Mark Greatbatch

Mark John Greatbatch (born on 11 December 1963 in Auckland) is a former New Zealand cricketer. He scored more than 2,000 runs in his 41 Tests for New Zealand. A left-handed batsman and very occasional right-arm medium pace bowler in first class cricket for Auckland and Central Districts, Greatbatch scored 9,890 first class runs in total as well as being an occasional wicket keeper.

International career

Greatbatch highest test score of 146 not out off 485 balls was against Australia at Perth in November 1989.^[1] Greatbatch was at the crease for 11 hours (2 days) to save New Zealand from defeat, the game ending in a draw because of his efforts.^[2] He received a standing ovation at the end of the game. Greatbatch’s defensive innings is still considered by many pundits to be one of the greatest cricket centuries ever, under the circumstances.

For the 1992 Cricket World Cup Greatbatch was not selected to play in the first match, against Australia. However, he was selected to open against South Africa in place of John Wright, who had been injured, and proceeded to bat aggressively to take advantage of fielding restrictions early in the innings. The strategy worked, so was repeated again throughout the World Cup and Greatbatch became one of the first 'pinch hitter' players to open an innings in One Day Internationals. Because of this success other cricketing nations, notably Sri Lanka, adopted the idea of opening with an aggressive batsman who normally plays in the middle order of test matches to score quick runs early and this tactic is now common in international cricket.

After cricket

Greatbatch was a solid fielder and took some excellent diving catches throughout his career. In September 2005 he became director of coaching at Warwickshire County Cricket Club in England.^[3] After relegation from both the County Championship and Pro40 League in 2007 he was replaced by Ashley Giles.^[4] In January, 2010, Greatbatch was appointed the coach of the New Zealand national cricket team.^[5]

International centuries

Test centuries

Test centuries of Mark Greatbatch
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
[1]	107*	1	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1988	Drawn
[2]	146*	7	Australia	Perth, Australia	WACA Ground	1989	Drawn
[3]	133	23	Pakistan	Hamilton, New Zealand	Trust Bank Park	1993	Lost

One Day International centuries

One Day International centuries of Mark Greatbatch
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
[1]	102*	25	England	Leeds, England	Headingley Cricket Ground	1990	Won
[2]	111	26	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	1990	Lost

International awards

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match Awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	England	Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds	23 May 1990	102* (104 balls: 9×4, 3x6)	New Zealand won by 4 wickets.[6]
2	South Africa	Eden Park, Auckland	29 February 1992	68 (60 balls: 9×4, 2x6)	New Zealand won by 7 wickets.[7]
3	India	Carisbrook, Dunedin	12 March 1992	2 Ct. ; 73 (77 balls: 5×4, 4x6)	New Zealand won by 4 wickets.[8]
4	South Africa	AMI Stadium, Christchurch	23 February 1995	76 (85 balls: 7×4, 2x6) ; 2 Ct.	New Zealand won by 46 runs.[9]

See also

• List of Auckland representative cricketers

References

External links

• Mark Greatbatch at ESPNcricinfo