A meek title defence

The drubbing of Bangladesh over the last week was on expected lines, but not an altogether pointless exercise. The Bangladeshis are still a competant one day side who upset the kiwis in a World Cup warm up game and won the 20-20 on boxing day before the start of the ODIs. And, some of the batters notably Peter Fulton and Jamie How had a good crack before they return to the test side in a couple of days. The 3-0 result however should not disguise the fact that muddled selection and mishandling of crunch situations continue to haunt the one day side. This was and evident once again in the final game of the Chappell Hadlee series at Hobart.

No one was ever going to claim that NZ have a good recent record in critical games, but this time the title was up before the first ball was bowled. 30 for 3 in the previous rained-out game meant that the Australians indeed carried the brownie points into the game, but it appeared to have sent a sudden burst of panic into the selectors minds. They dropped the admittedly out of form Vincent and replaced him with an unproven wicketkeeper batsman in Gareth Hopkins, and decided to stick with a struggling and unfit Mark Gillespie because Chris Martin's one day abilites continue to be under suspicion. Then they decided to move designated finisher Mathew Sinclair to number three to accomodate Hopkins in the lower order. Having suitably messed up the batting order, the chase was never on. Some sensible bowling from oram and Vettori meant that the target was a gettable 282, but early strikes from Lee left the onus on a confused middle order unable to support Scott Styris and the end was nigh. Tellingly, most of the Australian successes were cheap wickets gifted by the batters to James Hopes and Brad Hogg. The 3-0 victory at the start of the year was all but forgotten as Ricky Ponting made good his word to regain the trophy.

With the side in transition, the selectors' handling of certain individuals was shown in poor light. Lou Vincent's latest axing from the one day side was a bit unjust when you consider the number of times he has had to fight his way back in. He had a poor run of form in the last five one dayers, but he is a matchwinner on his day and should have been given a lifeline during the last game. He certainly offers more to the side than Hopkins, who was also dropped for the Bangladesh series, a sign that the selectors had really little confidence in the XI the picked for Hobart. They still seem unsure of how to fit Chris Martin and Mathew Sinclair into the one day setup, which has pretty much been the case for the last seven years.

The one day side is still near-unbeatable at home, so the England series should present a less daunting challenge than the South African and Australian ones. But for the moment, old mistakes keep resurfacing; Jacob Oram still lacks the consistency to be called the new Chris Cairns, Ross Taylor continues to get himself out to suicidal shots, Mark Gillespie does not show enough control and Chris Martin must wonder if there is a future for him in this format at all. The one huge plus in the last few weeks has been the triumphant return of Brendon McCullum to the opener's slot. Many have forgotten he began his career six years ago in that position, and it finally looks like the Adam Gilchrist comparisons are not unwarranted.