Grant David Elliott (born 21 March 1979) is a former New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er, who played all formats of the game. Primarily a batting

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, Elliott contributed a man of the match performance to provide entrance to New Zealand's first ever World Cup final, by beating South Africa in 2015. Domestically, he played for

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

. In March 2017, he announced his retirement from international cricket and in August 2018, he retired from all forms of cricket.

Early life

The son of a South African plastic surgeon, Grant Elliott attended

St Stithians College ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

, whose notable cricketing alumni include Michael Lumb,

Roy Pienaar Roy Francois Pienaar (born 17 July 1961) is a South African former first-class cricketer. He played for Transvaal, Western Province and Northern Transvaal/Northerns in domestic cricket and spent the period between 1987 and 1989 in England pla ...

, David Terbrugge,

Dave Rundle David Bryan Rundle (born 25 September 1965) is a former South African cricketer who played two One Day Internationals (ODIs) in 1994. Born in Cape Town, Rundle attended St Stithians College and Stellenbosch University and was chosen in the Nu ...

and

Kagiso Rabada Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his ...

South Africa

He debuted with 67 in 1996–97 at

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, where on the advice of his captain, former New Zealand test skipper Ken Rutherford, who saw the quota system possibly blocking his path to higher honours, Elliott left his native Johannesburg for New Zealand in 2001. He played one match for South Africa 'A' against India 'A' before he qualified to play for New Zealand in 2007.

International career

Called up to the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

in early 2008 during

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

's tour, he made his Test debut against England in the third test in Napier replacing

Jacob Oram Jacob David Philip Oram (born 28 July 1978) is a former New Zealand international cricketer, who played all forms of the game for 10 years. He was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. His ability with both bat and ball mad ...

. Elliott has gone on to also make his ODI debut for New Zealand against England taking 3 wickets. In his second game he scored his maiden ODI 50. His maiden ODI century was in the 3rd game of the Chappell-Hadlee series scoring 115 against Australia at the SCG on Sunday 8 February 2009. He also did well in the Champions trophy in South Africa in 2009 as he took a four wicket haul against England at the Wanderers which actually helped New Zealand to qualify for the semifinals and in the semifinals he played an innings of 75 not out to take the Black caps to victory against Pakistan.

World records

Elliott scored his second ODI century when Sri Lanka toured New Zealand prior to the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by A ...

. Elliott and

Luke Ronchi Luke Ronchi ( ; born 23 April 1981) is a New Zealand-Australian cricket coach and a former cricketer. He represented both the Australia national cricket team and New Zealand national cricket team in international cricket. Ronchi is the only pl ...

both broke several batting records as the pair lifted New Zealand from 93/5 to a commanding 360 off their 50 overs. Their stand of 267* is the highest 6th wicket partnership in ODIs. In the inaugural

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

he along with

Zulfiqar Babar Zulfiqar Babar (born 10 December 1978) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2013 and 2016. Domestic career The lack of top-class facilities, though, didn't diminish his hunger or ambition. ...

set the highest 10th wicket partnership in any forms of T20 (63).

2015 World Cup

His finest moment however came in the 2015 World Cup Semi final against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

where he scored an unbeaten 84 and was adjudged the

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

. He hit the winning six off the second to last ball of the innings from Dale Steyn and created history by putting New Zealand into their first ever Cricket World Cup Final. In the final against Australia, Elliot top-scored for New Zealand, scoring 83 runs. After the World Cup, Elliott was named in the Twenty20 side in 2016 after suffering an arm injury playing domestically for Wellington. In April 2016, Elliott announced his retirement from ODI cricket. In August 2017, he was named in a

World XI In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

side to play three Twenty20 International matches against Pakistan in the 2017 Independence Cup in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

Strengths

Early on, Ken Rutherford noted his strong batting technique while also noting his occasional lack of self-belief. Former coach of the Wellington Firebirds, Anthony Stuart, commented that was "a tough cookie", and praised his commitment and high work ethic.

Glenn Turner Glenn Maitland Turner (born 26 May 1947) played cricket for New Zealand and was one of the country's best and most prolific batsmen. He is the current head of the New Zealand Cricket selection panel. Early life Glenn Turner was born in Dun ...

, former convener of the national selection panel, considered Elliott a "thoughtful character" whose offside play was exceptional, such as his hallmark shot, the lofted drive over extra cover.

Other

He played for Weybridge Cricket Club in the Surrey Championship in 2008. Elliott is the maker of the Buzz Cricket Bat. It is used by himself, Dewayne Bowden, Mark Houghton, Leighton Morgan,

Chris Nevin Christopher John Nevin (born 3 August 1975) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 37 One Day Internationals for New Zealand. Nevin was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy. Domestic career His entire ...

and Luke Woodcock. Luke Woodcock scored 220 with it in a first-class game. Since he has been injured he has worked with Sky Sport in the 2010 HRV Cup. In 2015 Elliott worked part-time as a business development manager. Now works full-time for cricHQ as a General Manager. He is also a cricket commentator for Spark Sports. His international shirt number has now passed to fellow ex-pat Black Cap -

Devon Conway Devon Philip Conway (born 8 July 1991) is a South African born New Zealand cricketer who plays for the New Zealand cricket team. In March 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that Conway would be eligible to play for New Zealan ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Grant Living people 1979 births Cricketers from Johannesburg South African cricketers South African emigrants to New Zealand Alumni of St Stithians College New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup World XI Twenty20 International cricketers Chattogram Challengers cricketers Gauteng cricketers Griqualand West cricketers Lahore Qalandars cricketers Leicestershire cricketers North Island cricketers Quetta Gladiators cricketers Saint Lucia Kings cricketers Surrey cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Wellington cricketers