The Black Caps are in the World Test Championship final. How’d they get there – and can they win?

After a byzantine process, some beautiful performances and a fair splash of luck, the Black Caps will be playing for the biggest prize in cricket – the first ever World Test Championship. Alex Braae explains how they got there. What’s all this then? In June this year, Kane Williamson will lead the Black Caps onto … Read more

‘The worst thing I’ve ever watched’: Jimmy Neesham on life, loss and the 51st over

Black Caps Cricket World Cup hero Jimmy Neesham reveals what happened on that ill-fated day at Lord’s and how to move on. Jimmy Neesham is doing OK now. But it’s taken a while.  For those still suffering from the lead-weight despair of seeing the Black Caps losing the World Cup final in the closest possible … Read more

Proud, devastated and robbed: Grant Robertson on watching the final at Lord’s

Grant Robertson, a cricket fanatic whose day jobs include being minister for finance and minister for sport, raced from Wellington to northwest London on the weekend to watch the Black Caps in what turned into the greatest one-day international ever played. I don’t remember the exact moment I fell in love with cricket. That’s a … Read more

The Offspin: Grasping at straws after the greatest ever cricket game

The Offspin podcast tries to make sense of the greatest cricket game of all time, at the same time as not seeing the Black Caps win it. Perhaps our guest Sam Flynn Scott has the right approach to this one – immediately upon arrival at the studio he decided to focus on how the Black … Read more

Recipe: A Cricket World Cup final bacon and egg pie

Why Simon Day hopes baking a bacon and egg pie will guide the Black Caps to glory tonight.  For a sport dominated by statistics, logic and precision, cricket is strangely superstitious. Every Tweet has a consequence, every movement away from the television affects the game thousands of kilometres away. Certain scores have magical properties. Nelson … Read more

The Offspin podcast: Back to the 90s with Dion Nash

On this episode of The Offspin, legendary all-rounder Dion Nash joins the show after a Black Caps performance that felt like a throwback to New Zealand cricket’s dark days of teal. Once upon a time, the stereotype of New Zealand cricket was of freezing in the big games, fragile batting and despair, while still finding … Read more