Like South Africa before them, New Zealand will know that past results count for nothing in this World Cup and their focus will be on what lies ahead of them on Tuesday when they clash with Australia in a Super Six match at St George’s Park.
South Africa came into the tournament with a strong reputation as one of the favourites and dominant records over West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. But they lost to the Windies and NZ, could only tie with Sri Lanka, and find themselves out of the World Cup.
New Zealand have had a much happier time, following an opening loss to the Lankans, with good wins over West Indies and the host nation to find themselves at the business end of the World Cup, with a spot in the semi-finals beckoning.
To add spice to the occasion, their St George’s Park clash is against trans-Tasman rivals Australia, the defending champions who may want to prove a point after failing to make last season’s VB limited overs series final in Australia when they lost three of four matches to the Black Caps. The New Zealanders have also won two of their three World Cup matches, in 1992 and 1999.
On Monday, however, NZ skipper Stephen Fleming wasn’t getting carried away with his team’s impressive results against the best side in the world.
”We still look back fondly on that time (World Cup in 1999) because it was a very good win, but it’s going to have no relevance on tomorrow, maybe for Chris Cairns because he played very well, but certainly for the team it’s going to have no relevance,” said Fleming.
Nor is Fleming getting too distracted about looking ahead to their chances of making the top four in the Super Sixes.
”We’ve had our time with that and at this stage we’re looking to just win games and tomorrow, more than anything, it’s another great opportunity to play Australia,” he said. ”And we haven’t thought much past tomorrow which is another key game for us.”
Much is being made of the St George’s Park pitch which could favour the New Zealanders if there’s not much pace in it. Australia faced some anxious moments in their match against England nine days ago and no doubt they will have learnt some lessons from that game.
Coach John Buchanan said on Monday that they would have to adjust for the Super Six encounter.
”It is important for our key bowlers, whether they be Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath or Andy Bichel, to adapt,” he said. ”I think we have the capacity to bowl well in any conditions and the same applies to the batsmen.”
Fleming said he thought the players were good enough to adjust to the conditions and added that whatever the nature of the pitch, the principles of chasing or setting a target would not change.
New Zealand, however, will be pinning their hopes on the slower bowlers like Chris Harris, Scott Styris and Nathan Astle to exploit the conditions, but they’ll also be hoping for an early blast from paceman Shane Bond.
”He’s got good shape against lefthanders (Australia have three in their top five) and at good pace, so we’ll be aiming for some early wickets because that’s the best way of controlling the Aussie run-rate,” Fleming said.
Australia are assured of a spot in the semi-finals, but don’t expect this team to take their feet off the throttle. Their priority will be to maintain that winning momentum, while the importance of a New Zealand win cannot be over emphasised.
It all points to a cracking day’s cricket which will have no place for any neighbourly affection. – Sapa