Nathan Astle

Who Is Nathan Astle?

Nathan Astle is a former New Zealand cricketer. He is known for his skill with the bat and his handy bowling.

Fans remember him for big scores and clever play. He made many fans happy with his energy on the field.

Early Life and Background

Nathan Astle was born on September 15 1971.

Career and Claim to Fame

Astle played for New Zealand in all forms of cricket. He was a right handed batsman. In One Day Internationals he opened the batting. In Test matches he batted in the middle order.

He spent twelve years with the national side. He appeared in eighty one Tests and two hundred twenty three One Day Internationals. He scored four thousand seven hundred two runs in Tests and seven thousand ninety runs in ODIs. He also took one hundred fifty four wickets with his medium paced bowling.

He holds two special records. He made the fastest double century in Test cricket. He also made the second highest score in a fourth innings when he hit two hundred twenty two against England in Christchurch in two thousand two. He was part of the team that won the two thousand ICC KnockOut Trophy. His innings of one hundred forty five not out was the highest score in an ICC Champions Trophy until it was broken later. More information can be found at httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiNathanAstle

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Nathan Astle was born on September 15 1971. He is fifty five years old today.

His zodiac sign is Virgo. Virgos are known to be practical and careful. They like to pay attention to detail and they often help others.

Fun Facts and Legacy

We have learned that Nathan Astle is a New Zealand cricketer who was born on September 15 1971. He is fifty five years old and his sign is Virgo which makes him practical and thoughtful.

His cricket career gave New Zealand many great moments. He scored big runs, took many wickets and set records that fans still talk about. His name will stay in New Zealand cricket history for a long time.

Nathan Astle - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Nathan Astle

Nathan John Astle MNZM (born 15 September 1971) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played all formats of the game. A right-handed batsman who played as an opener in One Day Internationals (ODI), while batting in the middle order in Test matches. In a career that spanned 12 years, Astle played 81 Tests and 223 ODIs accumulating 4,702 and 7,090 runs respectively. As of 2022, he is New Zealand's fourth-most prolific run scorer. Astle collected 154 wickets with his medium-paced bowling at the international level. He holds two records – scoring the fastest double century in Test cricket and the second highest individual score in the fourth innings of a Test match. Both the records were achieved when he made 222 against England in Christchurch in 2002. Astle was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy. His innings of 145 not out was the highest individual score by a batsman in the ICC Champions Trophy, which he scored in the 2004 tournament until it was broken by Ben Duckett in 2025 against Australia when he scored 165.

This profile of Nathan Astle covers Personal Life, Domestic Career, Debut years, Successful opener in ODIs and 1999 World Cup failure.

Astle has played county cricket in England for Derbyshire, Durham and Nottinghamshire, and played domestically for Canterbury.

Personal Life of Nathan Astle

Astle was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he is still based; he is married to Kelly Astle and has two children. Astle and his wife Kelly run a childcare centre for which he is the director. His sister, Lisa Astle, represented the New Zealand women's team at the 1993 World Cup, and later married another first-class cricketer, Robbie Frew.

Domestic Career of Nathan Astle

Born in 1971 at Christchurch, Astle joined the East Christchurch-Shirley Cricket Club, a cricket club that would produce cricketers like Bruce Taylor, Craig McMillan and Michael Papps. He used to bat at number 6, and played as a batsman who could bowl medium pace. During the 1990–91 season, Astle was selected to play for "New Zealand Young Cricketers" against "England Young Cricketers". Astle managed just 127 runs at an average of 31.75 in the three match series. The following year, Astle made his First-class debut for Canterbury against Central Districts. He hardly managed to score runs at the end of the first three seasons. During the 1994–95 season he aggregated 663 runs at an average of 55.25. He played three important innings during the season – 96 against Auckland, 175 against Northern Districts and 191 against Wellington. Following impressive performances in the season, he was noticed by the New Zealand selectors.

On 31 May 2006, Lancashire announced that Astle would be a short-term overseas replacement for Australian player Brad Hodge. In 2007 he played for Longton C.C in Staffordshire. He was a part of the Mumbai Champs team in the inaugural 20/20 Tournament of the now defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Debut years

Astle was selected for the ODI series against West Indies in 1995. He was again selected for the series against Sri Lanka where's he scored 95 in one of the matches thus enabling New Zealand level the series and ending their losing streak after 13 matches. It was under the insistence of Glenn Turner, then coach of New Zealand, Astle was selected for the Test side and started playing as an opener in ODIs. He was again selected for a five match ODI series in India. In the first four matches, he failed to score, but in the final match he recorded his first ODI century scoring 114 off 128 balls. New Zealand won the match and Astle was declared "man of the match", in spite of New Zealand losing the series 3–2. The following year Astle made his Test debut against Zimbabwe at Trust Bank Park, Hamilton. In the ODI series, Astle scored a century in the first match and was named "man of the match". All in all, he scored 168 runs in the series averaging 56.00. Following that, Astle was named in the New Zealand squad for the 1996 Cricket World Cup that was held in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He scored his first World Cup hundred in new Zealand's opening match, against England, of the tournament. But Astle failed to score runs in the rest of the tournament, eventually ended up with 111 runs at an average of 18.5.

Following his dismal performance at the World Cup, Astle was selected for the two match Test series in West Indies. This was his second series after the one against Zimbabwe at home. Until then, he managed just 77 runs in four innings at an average of 19.25, In the first Test at Kensington Oval, he scored 54 (48 balls) and 125 in both innings of the Test. In the second innings he was involved in a partnership of 144 runs with Justin Vaughan for the fifth wicket, a record for New Zealand then. In spite of his performance in the match, New Zealand lost the match by ten wickets. He continued his good form with the bat as he scored 103 in the second Test, enabling New Zealand draw the match, although they lost the series 1–0. In the following year, Astle scored 106 against England in the 1st Test of the three–match series. He was involved in a partnership of 106 for the tenth wicket with Danny Morrison, a New Zealand record. His partnership with Morrison helped New Zealand secure a draw and prevented England from winning the test match.

Successful opener in ODIs

Astle was New Zealand's top run scorer in the 1997 Pepsi Independence Cup, a quadrangular tournament that also included India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In the first match against Pakistan, he scored 117 and took a career-best figure of four wickets for 43 runs; New Zealand won the match by 22 runs while Astle was named Man of the match. He followed that with 92 against India, a match which New Zealand lost. Although, New Zealand did not progress to the finals, Astle ended up as the fourth-most prolific run scorer with 218 runs at an average of 72.66. He was equally successful with the ball as he captured seven wickets at an average of 15.00. Astle also passed Martin Crowe's record number of one-day hundreds for New Zealand (four) during the tournament.

Astle's success as opener in ODIs continued throughout the season. In a home series against Zimbabwe, he was more consistent, scoring 351 runs including a century. He made scores exceeding 60 in four consecutive matches and was ultimately named "man of the series". Astle performed well in the subsequent series' such as the Singer-Akai Nidahas Trophy (1998) and the home series against South Africa accumulating close to 600 runs.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Astle), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.