Ben on...Malinga's double hattrick

If Sri Lanka had won today, it would have been one of the greatest comeback in the history of the game. With South Africa's third wicket falling at 160, it is unthinkable that they might get within one wicket of chasing 210. That Sri Lanka got within a whisker of winning was largely thanks to Malinga's four wickets, coming in two interlocked hattricks:

44.5
Malinga to Pollock, OUT, BINGO! Finally Malinga strikes, that is a superb bit of bowling. It's a slower ball on the stumps, Pollock just does not pick it, plays inside the line of the ball and loses his leg stump. Even with the game all but gone Sri Lanka are fighting. Pollock played a good hand but now he's gone!
SM Pollock b Malinga 13 (24b 1x4 0x6) SR: 54.16

44.6
Malinga to Hall, OUT, ANOTHER! Andrew Hall goes off the very first ball! It's another speared-in yorker, Hall just about manages to dig it out, but he can't keep the ball down ... it bobs up into the air for the man at cover to pouch easily! Is there a twise left in this game
AJ Hall c Tharanga b Malinga 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

...

Malinga on a hat-trick. What a funny little game this has been.

46.1
Malinga to Kallis, OUT, Would you believe it? Malinga has got the hat-trick! Full, furious, outside off stump, Kallis goes for a square-drive and nicks it behind. Loud appeal. Kallis stays rooted. Even louder appeal and Harper raises the fatal finger. SA eight down and choking real badly.
JH Kallis c Sangakkara b Malinga 86 (110b 4x4 0x6) SR: 78.18

46.2
Malinga to Ntini, OUT, And then they were one! Malinga gets four in four. Unbelievable! Screaming yorker and Ntini drives, plays all over it and ball crashes into the middle stump. Malinga is slinging down magic deliveries and SA are nine down.
M Ntini b Malinga 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

Ben on...Scott Styris to no. 7

According to Indiatimes, New Zealand's best performer at the World Cup is Scott Styris. He is no. 7 on the batting ranking (and actually no. 2 on the short all-rounder list). Our next best ranked player is Shane Bond, no. 17 on the bowling list.

It seems the ratings are just a convolution of the batting or bowling averages, so probably don't mean much. However, the ratings caught my eye because they currently have New Zealand as the no. 1 team.

Ben on...the future of the Pakistani and Indian teams

With reports of effigies being burnt and houses being attacked, it's great to see that some people are able to make light of India and Pakistan's World Cup exits. While the BCCI considers the future of the players of the Indian team, an e-mail is doing the rounds showing the predictions of some smart Photoshopper of the future of the members of the Pakistan and India teams, ranging from rickshaw driver to fishmonger to hairdresser.

Bond no. 2

The latest player rankings are out - and Shane Bond has moved up to number 2 in the world. Shaun Pollock (10 overs, none for 83 against Australia) is the only man ahead of him at the top of the list.

Ben on...Bond strikes again

You would have heard that Shane Bond hit Lou Vincent in the nets and broke his wrist. Vincent is going home (though it sounds like he had a pretty good time while he was there).

Apparently it will be Hamish Marshall that will replace him, despite the amazing form Michael Papps is in.

Ben on...the higher mathematics of cricket

So I have worked out the schedule for the Super 8 stage. The qualifing teams are given a code, A1, A2, B1,... But the code isn't based on where the teams finish in the group. It's based on the teams' seedings, which is presumably based on their performance some time in the past. Except where a team outside the top 8 seedings qualifies, in which case only the seeding of any qualifying top 8 team in that group is relevant, but not relative to any non-top 8 teams that qualify, but rather relative to the top 8 team that didn't qualify. So the code for any qualifying non-top 8 teams is based on their...is based on...is......seems to be arbitrary.

Look at it this way. Only the top 8 teams were supposed to qualify and the schedule of who was going to play who in the Super 8 was drafted based on that, starting and culminating with the blockbuster matches of West Indies vs Australia and England, respectively. Any non-top 8 teams with the cheek to qualify can just fit in wherever their qualification has made a hole in the schedule.

I guess it doesn't matter what the schedule is as everyone in the Super 8 plays everyone else at some stage. However, it seems such a clunky, inelegant system. It's pretty opaque as well in that it is hard to see what the intention is, let alone the fact that no one ever bothered to tell us how it works.

Ben on...New Zealand's next game

Help me out here. Who do the Black Caps play first in the Super 8?

In the schedule for the Super 8, teams are designated by their group and either 1 or 2, e.g. C1. It seems obvious to me that this represents where the team finished in their group. So New Zealand is team C1 as we finished 1st in group C. We are therefore playing team D2 in Antigua in our first game. This should be Ireland.

I guess another interpretation is that it isn't where a team finishes in the table, but what their seeding is. But even then, B2 should still be Ireland.

Then why do the Herald, Stuff and the BBC all have the Windies as New Zealand's first Super 8 opponent? What am I missing?

