England 1999

Nash, the unofficial Vice Captain, was selected in the Black Caps’ World Cup squad as a matter of course. New Zealand’s 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 Nash’s bowling figures of 0/30 off ten overs: economical, but wicketless. He wasn’t required to bat. Nash’s 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 Zealand’s 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. Nash’s tight, economical bowling — which frequently teased the edge without actually creating a catch behind the wicket — probably had something to do with that.

Both Nash’s team-mate Gavin Larsen and the New Zealand Herald’s Richard Boock commented that Nash’s contribution during the World Cup was under-rated and the all-rounder was, in fact, an essential part of New Zealand’s 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 Zealand’s 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 Zealand’s 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 Zealand’s 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 Nash’s 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 Hampshire’s second innings and aided the county in batting out a draw. Nash’s 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 Nash’s all-round fireworks was, as Rixon remarked, "he’s doing it all himself". With a question mark now placed over Nash’s fitness for the Second Test, his dramatic improvement in form would not necessarily aid New Zealand’s cause at Lord’s ten days later.

Nash was rested from New Zealand’s next tour match against Kent, and was passed fit to play the Second Test. Lord’s, 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 Nash’s 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. "We’ve been pretty close, and we’ve 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 other’s 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 Zealand’s nine-wicket Second Test victory — their first at Lord’s — 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 Zealand’s 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 Zealand’s second series victory in England. "That’s the highest I’ve 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 we’d 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 Zealand’s 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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