Aussies v. Black Caps - ODI Tri series

[Donny]

The Black Caps are 2/59 after 15 overs.

Bracken has been expensive but has both wickets. Kaspa has bowled economically.

[Donny]

Bichel and Harvey relieve the openers.

Harvey's second over produces a classic 'change up' ball.

Fleming pats a return catch to Harvey.

Bichel gets an edge which sends McMillan (0) packing. Their two most dangerous batsmen gone in a few minutes.

4/75 after 18 overs.

[Donny]

N.Z. are 6 down and require 6 r.p.o. for 9 overs to win. Hogg took 2/39 from his 10 overs.

[Donny]

Kaspa comes back on. McCullum pulls. Ball goes straight up. Maher takes the catch.

Vettori is run out. Bad mistake.

8/170. N.Z. need 56 from 42 balls.

[Donny]

Another run out (Ponting) and Bracken (3/35) takes the last wicket as Australia win by 44 runs.

[Donny]

All about discipline

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

After all the whining about inconsistent conditions, Stephen Fleming won the toss and chose to bowl on a very overcast morning. There was a huge chance to extract revenge for the Faridabad disaster, where Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams had torn New Zealand apart.

Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills took four important wickets, but their consistency left a lot to be desired. Their length was highly erratic and on a pitch that begged for discipline, they could have easily run through the batting order. They bowled six short balls and five half-volleys, which got hit for 35 runs. Even in the other 75 balls that they bowled, there were many drifting down the leg when they should have been probing on off and middle. Compare this to the Faridabad match - where New Zealand were bundled out for 98 - when Bracken and Williams completely avoided the short ones and conceded only five runs when they erred with their length.


New Zealand today Australia at Faridabad

Half Volley 5 15 6 5
Good Length 75 33 83 23
Short 6 20 0 0

After 20 overs Australia were 102 for 4 and conditions were getting better for batting. Ricky Ponting and Michael Bevan were laying a strong foundation and one would have expected the typical Australian urgency for singles and twos in the middle overs. But both withdrew into their shell, and the runscoring was drastically curtailed. Between the 21st and the 40th overs there were only 74 runs scored, with 96 dot-balls. That effectively makes 16 maiden overs out of 25 and even Bevan did not want to force the issue. But like all champion teams, the Aussies compensated towards the end, when they hammered 66 off the last 10 overs and set New Zealand a competitive total - which turned out to be a matchwinning one.

First 15 16 - 40 41 -50
Runs scored off bat 68 74 66
Dot balls 66 96 24

[Newelly]

Thank god for these three wins against the Black craps. Getting sick of my Brother in law and his kiwi buddies claiming how good the NZ team is and how lucky we are to have beaten them in the world cup and blah blah blah. Once Australia do their homework on the kiwis the results start to balance in favour of the best team.

[Donny]

Problems at the top

The Wisden Verdict by Samanth Subramanian

Even before the tournament, New Zealand's batting would have been ranked third of the three teams in the TVS Cup, but when the first two positions are occupied by Australia and India - in whichever order - that is no criticism. Their actual performance in the series, however, has been nothing but shambolic, and yet again at Guwahati, as has happened in all their games thus far, New Zealand's top order caved so early and so rapidly that the rest of the game was spent playing catch-up.

That is never easy to do while chasing, on a slowing pitch, and against a side like Australia, so New Zealand had arguably sealed their fate as early as 88 for 5. Stephen Fleming spoke of fresh morning pitches being his side's undoing at Faridabad and Pune, but the Guwahati track was the least vicious of the three. Australia's attack too was not as potent, with Brad Williams sitting the game out, so one can only conclude, from this display, that the top order sports serious deficiencies.

Chris Nevin, the name that sits atop the batting list, has looked most vulnerable. Unlike many of his team-mates, he was not part of the Test squad, and to arrive in India after a long layoff and plunge straight into a competitive one-day series is admittedly difficult. But for an opening batsman to make just 29 uncomfortable runs in three innings is to give the opposition a toehold into the game almost at the outset. New Zealand have no replacements for him, so one solution would be to bat him later in the order, when the new ball is out of the way and the slower bowlers are on, and open with Fleming and Lou Vincent.

The other major hitch lies in batsmen getting starts but invariably not carrying taking them as far as New Zealand need. Fleming, Vincent, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram are all in fine form, and have played knocks throughout their tour of India to prove that. But aside from Oram's 81 at Pune, only once did any of them stick to the crease after getting his feet moving and his eye in. Not surprisingly, New Zealand won that game - against India at Cuttack, when McMillan made an unbeaten 82 to guide his side home.

Fleming must also count himself unlucky to have a fine resource at hand and yet not be able to use him. Chris Cairns's run-ins with injury have always been frequent, but rarely has his side needed him more - for his experience, the powerful batting he brings to the middle order, and the teeth he adds to the bowling attack. New Zealand may win this tournament yet - they are not out of the running points-wise, although they will need a win against India in their last game to qualify for the final - but if they don't, the absence of Cairns will have been a major factor.

A word about Australia's bowling is in order too. After their first game - in which some of their medium-pacers played in Indian conditions for the first time - the bowlers struggled only during a brief phase of a few overs, when Oram was on the rampage at Pune. For all the talk of this being a second-string bowling attack, they have done the typical Aussie thing and brought even second-string up to an international level of competition, and that by sticking to the fundamentals of line, length and common-sense. New Zealand's top order could learn a lot from them.