Lockie Ferguson took a five-wicket bag for the Black Caps. Photo / Photsport
Lockie Ferguson took a five-wicket bag for the Black Caps. Photo / Photsport
Twenty20 cricket is a game of shifting trends and strategies but it's comforting to know there is an old-fashioned "tactic" that remains the ultimate game changer: pace like fire.
Tonight saw a prime example of that art as New Zealand won a game in which they spent the majority of the time shuttling effortlessly between trouble and calamity.
Chasing 181 to win in a reduced 16 overs, New Zealand won with five wickets and four balls to spare, James Neesham starring with a 24-ball unbeaten 48.
Even with that relatively comfortable margin, there was an element of how-the-heck-did-that-happen?
After being inserted, the West Indies had taken advantage of greasy conditions and poorly calibrated bowling radars to streak away to 55-0 after three overs.
Enter Lockie Ferguson. By the time he'd finished his third over the West Indies were 81-5 and he had 3-8 – and that tells only a fraction of the story.
Ferguson was fast. The light rain seemed to make the drop-in wicket skid rather than hold up and the West Indies had no answer.
Lockie Ferguson took a five-wicket bag for the Black Caps. Photo / Photsport
He uprooted Andre Fletcher's stumps, nicked off Shimron Hetmyer for a duck and was a tad fortunate to have Nicholas Pooran leg before to a full toss.
In between the Hetmyer and Pooran dismissals, captain Tim Southee returned to the crease and had Brandon King and Rovman Powell caught on the third man and fine leg boundaries respectively. Just like that, the guts of the order was gone and only skipper Kieron Pollard stood in the way of a rout (and not a bad bloke to stand in the way of anything, but more on that later).
Even that doesn't really tell you the visceral effect Ferguson had on proceedings. Twenty20 is a batsman's game, right? Not when you're getting pinned on the chest by a guy running in and regularly hitting 150-plus clicks.
The new season, the Spark Sport era, the Devon Conway era perhaps, got off to a faltering, frustrating start as squalls sent the players in three times during the first innings.
Southee, the skipper, started and missed most of his targets before they were chased off after four legitimate deliveries.
They were back after 20 minutes, but gone again after T20I debutant Kyle Jamieson's first over.
It won't be one the tall right-armer will tell his grandchildren about, having leaked 18 runs including two sixes, but it was mild punishment compared to what was about to befall Hamish Bennett when they returned.
His first ball was a single. The next was five wides when he was done no favours by wicketkeeper Tim Seifert. A four and a single followed before it all went haywire. Slipping in his delivery stride, Bennett ended up prone sideways across the pitch and the ball at extra cover.
Hamish Bennett apologised to Kieron Pollard after his wayward bowling. Photo / Photosport
Confidence shaken, the next went into the upper deck of the West Stand – insult added to ignominy. A single followed before two no-balls, the second of which was also hit for four. The final ball also went to the boundary: 29 runs in 10 minutes of brutal theatre.
Ferguson's intervention followed before Pollard and Fabian Allen combined for an 84-run partnership that combined common sense with the odd nonsensical Eden Park six.
Ferguson returned to get Allen, then Keemo Paul for a duck with a truly terrifying delivery he gloved after initially looking to evade.
At the other end stood Pollard. With his size and backlift, Eden Park can't contain his mishits let alone balls that find the middle. Plenty found the middle.
The unfortunate Bennett was handed the last over; Pollard top-edged a six then snotted one into the next suburb. Bennett followed with a beamer, his second, and was removed. Neesham was given the task of completing the over, which he almost managed, though they were still looking for the penultimate delivery in Epsom as Pollard walked off with an unbeaten 75 off 37.
What, are you NOT entertained?
New Zealand's chase faltered in the first over as Guptill nicked off to Sheldon Cottrell. It stumbled further as Seifert struggled to 17 off 12.
Glenn Phillips provided a run-rate boost and a moment of painful levity as he popped his knee out while hitting a six, screamed in pain, popped it back in and hit the next for six. His 22 off seven balls could never be called boring.
Glenn Phillips reacts to his knee popping out. Photo / Photosport
Ross Taylor's four-ball duck was suitably ugly and at that point you could all but write the obit for New Zealand.
But this is T20. And weird things happen at Eden Park.
Conway and Neesham combined for 77 before Conway's first innings for his adopted country ended at 41. His was a classy knock, Neesham's more brutal.
With Mitchell Santner's support at the death (31 off 18) and a West Indian meltdown at the bowling crease, game one, Ferguson's game, went to the hosts.
