Unconquered cricket pitches of Australia and New Zealand in the year 2014

New Delhi: With World Cup only six weeks away, teams are busy playing with each other to prepare for the mega sport even to be held in Australia and New Zealand where bouncy and seaming tracks would once again remind them of their last tour when these pitches took a heavy toll on them.There have been number of tours by the overseas teams to Australia and New Zealand in 2014 and not a single team returned with a series win. Be it test cricket or the limited over format, both the host nations have dominated in their home conditions and that's why they are being seen as the hot favorites to lift the coveted trophy..Team India is on its Australian tour as well for the preparation of World Cup but the results so far has been the same as it was before in overseas tours for them.From the historic Ashes whitewash of England to Brendon McCullum's record breaking spree against Sri Lanka, the year 2014 witnessed it all.India TV gives you the glance of such outrageous performances by the teams in Australian continent:1) England tour of AustraliaEngland toured to Australia in December 2013 for the 5-test Return Ashes series. But the visitors suffered a humiliating 0-5 whitewash. Australia outclassed the visitors with a heavy win in all the five tests. Out of 10 innings, Australia restricted England under the score of 200 on six occasions.No England batsmen were in top 6 highest run scorers; Kevin Pietersen was at no. 7 with just 294 runs in 10 innings falling much behind of Aussie opener David Warner who scored the most 523 runs in same no. of innings. Only one English batsman, Ben Stokes scored a century. Stuart Broad was the only pick of the bowlers in test series with 21 wickets. Johnson was the leading wicket taker with 37 wickets.The Ashes was then followed by 5-match ODI series and three T20 internationals. But the fortune remained the same for the visitors. They lost the ODI series by 1-4 and had a clean sweep 0-3 in T20 series.Here Eoin Morgan was the star player for England scoring the highest 282 runs in 5 matches while Ben Stokes with 10 wickets was at no. 2, falling just 1 short of James Faulkner.2) West Indies tour of New ZealandThe Caribbean side toured New Zealand in December 2013- January 2014 for three tests, 5 ODIs and two T20Is. New Zealand won the test series by 2-0 after first test ended in a draw. Darren Bravo was West Indies' best batsman with 262 runs in the series way behind of Ross Taylor who was the leading run scorer with 495 runs in 4 innings.Kiwis' best bowling duo of Trent Boult and Tim Southee were the leading wicket takers with 20 and 18 wickets respectively.West Indies came back strongly in ODI series however finished with series leveled at 2-2 after second ODI was washed away by rain.On January 1st, the world witnessed something which no batsman in 17 years was able to do. Kiwi all-rounder scored fastest ODI century in 36 balls beating Afridi's record of 37 balls. It was a rain shortened match and NZ went on to score 283 runs in 21 overs with Anderson unbeaten at 131 off just 47 deliveries. West Indies in reply was bowled out for a mere 124.Dwayne Bravo was the best Caribbean on the tour who was leading run scorer with 217 runs and second highest wicket taker with 7 wickets.3) India tour of New ZealandSoon after the humiliating tour of South Africa last year, India went onto another overseas tour to New Zealand in January 2014 for 5 ODIs and two tests.India lost the one-day series by 4-0 with one match tied when the scores of both the teams were leveled at 314. Virat Kohli scored the third highest no. of runs 291 followed by Dhoni at no. 4 with 272 runs in 5 matches. Kohli was the only centurion for India in the series. He had the highest individual score of 123. Apart from Mohammad Shami who took highest 11 wickets in the series, no other Indian bowler could do much.The ODI series was followed by two test series but nothing changed for the visitors. After bowling New Zealand out for a mere 105 in second innings the target they got was a mammoth 407 runs. India began the chase with a very positive approach. Shikhar Dhawan scored a century while Kohli made 67. But a sheer batting collapse from 222/3 to 366 all out cost India the match by 40 runs.The second test was however drawn and the hosts won the series 1-0. Shikhar Dhawan was second highest scorer in the series with 215 followed by Virat Kohli at third who scored 214 runs. Ishant Sharma was the leading wicket taker in the series with 15 wickets.4) South Africa tour of AustraliaSouth African cricket team visited Australia for three T20Is and 5 ODIs in November 2014.The hosts continued their dominance in home soil and defeated Proteas 2-1 in T20 series which was followed by another win by 4-1 in one day series.Though AB de Villiers was the leading run scorer in the series with 271 runs but he was closely followed by Steven Smith and Aaron Finch at 2nd and 3rd position with 254 and 250 runs respectively.Josh Hazlewood was the only Aussie bowler in the top 5 leading wicket takers. He was in second place with 9 wickets following Morne Morkel with 10 wickets in 4 matches. The other three in top 5 were Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Robin Peterson with 7, 6 and 5 wickets respectively.5) India tour of AustraliaWith a hope of a turn around in their overseas performances, India toured Australia in late November. The first test at Adelaide was postponed due to unfortunate demise of Phillip Hughes.However the story wasn't different for the visitors from any overseas tour in the past. After a brilliant century by the stand in skipper Virat Kohli in first innings of first test at Adelaide, while chasing a target of 364 runs the same story gets repeated. From 242/3 at one time they went down to 315 all out and lost the match by 48 runs.Kohli was the lone fighter in the chase with his second century (141) of the match however Vijay was dismissed at 99.India suffered another batting collapse in second test at Brisbane. They lost 6 wickets for 87 runs in first innings to go down to 408 from 321/4 and were bundled out for 224 in second to lose the test by 4 wickets and go 0-2 down in the 4-test series.In the third test at Melbourne, India lost the initiative by losing 7 wickets for 56 runs. They were 409/3 at one stage and went down to 465 in first innings with twin tons from Kohli and Rahane in reply to Australia's 530. Later they managed to hold on with a draw and Australia reclaimed Border-Gavaskar trophy.Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay were the only stand-out players for India.There had been couple of sledging instances in the series so far. But the incident which made news was Johnson hitting Kohli with the ball.The fourth test is to be played on January 6- 10 followed by a tri-angular series with Australia and England.6) Sri Lanka tour of New ZealandSri Lanka arrived New Zealand for two tests and seven ODIs in December. New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first test, with Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson steering the Black Caps to a four-day victory built upon a strong performance by their pacers Trent Boult and Tim Southee.Pacemen Trent Boult and Tim Southee shared 13 wickets between them for the match, and their efforts to bowl Sri Lanka out for just 138 in its first innings proved decisive.This was New Zealand's fifth test victory in 2014; the most in a calendar year in team history.The win also owed much to captain Brendon McCullum's first innings 195 — incorporating the fastest century by a New Zealand in tests — after the hosts had been sent in to bat.