Champions Tropy prospects
Speaking to the press, Daniel Vettori claimed that NZ can win the Champions Trophy. Ha! Maybe he is trying a bit of stand-up comedy after all.
Actually, I reckon it is just the Herald sensationalising beyond the call of duty. Everyone else is taking the ‘must build partnerships’ angle.
This is the first ICC tournament NZ has gone into where I haven’t been confident of a semi-final finish. It will be an early exit for New Zealand, almost certainly. To get through, we will likely have to beat three of our group opponents, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England. We’d fancy ourselves against England perhaps, but we have no show against the other two.
Our one-day fortunes have crashed recently. Our win/loss ratio for 2009 is a sorry 0.62. Remarkably though, we have simply the best bowling attack in world cricket. We have 4 top 20 ODI bowlers. In fact, 3 top 10 bowlers. In fact, 2 top 5! And we have proven, though inconsistent, powerhouses amongst our batsmen. It is the same team that almost carried away the Chappell-Hadlee earlier this year, but they have deflated over winter.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 am
[...] India, which they will have needed after enduring a torrid time in Sri Lanka. The top order will need to dramatically improve if the Black Caps are to replicate their success of [...]
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 am
I’ve responded to this post in my blog. Agree that the one-day side has slipped, though I don’t necessarily feel it will be an early exit for NZ.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
[...] my expectations for New Zealand are low, I’m hoping we see yet another winner added to the list and I’m backing Pakistan. [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 12:05 am
South Africa were easily beaten yesterday, and England are rubbish. So don’t write the black caps of yet!