Jacob Oram

Born on July 28, 1978 in Palmerston North, Jacob Oram can also be referred to as a gentle giant thanks to his towering 1.98m personality. An all-rounder of class, Oram is a left handed batsman and a right arm medium fast bowler. Injury and Oram have always gone together. He missed a vital part of the 2001 season with a foot injury.

Oram made his debut in seamer friendly conditions against India in 2002-03 and enjoyed those conditions to the hilt taking 11 wickets in the 2-test series. This included career best figures of 4/41 at Hamilton. He had a wonderful time with the ball in the ODIs that followed as he snaffled up career best figures of 5/26 at Auckland. Oram followed his bowling heroics with some outstanding batting in the next summer against South Africa with 273 runs at a superb average of 91 in the 3-Test series. This series also saw him registering his maiden Test century at Hamilton. In fact South Africa was to prove to be his favorite opposition as he scored his career best knock of 133 at Centurion in April, 2006. The injuries though took its toll on him and Oram retired from Test cricket in 2009 to prolong his career.

Oram has been a steady if not spectacular contributor in the shorter form of the game. His one off century was against familiar opponents, Australia. Oram whacked 101 off just 72 balls as New Zealand almost chased 343. His all-round performance has been a significant factor in New Zealand doing very well in the big ICC tournaments. He has made fleeting appearances in IPL having featured for the Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians as well as the Rajasthan Royals but went unsold in the 2014 auctions. Oram continues to play franchise cricket and has played in the BPL as well as SLPL.

After retiring from Tests in 2009, Oram continued playing ODI and T20Is. He once again contributed to the team success in the 2011 WC where New Zealand lost to Sri Lanka in the semi-final. Oram was also part of the squad that had an unlucky T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. However, with young all-rounders like Corey Anderson, Jimmy Neesham coming into reckoning it has made it tough for Oram to find a spot in the team.

Interesting fact: Oram injured his ring finger while taking a catch against Australia just before the 2007 WC. Such was his desire to play the World Cup; he reportedly stated that he was considering chopping off the finger to be able to play sending the media into frenzy. He played in the 2007 WC and played a vital role in helping New Zealand reach the semis.

By Pradeep Krishnamurthy

As of April 2014