Mark Richardson: First-up win much needed boost

Martin Guptill in action against Zimbabwe. Photo / Getty Images

When Martin Guptill leapt high and punched the air at the end of T20 one, then uprooted a souvenir stump it really did illustrate the importance of that T20 win on Friday night.

Yes, it's only game one, yes it's only T20 - although you can't really say 'only' T20 any more because the game is as legitimate as any - but it was a massive statement by Guptill and the Black Caps.

Guptill needed to show he could carry his form through against better opposition and the team needed to show they were prepared for the step up from Zimbabwe.

With such a slow start to the home summer of cricket, this tour has been talked up - actually more the South Africans had been talked up. New Zealand are two places above South Africa in the ICC T20 rankings at two.

Yet the South African challenge has been talked up so much that even the TAB installed them as favourites even though New Zealand came off the back of form play and the Proteas a rest period.

I've little doubt that as the game formats increase in length so too will the balance and strength of the tourists.

Faster bowlers like Dale Steyn and Marchant De Lange will begin to play their part and we will see the experience and quality of Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis return to the side.

Morne Morkel was the only bowler of any genuine threat on Friday night and it was pleasing to see the way Guptill and Co dealt with 150km/h coming from a big bloke who delivers the ball from six foot goodness-knows-what. It alleviated a lot of my fears that New Zealand could get caught out.

However, come test time Morkel, De Lange and Steyn as a unit could be terrifying.

It's not test time yet and right now I'm installing New Zealand as favourites to take the T20s. South Africa need to think about bolstering their spin options. Johan Botha is a quality off-spinner but after him JP Duminy appears to be an afterthought for AB de Villiers.

Against New Zealand, de Villiers may be better served to bring in Robin Peterson and try to utilise all three of his spinners - but I bet he has no knowledge of the success the slow bowlers had in the HRV Cup.

South Africa's batting probably offers the most threat over the next two games. Richard Levi looks as if he has some devastation to inflict and, if he gets going, the clever Hashim Amla will provide a good foil.

AB de Villiers is too good not to fire in one of his three T20 innings. Duminy and Justin Ontong showed they are heady players and I expect to see some bludgeoning from Albie Morkel. They have enough quality there to expect Friday night's effort to be their worst and it will need to be - because with the depth in batting firepower the Black Caps have, and the relative lack of firepower South Africa possess in their T20 attack, they will need two big scores to come back in this series.