Ben on...Bob Woolmer's murder

I didn't want to comment on this earlier, as I wanted the rumours to die down and the consipracy theories to run their course and for Bob Woolmer's death to be revealed as simply a tragedy for the Woolmer family and a very sad event for the Pakistan team. However, it turns out the unsubstantiated reports were true and Woolmer was murdered. This is absolutely chilling news. Whether it was an insane disgruntled fan or an underworld hit is just too awful to speculate.

Interesting reading

I know, I know - the World Cup is on and so is the final of the domestic competition. But real life keeps intruding on my cricketing commentary. I at least have one small offering for you this morning - a report into Andre Adams' onfield "assault" case. It is actually fairly easy and interesting reading - and includes some fascinating details about the event and Adams' state of mind. It also includes references to some other events which raised my eyebrows - I knew Tama Canning was involved in some sort of on-field scuffle in 2004, but I didn't know it involved head-butts and "effectively criminal behaviour".

Ben on...NZ qualifies with points

With the win over Canada this morning, New Zealand became the first team to qualify for the Super 8s with points. (Others have effectively qualified, but we don't know how many points they will take into the Super 8. Hence the blanks in the table I have added to the right.)

It was another dominating win, despite some poor bowling early in the Canada innings (read the Stuff report to hear about the bowling). In fact, it was as good a win as we have had so far. As with the previous two games, we had them beaten by the end of the 41st over.

		Opponent total		NZ total at end of over 41
England		209/7		210/4
Kenya		183 all out		249/3
Canada		249/9		267/4

Ben on...turn around for Vincent

Lou Vincent's commanding 101 against Canada brings his tournament tally to 101. Which is not bad. Certainly an improvement on his status yesterday when he was voted the 6th worst in the World Cup by the people following the Cricinfo commentary of the game between Pakistan and Zimbabwe:

4.20pm Ok, the polls are shut. And here is the result ...

1 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
2 Andrew Flintoff
3 Younis Khan
4 Virender Sehwag
5 Dan van Bunge
6 Lou Vincent
7 Mike Hussey

Thanks for the thousands of emails ... our servers are fried, but thank you.

I think almost everyone in the team has put in an encouraging performance in at least one of the three games so far. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Tuffey (1 match, 0/40 off 6) is the only player who hasn't put in a performance yet.

Ben on...poll results, Bracewell to go

In the upgrade to a new template, the poll has disappeared. The question was something about whether Bracewell should be retained as coach. Here are the results as they stood:

Yes - look at the Chappell-Hadlee series	1
No - look at the two years leading up to the Chappell-Hadlee series	4
No - he has done an okay job, but I would rather have John Wright	14
It depends entirely on how the side does in the World Cup	7

That's 18 out of 26 for him to go. Harsh.

Ben on...looking ahead

There are still four days left of first round games, but the list of likely qualifiers for the Super 8s is starting to firm up. New Zealand will surely go through as the first qualifier in group C (making them C1), with England likely to make it also (C2) (though if there's going to be another upset, it will be in their match against Kenya). The Windies will surely top group D, with Ireland second (D1 and D2). Australia and South Africa have qualified, but still have to fight it out to qualify as A1. The biggest question is who will qualify along with Sri Lanka (C1) in group C, Bangladesh or India.

(So, some big games coming up over the next few days. India/Sri Lanka, with India needing a win to stay in the tournament – run rate won't come into it; Australia/South Africa, the heavy-weight battle; England/Kenya, 'cause the upsets might not be finished.)

Richard Boock has given his view of how New Zealand stands at the start of the Super 8. I think his analysis is a bit off though. He makes a big deal of the two facts that New Zealand will start the Super 8s with points and that the West Indies won't get to play Ireland in the Super 8s (with Sri Lanka in the same situation if Bangladesh qualifies). However, this analysis ignores the facts that we had to beat England to get those points and that the Windies will have had the chance to play Ireland before the Super 8, and will almost certainly have scored points from the game to carry over into the Super 8 stage. I think it is best to consider the games between the Super 8 qualifiers in the first round to be part of the Super 8.

Incidently, there has been talk of how New Zealand should be getting behind England to qualify for the Super 8, so that we get to carry the points forward. However, now that we have beaten Kenya, it is in fact to our advantage if Kenya qualifies. We'll carry the points forward regardless of which of England and Kenya qualifies, but if England qualifies we'll be competing with them for a semi-final spot.

Boock's predictions are a bit awry also, I believe. He reckons that our first Super 8 game (against D2) will be against the Windies. By my reckoning, our first opponent will be Ireland. Then either India or Bangladesh, then the Windies, then Sri Lanka, before our last two games against Australia and South Africa. In terms of wrapping up a semi-final spot early, this is a good draw. The first three games are the easiest, and if we were to pick up a couple of wins in those games we'll only need one win in the second three.

