Walking my son to school yesterday, the sun was shining bright, the frost on the grass sparkled and the tuis were singing melodies in the trees. A surprisingly beautiful morning. Had something wonderful happened?
Had it ever: Black Caps crush India. It’s almost enough to get me blogging again.
The Kinks (courtesy of Darjeeling Limited):
I kinda got the feeling the Black Caps batsmen were playing silly buggers a bit in the win against Zimbabwe, keeping just above the D/L target rather than polishing things off.
So the big expectation on Zimbabwe after their wins in the warm ups came to nothing. And all the talk of Ireland beating up England, washed away. Any hopes of a continuation of the tradition of upsets by minnows now rest on Bangladesh or Afghanistan, playing overnight. Go the minnows!
The Naked and Famous:
Beating Sri Lanka should have booked us a place in the Super 8s. Yay. And no small achievement. A quick look at the records shows that Sri Lanka have been a real banana peel for us. Saturday’s win is our first over Sri Lanka in a grand tournament (World Cup, Champions’ Trophy or World T20) since 1992.
No such worries against Zimbabwe.
The Compton Cricket Club:
Very cool.
It isn’t new or anything, but I have just recently been directed to it, and I was most surprised to see what must be Daniel Vetorri in his beardy phase playing drums. Here he is, the original left-arm orthodox gangsta:
The only real thrashing of the 2010 Chappell-Hadlee goes to New Zealand. A 51-run victory. A 51-run thumping.
It was great to see the bowlers finally taking some wickets (first time we took the full 10 wickets we should note). They’ve been quite effective at keeping scoring in check, but haven’t been so threatening. Last night they were able to do both.
Add to this the ability of the batsmen to keep up a half decent scoring rate even while wickets are falling.
There are weaknesses in the team, but strengths also.
So Australia take the trophy home 2-3. Well, it was their turn. It was our turn last time, even if…well, enough dwelling on the misfortunes of the past.
Feelstyle:
That will teach you to push your arch-conservative former prime minister over our highly respected retired cricket administrator.
The Knife:
Best 20-20 ever. First time an over-200 run total has been nearly chased down. It was the 20-20 equivalent of the 872-run Johannesburg ODI, except not as long and tedious.
Can’t get better than a scintillating century, an exciting run chase, tied scores and then to top it all, we get to see the Aussies choke.
And it was an NZ win wasn’t it? Cricinfo are listing it as a tie, but I’m assuming that is just that their automated scoreboarding systems are set up to handle super overs.
But then, half a day later, we get the worst 20-20 ever, the West Indies failing to chase a target of 106, which like all worst things, has its charms.
Smog:
There’s only one thing to reasonably expect in a series against Bangladesh, a whitewash. Anything else is an upset – and that would be embarrassing. So it makes a lot of sense to talk up Bangladesh’s prospects before the first game of the tour, on the off-chance they do manage to fluke a win.
However, after last Friday’s 146-run caning, following up on the 20-20 mauling, I find it hard to see how you can continue to suggest that Bangladesh are asking questions. If they’re posing any questions, they are “Who was talking them up before the series and what were they thinking?” and “When does Australia arrive?”
Vampire Weekend:
There should be a name for the type of 10 wickets to none downtrou where you outscore your opponent at a rate of 2 to 1.
A browntrou?
The xx
God I love test cricket. Maybe I’m just caught up in the euphoria of the moment, but that feels like one of the special New Zealand wins. Certainly of recent times. Of course, in recent times any test win is special – we haven’t had a decent test win for a year and half.
But seriously, it was a good win. We put 100 runs on Pakistan after the 1st half of the match, then managed to hold on to our lead despite an embarrassing batting collapse in the second half. Mostly though, the match was special for the fight shown in the 4th innings. The guys just kept on trying even though there were several times when it looked like Pakistan were going to get away.
I rode quite a roller coaster today. I wasn’t feeling too confident with a target of only 250. It’s not a bad target to defend, but recent performances had left me lacking in optimism. The two early wickets in the Pakistan innings evened things up though, and from then it was several hours of fluctuating emotions as the game ebbed and flowed.
It looked to me like Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik were going to steal the match. They got to within 100 and I could easily see them sticking around to the end or near enough to the end. We have seen New Zealand deflate in the 4th innings so often. So Malik’s wicket was important; it brought the game back within reach. However, it was Umar Akmal’s wicket, c&b Shane Bond, that was crucial. Getting rid of Umar before he could build another partnership was the winning of the match.
While that wicket was crucial, it was Bond’s overall performance that gave us the match. 8 wickets at a strike rate of 37. It is fantastic to have him back in the team. We are a different team with Bond leading our attack.
But that is such a troubling thought. That we should be so reliant on one player. We came no where near replacing him in the two years he was away and there are no firm prospects on the horizon.
But enough pessimism. At the moment I just want to glory in the win.
Kenny Rogers & The First Edition:
