Bryan Young

Bryan Young was a journeyman wicketkeeper and lower-order bat with Northern Districts for almost ten years before he reinvented himself as a dogged opening batsman to great effect in the early 1990s. He ground out 38 (off 167 balls) and a relatively skittish 53 (off 122) on debut at Brisbane in 1993-94, and the following winter, in the second Test against South Africa, he treated the Durban crowd to a painstaking half-century, made in 333 minutes, despite New Zealand being well on their way to defeat. But Young could win Test matches too: his 120 anchored the remarkable run-chase (324 for 5) against Pakistan at Christchurch in 1993-94, and he hammered an unbeaten 267 in the innings victory over Sri Lanka in 1996-97.
Rob Smyth