The Rise of Two Toes Marty

There is no doubt that Martin Guptill is in the form of his life at the moment and that form is evident in the Twenty20 form of the game. He has scored 4 half-tons in 6 Twenty20 innings for Auckland and New Zealand, 3 of them not out.

His latest half-ton was a 78 not out against South Africa in Wellington, carrying the bat through New Zealand's run chase. His innings included quite possibly the longest six ever seen at the Cake Tin - the ball was sent towards the roof of the stadium and bounced down onto the pitch.

Stand-in captain Brendon McCullum has certainly noticed Guptill's most purple patch and the coaches have certainly recognised Guptill's top form, having rested him against Zimbabwe for the first game against South Africa.

Guptill's form is testament to the hard work and the genuine class of the man himself. Guptill definitely has the talent with the bat - and even with the ball with his 3 wickets against Pakistan in a test match. However, many international cricketers with more talent than Guptill have come and gone, disappearing without a trace, never fulfilling the talent they apparently had, e.g. Graeme Hick is a brilliant example and Jesse Ryder is on the verge of going down that route.

In fact when Guptill made his debut for New Zealand, many tipped him as a one day/Twenty20 specialist as his record then had been better in the short forms of the game. His start in test cricket was inauspicious but he has definitely made progress - his big problem now is converting his good starts into centuries.

In the mean time, Guptill has become New Zealand's best opening batsman in the short forms of the game and has somewhat reduced the burden on McCullum to light the innings on fire. Furthermore, with Ross Taylor injured and out till the test series against South Africa, Guptill has become New Zealand's key player.

But should we be really surprised that Guptill has done this well? It has become well known now that Guptill actually only has two toes on one foot after a major forklift accident in Auckland when he was growing up. Thankfully Guptill still had his big toe and could still play cricket at the highest level. However, the trauma from losing three of his toes would have been massive and required a massive recovery from the young man himself.

Perhaps that character is evident to see in the hard work Guptill has put in in establishing himself as on the Blackcaps' stars and most important players, as well as one of the best batsmen in the world.

NB: You might have noticed the volume of my blog posts has gone down somewhat over the last week - have been busy planning my Europe trip. Plus it's nice having a bit of breather from thinking of stuff to post about.