Of opportunities and threats

After a drawn fizzer of a test in damp Dunedin, the series against the West Indies has come alive, and hangs in the balance as of day 3 in the second test at Napier. The Windies trail by 2 with 8 wickets left in their second innings. While the match could go either way, the individual performances of Iain O'Brien, Daniel Flynn and Tim McIntosh serve as a powerful reminder of the need for fringe players to make the most of their chances in these trying times.

Like a lot of observers, I've been forced to revise my opinion of Iain O'Brien this year. His rise from much maligned backup to first pick in the attack by sheer dint of hard work has already been well documented; his six wicket haul in the first innings at Napier was a just year-end reward for efforts, and his blog has only added to his stature of a definite cricketing personality. He calls the blog "Just a boy from Petone", as if to play along with the unfashionable but effective tag that has been long associated with hard working kiwi seamers of his ilk; but it is precisely his kind of work ethic which needs to rub off on the rest of the test side now, more than ever.

Into the wind

The passage of play which made all of us sit up and take notice in the first place was a windy Manchester morning last May. When skipper Daniel Vettori was going about the business of plotting the demise of England's middle order that day, he felt troubled by the strong breeze and needed to switch ends. O'Brien, who had hitherto been a marginal figure in the test side and was only playing because of an illness to Tim Southee, saw his chance and suddenly revealed to us his ability as an into-the-wind specialist. Operating from that end, he picked up three while Vettori did the damage with five from the other. He attributed this to his early days at Wellington, surely the most notoriously windy cricketing venue, where he plays alongside the likes of James Franklin and Mark Gillsepie. His peers were not exactly thrilled about the prospect of charging into the breeze, but where they saw a threat, O'Brien saw an opportunity. He's made the most of it.

That test in Manchester ended in disappointment for NZ, but O'Brien has never looked back since. He justified his selection ahead of Southee in the next test in Nottingham, with a four-wicket haul in swing-friendly conditions and has been the one bright spark in a largely forgettable year of test cricket for NZ. I was particularly pleased to see him showing a fair amount of aggression and venom when bowling at the tailenders in Adelaide, when the rest of the attack seemed powerless to stop a leak of extra runs to the Australians. He's carried that over to the current game in Napier and his demolition job of the West Indian lower order was a welcome relief.

At 32, O'Brien might be a late developer but his willingness to give no less than a hundred percent out in the middle needs to be emulated by the top order. Thankfully, in similar vein, Daniel Flynn has revelled in his promotion to the number 3 slot, and Tim McIntosh has eked out a Mark Richardson-esque century in the first innings to fill the troublesome opening slot for the time being. I've often felt that a lot of changes in a test team is a sure sign of a team in disarray, but it also allows you to identify players who have the hunger to take on available roles. Clearly, if test cricket is about finding your bearings initially, it is also about knowing your strengths and seizing the opportunities available accordingly.