KEY POINTS:
There couldn't be too many of us startled by the news that New Zealand have fashioned the world's worst death-bowling record over the past year.
The only surprising aspect of this statistic is that our guys escaped with an average leak-rate of 6.68 runs an over, when the abiding memory is of the bowlers being plastered all over the park.
It's something that's haunted our cricketers in much the same way the lineout has plagued the All Blacks, and it's destined to prevent New Zealand winning the World Cup next month unless they can quickly find a solution.
It's great that our guys have a bit of a talent for chasing down 300 plus, but this should be kept in perspective - all it means is that when on the odd occasion our bowlers have a shocker and go for that many, we now have a bit of a sniff of pushing the game into the last hour - and we may even win a few.
The key issue is that you shouldn't be conceding 300. If you are, then you have a problem.
If New Zealand think they're going to turn up to a World Cup and run down 300-plus seven or eight times to win it they are dreaming.
Without wishing to denigrate what was an outstanding performance in the Chappell-Hadlee series triumph against the Aussies, the hysteria over the win has neatly papered over this rather glaring crack in our preparation.
Historically we have struggled for high quality death bowlers.
Geoff Allott was magical for a few years with his ability to bowl left arm reverse swing sandshoe crushers at something approaching 145km/h.
Another who excelled in the role was Auckland's Chris Pringle, who like Allott, also had a point of difference.
Pring prospered where others faltered because he was ahead of his time.
He devised a couple of well-disguised slower balls that were released in his own unique style, and that made him a difficult target for the sloggers.
The last-over maiden he bowled to Bruce Reid at Hobart in 1990 to snatch a dramatic one-run win for New Zealand - slower ball after slower ball - was a magnificent effort.
In the 17 years since, batters have worked out how to hit orthodox slow balls and hence they are no longer as effective.
Such deliveries today usually result in the ball soaring out of the park, fieldsmen chasing leather and people in floral shirts taking stunning catches 15 rows back.
In recent years the most effective death bowler I came up against was Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq.
He was the guy who invented the doosra, and the fact that he bowled at the death ahead of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, gives some idea of how hard he was to hit.
Current exponents of the doosra attack at the death are Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh, both of whom turned up in the stats as the best of the lot.
Unfortunately we don't have a doosra exponent to call on at the death, which explains why our approach to this most difficult of tasks has been poor at best.
Our best results appear to have been when we have Daniel Vettori bowling deep into the innings, and I suspect we may see more of this in the West Indies.
He might not have the wrong-un, but he packs a helluva good arm-ball, reads the batsman better than most and has the guts to give one a bit of air if he thinks the time and situation is right.
The word is that some teams - Australia in particular - prefer to treat Vettori with caution and compensate against bowlers they see as weaker, as was the case in January's tri-series showdown at Perth.
But the best way to call their bluff in that situation is to delay using the experienced spinner until much later in the piece, at a time when opposition batsmen will be loath to curb their offensive.
At the other end of things, I quite like the idea of Jeetan Patel opening the bowling on occasions, like Dipak Patel in 1992, although this should be used as an option rather than a strategy.
New Zealand might have a decent shot at winning the World Cup, but there's no way it'll just fall into their lap.
They have to seize the initiative, surprise their opponents and go out there and win it.
The key to success will be in keeping their bowling ahead of the batting side, especially at the death.
If they can do that they have a sniff, but on the evidence of the past 12 months they will need to improve this aspect significantly if they are to go one better than their traditional semifinal exit.
