KEY POINTS:
Crowd-pleasing though it might have been, the Black Caps will be hoping that there is no tie and no shoot-out in the second Twenty20 international against the West Indies in Hamilton today.
For a start, they will not want to be exposed twice in this game, as they
were in Auckland, to the thundering bat of Chris Gayle whose tours here have demonstrated just how much the West Indian skipper approves of New Zealand bowling. In addition, there is a lingering doubt that the play-off is a satisfactory way to end such contests.
That is not to say that the shootout should be discarded. Twenty20 is such a nakedly commercial beast and the Eden Park crowd got right into the final fling (once they understood what was happening and Eden Park got its lights turned on), with Gayle carving up Daniel Vettori's bowling like a Christmas turkey in the one-over blizzard of runs.
But there seems little wrong with following the lead of the other forms of cricket - tests and one-dayers - in that a tie is a tie is a tie. The excitement of the tie is enough; there's no need to manufacture a result.
Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori thinks that way and, just in case his comments are misinterpreted, there wasn't a hint of sour grapes when he made them after the loss in Auckland.
He was, instead, commenting on the new system of a play-off with the two sides given one over to clobber runs while permitted to lose only two wickets.
Vettori could also be forgiven for a bit of ruefulness - three for 16 off four overs is class bowling in any Twenty20 slogfest and he slowed what was a West Indian march to victory before Gayle punished him with 25 runs off his "eliminator" over.
Vettori said he didn't think the play-off was quite the right way to finish the game. "A tie is a tie," he said. "What's wrong with a tie?
"I understand the appeal and if you are sitting on the other side of the win, you might enjoy it more - but the game's called Twenty20, not One/1. I think we have to make sure we don't dilute the game too much. I don't have a problem with ties."
However, coach Andy Moles had a different opinion.
"I think it affects Dan a wee bit more because he was the guy who bowled the over [to Gayle]. For me, the proof of the pudding was the joy the crowd got out of it.
"We are in the entertainment business and everyone was happy with it last night - I'd say our dressing room was the only unhappy place. I think the eliminator is better than the the bowl-off because you are watching cricket, not just bowler bowling at stumps."
However, it would pay to let the crowd know what was happening faster. There was a bit of a hiatus at Eden Park before the ground announcements and the big screen kicked in with the relevant information. A few people got up and left, thinking the match was over. The lights apparently needed to be warmed up, leading to a bit of a delay before the "eliminator" could be held.
If the tie had remained a tie, today's match at Seddon Park would also be an all-or-nothing affair - surely an even more intriguing encounter.
New Zealand will be without Scott Styris after he broke a thumb at Eden Park and he will have a pin inserted in it on Tuesday. However, no replacement was sought, meaning either Mark Gillespie or 29-year-old rookie Ewen Thompson will play today.
Moles said Daniel Flynn would be moved up the order to compensate.
"I've seen him play up the order for Northern Districts and he deserves the opportunity here. I think we have enough variety in the rest of the squad to fill outthe lower order and enough hitters who can come in down there."
Styris didn't bowl in Auckland so Gillespie or the lefthanded/left-armer all-rounder Thompson could help share the burden of Jacob Oram (who went for 35 runs off his four overs) or Tim Southee (who went for 39 after being savaged by Gayle early before coming back well at the death). Jesse Ryder is also another option to take over from Styris' dribblies.
However, it was the batsmen who came in for most mention by Vettori after Auckland and Thompson - who has three first class hundreds and four 50s in his 40 first-class matches - might help bolster the batting if the lower order is required.
The Black Caps will be looking for the top order to fire this time and both Oram and Brendon McCullum looked not yet at their best in Auckland. The former was back after an injury absence and the latter miscued a hit to continue a run of poor results (and exposure to some poor umpiring decision), so the selectors might feel it's a good time to give Thompson a trot unless they are more persuaded by Gillespie's greater experience.
Vettori was in no doubt that the Hamilton match was important to his side. "Winning is winning and you never want to get off-track with that," he said.
"You want to make it the most important thing, so it doesn't matter what game you are playing.
"If you have competitive people striving to do their best, you want to win everything, so winning in Hamilton is extremely important to us."
Moles said the team "needed more" from the top five batsmen and added that the Black Caps' bowlers needed to be more effective at bowling in the blockhole and restricting attacking batsmen like Gayle in the width and length of deliveries he enjoyed.
New Zealand (from): Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Jacob Oram, James Franklin, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Mark Gillespie, Ewen Thompson, Jeetan Patel.
