Well, it was too good to last. The hard-won 2-0 lead has been surrendered and now the Chappell-Hadlee series will be decided in Brisbane on Friday. Sydney was thrilling thanks to Grant Elliott's exceptional century and Brendon McCullum's heroics at the end, but the Adelaide defeat was on more predictable lines. I just wonder whether a bit of self doubt has crept into Daniel Vettori's thinking at the moment, judging from some rather reactive captaincy in the last two games.
At Sydney he surrendered first use of an excellent batting strip, his bowlers having to operate in 35 degree heat while the Aussies took the field in cooler conditions. This was in keeping with the feeling that NZ are good chasers and back themselves to hunt down huge totals. It seemed to awaken the sleeping giant in Australia, as Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin thrived on some loose bowling. NZ made a good fist of chasing 301, and still held a 2-1 lead going into Adelaide. Chastened by the previous game's events, on a slow pitch, Vettori made an about-turn and decided to bat first. After a good but slow start, NZ huffed and puffed their way to 244 which was never going to be enough, as it turned out. But they didn't help their cause with a strange selection. They decided the batting lineup had been thin in the previous games, and brought in Craig Cumming to replace spinner Jeetan Patel. Apart from not having the desired effect (Cumming was out for a duck from no.6), NZ found themselves with only four specialist bowlers and Grant Elliott to defend an under-par total. On the field, Vettori suddenly found he had no options when a specialist bowler was getting tonked. While the batsmen should have put more runs on the board, having consciously decided that they would bat first leaving out a specialist bowler didn't make much sense. I haven't seen Brendon Diamanti yet but I suspect he might have contributed more to the team than did Cumming.
My concern with the one-day side is this fixation with chasing a score whatever the conditions, for it makes things rather predictable for the opposition as we have just seen. The side needs to develop the art of setting a big total too. In Adelaide they fumbled too often, mainly from an inability to pick up ones and twos in the middle overs. In the last few years NZ have built up an admirable reputation of being able to chase down 300-plus totals; but from the bowlers' point of view, wouldn't it be nice to have 300 to defend once in a while?
Top Cricket From The Second Tier
13 years ago
2 comments:
To continue along the vein of my previous note... Australia, on the contrary, has a bunch of underrated overrated players like Clarke and Haddin. They came in with a ton of hype on their shoulders, manage in their own way to live up to it, yet don't seem to get the kind of credit that they truly deserve.
2-2 is creditable for a side in rebuild mode, I know you won't like me for saying that.
Ah, the current bunch of Aussies. I will concede they are not overrated (outside the Channel 9 commentary box); they're bloody good, even their second string. Haddin and Clarke are very good cricketers, the series was proof of that.
However, growing up in a 'winning' culture where aggro is everything seems to have blinded the Aussies with their win-at-all-costs mentality, which does not endear them to me at all (I speak particularly of their captain here). Playing the Aussies these days inevitably leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and that is why I won't like you for saying that :)
But 'underrated overrated'? Can't agree.
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