Cricket: Skirmishes over, now for serious stuff

With the preliminary world T20 skirmishes behind them, things are about to get serious for New Zealand.

They arrived in the Caribbean confident of their chances of a second International Cricket Council trophy to go with their 2000 Champions Trophy win in Kenya.

That hasn't changed, after their contrasting wins over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Next up are South Africa in Barbados early tomorrow - always assuming the South Africans eased past lightweights Afghanistan this morning.

While the Sri Lankan win came off the penultimate ball with two wickets to spare, yesterday's victory over Zimbabwe was achieved under the Duckworth Lewis rain calculations.

New Zealand won by seven runs, that being the amount they were ahead of the required number at the time the rain arrived at Guyana's Providence Stadium.

Zimbabwe were let down by utterly hopeless batting, having reached a promising 58 for one in the seventh over.

Both offspinner Nathan McCullum and medium pacer Scott Styris took three wickets in an over as Zimbabwe's last nine wickets fell for 26 in eight overs.

"Obviously it's a little bit disappointing we're not going to carry this pitch around," quipped Nathan McCullum, whose four games in Guyana, including two warmups against Ireland and the West Indies, produced a pleasing seven for 75 off 17 overs.

Brendon McCullum took the chance yesterday to become the first batsman to reach 1000 T20 international runs before the rain arrived.

All teams start on zero points again for the Super Eight stage.

New Zealand's other games are against either defending champions Pakistan or Australia - depending on the result of this morning's contest between the Aussies and Bangladesh - on Sunday morning and against England next Tuesday morning.

England's no-result against Ireland yesterday ensured England's progress.

Just as England felt aggrieved at the Duckworth Lewis system doing them out of a likely win against the West Indies earlier in the week, so the Irish might have felt hard done by as they were prevented chasing a highly gettable 121.

New Zealand's four wins from four games - including the warmups - is as much as they could have expected. They have a settled XI, although fast-medium Kyle Mills is likely to come back into consideration on what is expected to be a pacier Barbados pitch.

The problem for Dan Vettori and coach Mark Greatbatch is who to drop. Nathan McCullum's all-round qualities have been valuable, Shane Bond's pace provides a cutting edge and fast-medium Tim Southee has done well, and is rated for his ability at the close of the innings.

"The team is really satisfied with four wins. Any good team looks for improvements in small aspects and the batting is the area we really need to improved heading into the Super Eight," Vettori said.

"We've got a balanced lineup and some destructive guys as well and I think they'll enjoy a better surface for batting in Barbados."

New Zealand's T20 record against South Africa is ordinary - one win and three defeats, most recently by one run at Lord's last June, chasing 129 in a game they should never have lost.

Unless Afghanistan pull off one of the all-time shocks this morning, or Bangladesh win to edge out either Australia or Pakistan, the predicted eight teams will have advanced.

That raises the issue of whether the championship should simply be restricted to the eight leading nations anyway with the lesser lights cut out. But to deny the best of the rest even a chance of proving themselves is wrong and inward-looking.

"The top eight teams' aim is to win the [title]. Each captain could sit here and say that quite comfortably," Vettori said.

But all are likely to have some tough battles before the semifinalists are found next Wednesday.

TOP INTERNATIONAL T20 RUNMAKERS
(before this morning's games)

1009 - Brendon McCullum
(NZ) 35 games, average 36.03

696 - Kevin Pietersen
(England) 24, 31.63

678 - Graeme Smith
(South Africa) 21, 35.68

622 - Mahela Jayawardene
(Sri Lanka) 25, 28.27

612 - Tillekaratne Dilshan
(Sri Lanka) 25, 29.14

* * *

NZ v SOUTH AFRICA
Barbados, 5.30am tomorrow

New Zealand: (from)
Dan Vettori (c), Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Gareth Hopkins, Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Rob Nicol, Ian Butler, Aaron Redmond.

South Africa: (from)
Graeme Smith (c), Loots Bosman, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Albie Morkel, Mark Boucher, Johan Botha, Roelef van der Merwe, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langveldt (crrt), Juan Theron.