Cricket: Quality of pitches behind big scores

Scoring 300-plus doesn't guarantee anything in one-day cricket these days according to the new Black Caps' mantra, especially on New Zealand's much-improved home wickets.

The torrent of runs in the last two games of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series against Australia was triggered by a range of factors, not least the remarkable turnaround in pitch quality.
The second match, in Wellington on Wednesday, provided 642 runs while Saturday's thriller at Jade Stadium bettered that with 663.

Three years ago the seven-match series between New Zealand and a classy Indian side here saw a winning score of more than 200 achieved just once.

And the wicket at Hamilton's Westpac Park was again slammed from all sides as second-rate after a miserable match against an invitational World XI last summer.

Black Caps centurion Scott Styris couldn't remember playing on such true surfaces anywhere as he had in the last week.

"In first-class cricket we don't get to play on these grounds a lot. If we can replicate these it would be even better," he said.

"We would become a better side and our bowlers would become better as well."

Captain Daniel Vettori said flat wickets and small boundaries meant chasing teams could bank on more runs at the "death" and could bat with more confidence.

On Saturday they set a target to be 230 after 40 overs, which would still leave them 102 to win off the last 10. They actually reached 231 for six and needed just nine more overs to knock off the remainder, with Vettori and wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum bringing a mix of power and cool heads.

Australia had finished even better, thrashing 125 from their last 10 overs.

"Eighty is very gettable [in the last 10]," Vettori said.

"To get yourself out of sight you have to be over 100, otherwise it's just getting too easy."

Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting agreed that the game was changing and that New Zealand's venues - while on the small side - were shifting with it.

"You can see by the scores that have been made, just how good the surfaces have been," he said.

"I was really surprised by the one in Wellington because the last game we played there it was really slow and low. The groundsmen need to be congratulated on what they've done over the last week."

Ponting was convinced that Twenty20 cricket had helped batsmen hone their one-day techniques.

"There's not much fear in the batters now to keep hitting the ball over the top.

"I've got no doubt that the more Twenty20 is played, you'll see the skills transfer over to the one-day game as well.

"You see it even in test cricket as well, with the amount of one-dayers that are being played. Scores of 330 or 340 in a day are nothing unusual, whereas probably 10 years ago it was unheard of."

- NZPA