At six feet and eight inches, Kyle Jamieson is the tallest cricketer in the Blackcaps’ dug-out. On Saturday, playing at his home ground in Auckland, the debutant put on a decisive 76-run unbeaten stand with countryman Ross Taylor.
With the ball, Jamieson’s burst resulted in two crucial wickets and he conceded just 42 runs in his quota of 10 overs. His wicket of Navdeep Saini, who threatened to take the game away from the host with a strokeful 45, was the final nail in the coffin as the men in blue could just add 22 more runs. New Zealand sealed the game by the same margin and put an end to their miserable run against Virat Kohli’s men.
“Pretty surreal. You kind of grow up dreaming of these moments. Get your first cap and hope to make an impact and to play some sort of role in helping us first to get to a total and then restrict a pretty good batting line-up is very pleasing. And to have a series win tops it all,” he said on Saturday.
Kyle Jamieson makes an instant impression on debut
Born in Auckland, the pacer honed his skills in Canterbury. He is known for hitting the deck hard and generating enough pace and bounce to rattle the opposition. But the 25-year-old said that he started his cricketing journey with an ambition of scoring a ton on his debut.
When I was growing, I was a batter. I probably dreamt of scoring a 100 on debut. As I grew older, it all came down to how I can contribute to the team and win a series.
From 142/1 to losing the next seven wickets under 200 was a slip on the Kiwis part but the visitors failed to capitalize on the breakthroughs as they ended up leaking plenty towards the end of the innings. Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal proved to be impressive as he bagged three wickets. With the bat, Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja hit respective fifties but both failed to take the side over the line.
