Cricket: Title elusive without plan B

If the Black Caps are to have any chance of securing the Twenty20 world title in the Caribbean, the bowlers need to find a better length when bowling to the game's best batsmen.

It's easy to say but getting deliveries in the right place is tough to master, requiring courage and accuracy.

Take Tim Southee against South Africa on Friday morning.

Southee has often stepped up with his composure in demanding situations, such as restricting Australia to six runs in New Zealand's successful eliminator over in Christchurch during the summer.

But against Albie Morkel, a matter of a few centimetres off-beam and he was fodder. That was best seen in the 19th over where he went for 21 runs, including three sixes down the ground.

Southee was close to exactly the right yorker length but Morkel got underneath the ball for easy runs.

Certainly the yorker, bowled at different widths on or just outside off-stump is the ideal delivery for the latter stages of Twenty20 matches but there needs to be a plan B if they don't come off.

Variation is the key. Slower balls, out of the back of the hand or through a change of grip, remain useful as does the odd good length ball in the 'corridor of uncertainty', just outside off stump.

Right-arm bowlers (i.e. New Zealand's pace attack) might also consider coming around the wicket more often to right-handers to limit their ability to clip into the leg-side.

Even a straight bouncer into the chest on a quicker wicket like those in Barbados can be useful, provided a batsman can't get inside the line to hook or pull it, or give himself room for a ramp over the slips.

The Black Caps' attack doesn't have the wall-to-wall pace of South Africa's Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to cramp batsmen.

The Kiwi slow-medium bowlers will also be examining how they can outwit Pakistan (played overnight) and England on Tuesday.

Nathan McCullum, Daniel Vettori and Scott Styris were in excellent form on the slower wickets of Guyana and, while none of the trio went for more than one boundary an over against South Africa, they were easily worked off the block.

Some emphasis could be placed on the subtlety of their variations in speed, flight and direction so that batsmen can't milk them as easily in the middle overs, or to get the shine off the ball at the start.

McCullum summed up the Black Caps attitude best: "It's disappointing we're not going to carry this [Guyana] pitch around with us."

The trio's success was mirrored by other teams. Over half the wickets (28/55) in Guyana were taken by slow-medium bowlers. However, the other two venues in this competition - Barbados and St Lucia - see the ball pass through at a faster clip without the same grip.

At the end of the group stage at all venues, slow-medium bowlers had only taken 33 per cent of wickets (17/51) in St Lucia and 25 per cent (10/40) in Barbados. That indicates a fit-again Kyle Mills could play a greater role at the tournament but it'd be a hard decision to drop anyone.

Nathan McCullum excelled with man-of-the-match performances against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe while Shane Bond and Southee have trucked in solidly but would have hoped for more economical returns. Oram could be a rest option, given his relative expense with the ball and contrasting performances with the bat.

His two sixes - as part of a whippy 15 runs off six balls - brought the Black Caps back into the match against Sri Lanka. This effort underlines his potential value but he can be a slow starter. When given five overs to try to get the Black Caps home against the Proteas, he was LBW second ball.

Oram accepts his all-rounder skills are being challenged by a surging McCullum who backed up recent batting form with 26 off 17 on Friday.

"For the last 12-18 months Nathan has continually improved and it is good to see him take his opportunity. It's definitely helped with him stepping up, along with Dan's quality spin and Scott's fast off-spin change-ups.

"While the conditions don't totally suit fast bowlers, the best will come to the fore from here."

New Zealand has to hope so. The quicker pitches also mean the prospect of batsmen being able to use the pace of the ball and livelier bounce to compile their runs with less force.

The top four of Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor need to clock up more runs and preferably get them in front of the wicket to set a platform so middle order players like Oram can work with greater confidence in the latter stages.