New Zealand's world-class act, Trent Boult, pictured receiving kudos from Black Caps teammates on the way to a hat-trick of wickets, deserved better in the loss to Australia today. Photo / AP
New Zealand's world-class act, Trent Boult, pictured receiving kudos from Black Caps teammates on the way to a hat-trick of wickets, deserved better in the loss to Australia today. Photo / AP
Opinion by Anendra Singh
Anendra Singh is the Hawke's Bay Today sports editor
Australia's winning edge did not come from their players' gifted birth, a high IQ or the countless hours they have spent in the nets leading up to the ICC World Cup in England and Wales.
That cutting edge for the Ockers, an 86-run victory against handsome odds at Lord's this morning, is all in the attitude, not aptitude.
Here's hoping the Gary Stead-coached New Zealanders were watching and listening to man-of-the-match Alex Carey espouse the very essence of cricketing that doesn't render ability into disability.
Teetering at 92-5, the Ockers had found traction in a 107-run partnership between Usman Khawaja, at first drop, and No 7 Carey.
Scoring at a sedate run a ball (71 from 72 balls), Carey had alluded in a TV post-match interview to how the scoreboard tended to be a yardstick for how he should approach his innings.
"There was no time pressure on Steve [Smith] and myself at the time so just to give ourselves a bit of a chance ... " said the wicketkeeper, who had elevated Steve Waugh to prophetic status after the former Aussie World Cup-winning captain had predicted, as a columnist, Carey had all the makings of a "great".
Add to the 27-year-old left-hander's knock the 88 runs from Khawaja and the 243-9 from 50 overs, and the efforts had justified captain Aaron Finch's decision to pad up first after winning the toss on a wicket that was going to become lower and slower in the Black Caps' dig.
On the flip side, the Kiwis had committed just about every sin in the 10 commandments of cricketing — the most damning of them was not batting through the 50 allotted overs. They were skittled for 157 with 32 balls to spare.
Cantankerous allrounder Glenn Maxwell must have resisted the temptation but you could picture him grinning away, imitating a noose around his neck to accentuate not just the capitulation of a Kiwi innings but how the Black Caps took their foot off the throats of the Aussies.
New Zealand's world-class left-armer, Trent Boult, deserved better because his hat-trick of wickets had paled into glorious irrelevance regardless of whether Mitchell Starc was going to emulate his feat when he thwarted the Aussie's hat-trick ball.
Opening batsman Martin Guptill's catch — elevated to the cup's best (home-boy Ben Stokes eat your heart out) — doesn't atone for his dropped catches nor, more significantly, his inability to provide a solid platform at the ODI tournament. How does Carey's long-drop Ross Taylor wicket rate in the scheme of catches?
Opening batsman Martin Guptill needs to pop the champagne pretty soon because the in-laws are in town again, even if it means resorting to ball-one mentality. Photo/AP
It's squeaky bum time, people, and all the red herrings detract from the fact that Guptill's in-laws are in town but the 153-cap ODI veteran has yet to pop open the champagne — hey, ball-one mentality, if that's what it takes.
The pressure again fell on captain Kane Williamson and Taylor to build a foundation as Europe braces for the mother of all heatwaves.
In fairness, wicketkeeper Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santer did attempt to apply themselves in facing more than 20 balls in the middle order. By the way, everything after that is neither here nor there because the pretty boys above them didn't turn up at the park. Composure adds more value than throwing a bat at the ball in lucky-dip fashion.
It's blatantly obvious — if it wasn't already — the New Zealanders need insurance cover in the form of a Chris Harris or another retired Mr Reliable in international cricket, Michael Bevan, to rotate strike for singles.
No 6 Colin de Grandhomme's first-ball duck did little to suggest he's the cobra who'll defy the snake charmer when the crowd starts gathering. Educated strokes win matches, never mind what Brendon McCullum advocates.
For what it's worth, take a bow Williamson and Stead for using De Grandhomme to open bowling with his patience-to-when-are-you-arriving deliveries in a bid to unsettle the opening pair of David Warner and Finch.
Coming, coming ..... it's in the glove for Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey as he dismisses Ross Taylor. So how does that feature as a catch in the context of the game? Photo/AP
However, I'm not so sure Williamson needs the added pressure of bowling for seven overs as one of only two specialist batsmen in the starting XI. Juxtapose that with Finch rolling his arm for an over, chucking the ball to Smith to call De Grandhomme's bluff and, sporadically, employing Marcus Stoinis and Maxwell after unleashing his frontline four, including Nathan Lyon's spin, to keep the run rate at below four an over.
Here's another clear verdict — the Black Caps don't have any genuine allrounders, not that they need one if specialist batsmen and bowlers start fulfilling their portfolios. Pining for hybrid types quite often turns out to be a desperate attempt to cover for the shortcomings of others.
I'm not sure what's more cruel — leaving behind players who don't show convincing form or taking them to the cup and rolling them out like Guptill to lend credence to the definition of insanity or, for that matter, slipping a fluorescent vest on Tim Southee.
Maybe taking budding batsmen in the mould of William Young (assuming he was fit and not undergoing surgery) and leftie George Worker, as well as bowlers of the ilk of Doug Bracewell and one-cap Twenty20 strike bowler Blair Tickner, would have had a Jason Behrendorff aura about the Black Caps.
Clickbaits and soundbites on individual accolades will always have to give way to unspectacular collective enterprises.
Sure, as New Zealand's run rate starts dropping there's a mathematical chance of making the playoffs, which will allow some in the equation to tick off a box or two, but the mental scarring will remain.
Banking on India beating England — or whoever over whatever — is never a sound way to build a platform for success.
