Nathan Astle

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Nathan Astle
New Zealand
Personal information
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Career statistics
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	81	223
Runs scored	4702	7090
Batting average	37.02	34.92
100s/50s	11/24	16/41
Top score	222	145*
Balls bowled	5688	4850
Wickets	51	99
Bowling average	42.01	38.47
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	3/27	4/43
Catches/stumpings	70/-	83/-
As of 26 January 2007 Source: Cricinfo

Nathan John Astle (born 15 September 1971 in Christchurch) is a former member of the New Zealand cricket team. He was an attacking batsman who liked to play batting shots such as the cover drive and the pull shot. He also scored the world's fastest Test double century in terms of balls faced (total innings: 222 vs England in Jade Stadium, Christchurch 2002. In a remarkable innings of just 168 balls, Astle reached the double-century after only 153 balls).

[edit] Career

Astle has 16 ODI Centuries and 37 ODI Fifties to his name and is the second highest run-scorer of all time in One-Day Internationals for New Zealand. His highest ODI score of 145* was recorded against relative minnows USA although he won several matches for his country against countries with full Test match status. He has played County Cricket in England for Derbyshire, Durham and Nottinghamshire and plays for Canterbury in New Zealand.

On 31st May 2006, Lancashire announced that Astle would be a short term overseas replacement for Australian International Brad Hodge in the month of July.

Astle is also an occasional partnership-breaking medium pace bowler and a competent fielder. He may have been a dead cert for selection, but his laid-back attitude means he has never been considered for the captaincy, despite his seniority.

He began at Canterbury as a no-account batsman and the most parsimonious of medium-paced bowlers; albeit his batting developed quickly. After becoming a free-scoring one-day player Astle was turned by the national coach Glenn Turner into a first-rate Test top-order batsman, with consecutive hundreds in West Indies in 1995-96. Astle passed Martin Crowe's record number of one-day hundreds for New Zealand (4) during the 1997-1998 summer. For his efforts, Astle received the Player of the Year award for the 1998 season. He was also named New Zealand's One-Day International Batsman of the Year.^[1]

Nathan Astle had the fifth highest batting average (49.6) against Australia in test matches since 1990, compared to other players who have played 10+ tests. This compared to his test batting average of 37.02. He has also scored one test century against Australia. Astle scored sixteen One-Day International Centuries which is the most by any New Zealand batsman to date. He is currently 6th on the all-time list of One-Day centuries behind such names as Tendulkar, Ponting, and Ganguly. ^[2]

During the 2005 Chappell-Hadlee Series and the preceding tour to South Africa Astle incurred media criticism, along with fellow New Zealand cricket team team-mates Craig McMillan, Hamish Marshall and James Marshall, for a slump in form.^[3][4]

In late 2005, Astle was dropped from the national team.^[5]He returned in 2006, for the home series against the West Indies. He returned to form, and was New Zealand's leading run scorer in the ODIs. After returning, Nathan received the 2005-2006 Walter Hadlee Trophy for Best New Zealand One-Day International batsman. Over the New Zealand summer, he scored 690 One-Day runs from eleven games at an average of 54.2 runs. ^[6]

On 26 January 2007, Astle announced his retirement from International cricket in advance of the World Cup,^[7]stating at the press conference in Perth, "I have been fighting this day for about eight months. I so desperately wanted to go to my fourth World Cup, but deep down inside I knew that I was lacking motivation and the enjoyment levels were just not there." Nathan Astle played his last One-Day International on the 23 January against England at the Adelaide Oval. In 2007 he played for Longton C.C in Staffordshire.

As of December 2007, he is playing for the Mumbai Champs team in the inaugural 20/20 Tournament of the newly formed Indian Cricket League (ICL).

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Astle's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

[edit] Test Centuries

[edit] One-Day International Centuries

[edit] References

1. ^  Black Caps' careers on the line by Jonathan Millmow, from The Dominion Post, published on Stuff.co.nz 7 December 2005
2. ^  McMillan and Astle seek runs by Geoff Longley, from The Press, published on Stuff.co.nz , 12 December 2005
3. ^  Astle and McMillan hit for six by Stuff.co.nz and NZPA, 23 December 2005
4. ^ Disappointed Astle vows return to all-out attack by Jonathan Millmow, from The Dominion Post, published on Stuff.co.nz 24 December 2005
5. ^ Astle announces his retirement from Cricinfo, 26 January 2007
6. ^  Astle named NZ player of the year from Cricinfo, 28 April 1999
7. ^  [Nathan Astle] from the book Nathan Astle by Phil Gifford, 2007

[edit] External links

• Profile on Cricinfo
• Profile on BlackCaps Website

v • d • e New Zealand squad - 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Germon (c/wk) • 2 Astle • 3 Cairns • 4 Fleming • 5 Harris • 6 Kennedy • 7 Larsen • 8 Morrison • 9 Nash • 10 Parore • 11 Patel • 12 Spearman • 13 Thomson • 14 Twose

v • d • e New Zealand squad - 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Fleming • 2 Adams • 3 Astle • 4 Bond • 5 Cairns • 6 Harris • 7 McCullum • 8 McMillan • 9 Mills • 10 Oram • 11 Sinclair • 12 Styris • 13 Tuffey • 14 Vettori • 15 Vincent