Roneel Magan Hira (born 23 January 1987) is a New Zealand

Twenty20 International cricket Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). In ...

er who is a left-arm off spinner. His relaxed attitude to cricket and his bowling style have been compared to

Phil Tufnell Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell (born 29 April 1966) is an English former international cricketer and current television and radio personality. A slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, he played in 42 Test matches and 20 One Day Internationals ...

. He was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Domestic career

Hira made his debut for

in first-class,

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

and

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

matches in the 2006–07 season. He represented New Zealand in the

2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2006 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was played in Sri Lanka from 2 to 15 February 2006. It was the sixth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. The final was played between Pakistan and India in Colombo, which Pakistan won by 38 runs, e ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. 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 The Champions League Twenty20, also known as the CLT20, was an annual international Twenty20 cricket competition played between qualifying domestic teams from some major cricketing nations. The competition was mainly launched with an ambitiou ...

, 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. 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. 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 MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

bowling rankings. His 76.06 MVP bowling points placed him well clear of the

Canterbury Wizards Canterbury is a first-class cricket team based in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is one of six teams that compete in senior New Zealand Cricket competitions and has been the second most successful domestic team in New Zealand history. They compete ...

Rob Nicol Robert James Nicol (born 28 May 1983) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played all formats of the game. He is a right-handed opening batsman and bowled right arm off spin occasionally. Domestically, Nicol has played first-class, List A an ...

who was second with 54.27; he got the HRV Cup MVP award for 2014.

International career

Hira was rewarded with selection in the New Zealand Twenty-20 squad for the 2012 series against Zimbabwe and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

."Zimbabwe in New Zealand 2011–12: Bates, Latham picked; Brendon McCullum to lead"
ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 28 January 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hira, Roneel 1987 births Living people New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers Auckland cricketers Canterbury cricketers Northern Districts cricketers New Zealand sportspeople of Indian descent North Island cricketers