Cricket: NZ happy to be underdogs

By Richard Boock

At the World Cup

MANCHESTER - New Zealand fancy their chances of turning the World Cup on its head tomorrow night when they square off against Pakistan in the first semifinal at Old Trafford.

The unfashionable Kiwis have been labelled as bland, boring and a good cure for insomnia by the British press, who give them next to no chance of toppling the No 1 seeds and qualifying for Sunday's final at Lord's.

But New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming sees it differently.

His side were hammered by Pakistan in their Group B showdown at Derby, but he believed the nature of Wasim Akram's team meant they would always leave their opposition with a chance.

"We're happy to be playing Pakistan in the semifinal," Fleming said. "They won the first-round game fairly comfortably but have since struggled for consistency, and are now having injury problems with some players.

"They're a brilliant team, but they're also pretty volatile - they can be at either extreme."

In a virtual replay of the 1992 World Cup semifinal at Auckland, when Pakistan pulled off a soul-destroying last-gasp win over the Warren Lees-coached New Zealanders, Fleming's side will attempt to go one better and clinch an unprecedented place in the cup final.

The tournament showpiece will pit the winners of tomorrow night's semifinal at Old Trafford against the winners of Thursday's semifinal between South Africa and Australia at Edgbaston, and Fleming said his team wanted to achieve the unthinkable.

"We know we still need to improve a lot, but there's far more confidence and belief in the side right now, and we're feeling pretty comfortable about not being rated," he said. "That eases the pressure on us a bit - it's always a bit tougher if you're expected to win, and that's the situation Pakistan are in."

The New Zealanders are carrying no major injury concerns into their biggest one-dayer since the 1996 quarter-final against Australia, and seem almost certain to name the same line-up who beat India so impressively in Nottingham on Saturday.

Matt Horne in particular, and Nathan Astle have given New Zealand a better foundation in the past few games and, although Craig McMillan looks to be in one of the worst troughs of his career, the only change there might involve a slight shuffling of the batting order.

Despite the successful run-chase against India, the New Zealand bowling attack remains the side's strength, with World Cup star Geoff Allott still in with a chance of repeating the deeds of previous record wicket-takers - Roger Binney, Craig McDermott and Akram.

All three shared the record of 18 wickets in a World Cup tournament before Allott went past them at Edgbaston last week and in each case, the bowler's respective team ended up winning the tournament.