Scott Styris

Scott Styris

Source: Cricinfo, April 21 2008

Scott Bernard Styris (born Brisbane, Australia 10 July 1975) is a New Zealand cricketer. An allrounder, Styris is an aggressive right-handed middle order batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler.

Educated at Hamilton Boys' High School, Styris has represented Auckland and Northern Districts since 1994/95. He was originally just a seam bowler and only started to concentrate on his batting after a knee injury. Nicknamed "The Pig" or "Pigga", he has become a crowd favourite, especially at Eden Park.

Styris has played for Hamilton in the Hawke Cup.

Scott Styris was bought by the Deccan Chargers for the IPL 2008 season. He went for $175,000 in the player auction on Febraury, 20 2008. He will be representing Deccan Chargers for 3 years in IPL from 2008 to 2010.

Career Highlights

Styris made his debut for New Zealand in a One Day International at Rajkot in 1999/2000. His maiden wicket was that of Sachin Tendulkar, one of 3 wickets for the match.

He had to wait until mid 2002 to play his first Test Match, against the West Indies at Grenada. His debut had almost come at Karachi 2 months earlier but the match was abandoned due to bomb blasts near the team hotel. In the Test at Grenada he batted at number 8 and top scored with 107. When it was New Zealand's time to bowl Styris came on and took 2 for 88. The first of his wickets was that of Brian Lara which gave him impressive maiden scalps in both formats of the game. He made an unbeaten 69 in the second innings to complete a dream debut but missed out on the man of the match award which went to Chris Gayle who scored a double hundred.

In the ODI series after the Tests he continued his form but this time with the ball, taking 6 for 25 at Trinidad. This broke the record for best One Day International bowling figures by a New Zealander.

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

At Mohali in 2003/04 against India he scored his second Test hundred with 119, one of 4 New Zealander's to make a century in the innings. Soon after he made his career best Test score of 170 against South Africa in Auckland, his innings taking just 220 balls.

In June 2004 New Zealand toured England and Styris impressed at Nottingham, making 108. He scored his fifth Test hundred at Auckland against the West Indies, an unbeaten 103 helping his side to win the Test.

When New Zealand chased what was then an ODI record of 322 in 2005/06 against Australia at Christchurch, Styris contribued 101.

He then suffered a back injury missed out on the Sri Lanka series of December 2006. Making his return in the latter stages of the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia and then in the Chappell Hadlee series at home, Styris had done enough to be included New Zealand's World Cup squad.

2007 World Cup performance

Styris started the tournament with the man of the match award in a win over England at St Lucia. Chasing 210 for victory, Styris made an unbeaten 87 to guide his side home. His pugnacious batting style and distinctive gait led to former England captain Nasser Hussain referring to him as a "street fighter" from the commentary booth during the game. He made another half century in the game against Kenya and made 80 not out in a successful run chase against the home side. In the Super Eight stage the New Zealanders played Sri Lanka and Styris top-scored with 111 not out. The second top scorer in the innings made just 31. It was his second ever World Cup century; he scored one in 2003.

County Cricket

In 2005 he signed with Middlesex and stayed with them for the 2006 season as well where he deputised for the county captain Ben Hutton in several matches. He received his county cap during the 2006 season. He has signed a 2 month contract at Durham County Cricket Club from 1st June 2007.

Retirement from test cricket

Scott Styris announced a shocking retirement from test and first-class cricket to concentrate on the shorter forms of the game. Having considered himself as a one-day specialist, he wanted to still be considered for 2011 Cricket World cup.

External links

• Cricinfo Player Profile : Scott Bernard Styris
• Cricket Archive