Roneel Magan Hira (born 23 January 1987) is a New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketer who is a left-arm off spinner. His relaxed attitude to cricket and his bowling style have been compared to Phil Tufnell. He was born in Auckland.

Ronnie Hira
Personal information
Born23 January 1987 (1987-01-23) (age 37)
Auckland, New Zealand
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingSlow left-arm orthodox
RoleBowler
International information
National side
T20I debut (cap 53)11 February 2012 v Zimbabwe
Last T20I27 June 2013 v England
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2006/07–2011/12Auckland
2012/13–2015/16Canterbury
2016/17Northern Districts
2017/18–2019/20Auckland
Career statistics
Competition T20I FC LA T20
Matches 15 20 93 128
Runs scored 37 822 779 918
Batting average 18.50 25.68 17.70 19.53
100s/50s 0/0 1/5 0/1 0/3
Top score 20* 100 70* 91*
Balls bowled 254 880 3,867 2,488
Wickets 10 6 70 130
Bowling average 33.70 82.33 46.02 23.19
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0
Best bowling 2/42 3/85 4/31 4/13
Catches/stumpings 2/– 10/– 37/– 48/–
Source: Cricinfo, 15 August 2022

Domestic career

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Hira made his debut for Auckland in first-class, List A and Twenty20 matches in the 2006–07 season. He represented New Zealand in the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. He last played a first-class game in March 2008, but has represented Auckland with more regularity in the limited-overs formats. Hira was a part of the Auckland 50-over and Twenty20 sides that won the New Zealand domestic titles in 2010–11. He subsequently travelled to India with the Auckland Aces as part of their unsuccessful campaign in the Champions League Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket competition between club teams from India, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.

After three seasons as a contracted player for the Auckland Aces, Hira's domestic contract was not renewed for the 2011–12 season.[1] Despite only receiving match payments, Hira was the bowling standout of the domestic Twenty20 competition in the 2011–12 season and was an integral part of Auckland's successful defence of the HRV Twenty20 Cup. In an impressive campaign, he took 14 wickets at an average of 14.85 and, most importantly given the high-scoring Twenty20 format, conceded only 5.85 runs an over.[2]

Hira finished the Twenty-20 competition as the joint leading wicket-taker and impressed with his sharp fielding and his batting cameos lower down the order. On the back of this performance, Hira was the winner of the HRV Cup MVP bowling rankings. His 76.06 MVP bowling points placed him well clear of the Canterbury Wizards' Rob Nicol who was second with 54.27; he got the HRV Cup MVP award for 2014.[3]

International career

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Hira was rewarded with selection in the New Zealand Twenty-20 squad for the 2012 series against Zimbabwe and South Africa.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Aces' Roneel Hira spinning for second T20 title", Fairfax NZ News. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  2. ^ "HRV Cup season summary – the numbers", New Zealand Cricket. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Ronnie Hira earns Fujitsu Heat Pumps MVP". New Zealand Cricket Players Association. 11 December 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Zimbabwe in New Zealand 2011–12: Bates, Latham picked; Brendon McCullum to lead", ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
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