIs and 2 Tests, from 22 October till 1 December - is the longest bilateral tour @BLACKCAPS has ever hosted (in games played). Examples of 11-game tours: 🏝️ in 2025-26: 5 T20s, 3 ODIs, 3 Tests 🇵🇰 in 2010-11: 3 T20s, 6 ODIs, 2 Tests

Collecting for the Breast Cancer Foundation, and remembering the wonderful mother Caroline, James, Thom Apples and I lost almost sixteen years ago… and all the other women we know who’ve faced the same challenge. We love you, Mum. Donate here: fundraise.bcf.org.nz/prsa