Crucket

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:

Thank the heavens!

New Zealand beats Pakistan by 7 runs in the final match of the series. A narrow escape by New Zealand in defending 211, and very, very welcome; it would have been hard to stomach a loss after having the Pakistanis at 101/9.

I had thought the game lost when I was following it over my breakfast. With 5 overs to go and number 10 and 11, Mohammad Aamer and Saeed Ajmal, quite happily knocking the ball around at around about the required run rate, I was cursing Aamer and Ajmal. But once Ajmal fell in the last over, I was able to be more charitable and appreciate their partnership and what they had very nearly achieved. Together they scored more than half their team’s runs and individually ended with Pakistan’s two highest scores. All this while facing three of the world’s top 10 ODI bowlers. Aamer was well deserving of his man of the match.

But kudos to the Black Caps. Having failed to both bat and bowl in the first ODI, in the next two they showed they could BAT! and BOWL! Defending 211, in this age of batting power plays, is a fine achievement.

Thomas Coffey:

New Zealand defeats Pakistan in the second ODI, regaining 4th spot in the ICC rankings.

A 64-run win would have been seen as a spanking, if the previous match had not been a 138-run slaughter.

The match was most notable for Brendon McCullum’s 131 off 129, which contributed hugely to the win.

Considering what a star Brendon is, it is remarkable that this is his first century against a decent opposition (though it is one that any batsman would be happy to have in his record). Ruffling through the stats however suggests that though he hasn’t hit 100 very often, his contributions are important for New Zealand wins. McCullum’s average is twice as large in wins as it is in losses. Also, when he scores 50 or above, New Zealand is twice as likely to win.

For Pakistan, it almost seemed like they were waiting for Shahid Afridi to do for them what McCullum did for us. By the time Afridi came in (in the 27th over), the top order had muddled along, allowing the required run rate to touch 8/over. When he went first ball (c. Taylor, b. Styris), there was no oomph left.

Phoenix Foundation:

The biggest day since we settled on a black uniform and I’m away from my computer and can’t blog. I’m still on the road, so I’ll just quickly post my impressions.

Semi v. Pakistan
Fantastic!! Such an assured performance, no one could doubt we belonged in the final.

Final v. Australia
Hesitant, confused, uncertain – we just didn’t look like we belonged in the final. Is it too much of a cliché to suggest that we couldn’t rise to the occasion is because of our lack of experience in finals?

Majorally stoked that we made the finals. Awesome. Bummed we didn’t win the tournament, but it’s only the Champions Trophy after all.

Netherworld Dancing Toys:

It is as if the world had righted itself on its axis. The Black Caps have made the semis of an ICC tournament. Global warming has been turned back. Kraft have revealed the iSnack was a hoax. (Though in a troubling sign of the coming apocalypse, Grant Elliot continues to prove to be a match winner.)

New Zealand destroy England, knock Sri Lanka out of the tournament and shame South Africa, all while imploding themselves.

Heard on Radio Sport (Mark Richardson?) this morning: “You can’t bag this New Zealand team because you’ll end up with egg on your face.”

Radiohead:

Well I was totally barking up the wrong tree in my last post, and it never feels better than it does to be wrong in your pessimism. New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by a good 38 runs and showed that they still know how to play the game better than most.

It was a classic victory in the Black Caps mould – a great top-order partnership, a wagging tail, tight bowling and good fielding. It even fitted in a couple of other NZ signatures with a batting collapse and a saving innings by Vettori, creating a donut shaped innings with a 12-over, 6-wicket, 3-RPO hole in the middle.

I am forced to reconsider my negative assessment in my previous post.

This was incidentally the 18th time we have scored over 300 runs setting a total and we have successfully defended every time we have scored this high. That is an awesome record that no other country can match.

To make it to the semis, we have to beat England (or tie or share a no-result). We’re currently level on points with Sri Lanka but so far behind on net run rate that we can’t overtake them except on points. We have had little trouble with England in ODIs recently, but they are the form team of the competition.

And we should so play Jesse Ryder. He’s awesome when he’s injured.

Lawrence Arabia (a cricket fan!):