Ben on...another opponent crushed

I was pleasently surprised to hear when I woke this morning that the Black Caps had made 331 against Kenya. Damn that's a good score. It also seems to contradict Mike's opinion that we don't always play our best against the less fancied teams. A 148-run victory is a thrashing, after all.

However, the win was of course nothing like the 221 and 257-run annihilations dealt out to the Netherlands and Bermuda by South Africa and India. Also, comparing this win against Kenya with the win against England shows that the games weren't too different. Kenya was bowled out for 183 and England for 209, while the Black Caps scored 249/3 and 210/4 at the end of the 41st over in the two respective games.

Based on this sample of two, it seems we play the same regardless of our opponent.

Ben on...avoiding slip-ups

There's a new term being used to descibe the minnows at the World Cup – banana skins.

Pakistan's elimination and India's scare against Bangladesh has clearly sent shivers up the collective spine of the Black Caps and management. They are taking tonight's game against Kenya very seriously – they are going over Kenya's game against Canada with a fine-tooth comb and are seeking the advice of a former coach of Kenya, Andy Moles (in the Caribbean coaching Scotland).

New Zealand against the minnows

New Zealand's next two World Cup matches are against Kenya (tomorrow) and Canada (Friday). I can't see us losing either, but I can't see us putting in the kind of thrashing South Africa or India have dished out to the Netherlands and Bermuda either. New Zealand cricket has spent so long being the gutsy underdog that it still struggles with the favourites label.

In general our best performances come out when backs are up against a wall, and I can't see there being too many walls in these games. Look at players like McCullum, McMillan and Styris. Their entire careers seem to have been built around a bloody-minded determination not to let those Aussie bastards get on top. Take away the prospect of a bully's nose to bloody and they won't know what to do with themselves. I think our bowlers will meet their usual high standards, but I can see our street-fighters struggling with the change in focus and the others struggling to break out of their shells.

Inzy retires from ODIs

Following Bob Woolmer's tragic death, Inzamam al-Haq has announced that Sunday's loss to Ireland was his last one day international match.

Flintoff's big night

I managed to miss one piece of topsy turvy news in my earlier round-up - Freddy Flintoff's big night on the town. After drinking until 4am following the England team's loss to New Zealand, Flintoff decided it would be a clever idea to borrow a boat and go for a bit of a paddle. A loud splash later and Flintoff was banned for his team's match against Canada and stripped of the vice-captaincy.

Topsies and turvies

Has the world gone mad? A weekend of dramatic upsets and results and then this morning we hear that Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is dead.

I'll start with the last piece of news first. Not much is known about Woolmer's death, and I think it is in poor taste to start speculating about causes (take note Radio Sport). So I won't. I will just say that it is an absolute tragedy and I feel very sorry for those close to him.

As Osman Samiuddin outlined in a very good an article (written prior to Woolmer's passing), Pakistan cricket has been in absolute turmoil lately. They conceded a test match by walking off the field; they have handled their two drug cheats with abyssmal incompetence; and management and selection problems have been rife. I don't believe I have seen a cricket team in such disarray since the New Zealand side of 1994/5 (the dope smokers, the drunk for a coach, the infighting).

None of this should take away from the performance of the Irish side that beat them on St Patrick's day. To tie with Zimbabwe seemed miraculous. To beat Pakistan defies belief. The Zimbabwe match earned cricket its first ever front-page coverage in the Irish Times. The paper still seems to be struggling to get up to speed on this cricket thing. Super 8 games against England, Australia and South Africa beckon.

Sky's live coverage of the World Cup has been very disappointing so far. If New Zealand aren't involved, all we get are highlights. The only way I was able to follow the Irish victory as it happened yesterday morning was via Cricinfo scoreboards and the Guardian over-by-over coverage yesterday morning. The Guardian was supposed to be covering only the Bangladesh vs India match, but swapped over in disbelief as that match wound down. My wife's entire family turned up at around 10am, and I probably appeared the rudest host in the world as I ignored their need for tea and cake in favour of sitting staring at my laptop pressing "refresh" every few seconds. I caught the highlights and the Irish look a fairly decent side too. Riall O'Brien was brilliant with the bat (and how Irish does he look!) while any 6'7" bowler who can consistently hit 135 kmph like Boyd Rankin can is going to cause problems. The team fielded like tigers too.

It says something when people turn away from Bangladesh upsetting India to follow another match. It is almost a pity for the Bangladeshis because their performance was perhaps even more riveting. Only two members of the side are over 24 years old and several appear to have outstanding promise. Mashrafe Mortaza seems to have bulked up since last time I saw him bowl and he consistently bowled at pace. Meanwhile 17 year old Tamim Iqbal genuinely looks to be a superstar in the making. I caught the highlights of his 53-ball 51 and he played some breath-taking strokes. Several times he seemed to get into terribly tangled body positions, only to be perfectly balanced when bat connected and sent the ball flying over the boundary. At other times he was just classical and powerful. If he reminded me of anyone it would be Virender Sehwag - with perhaps a touch of Andrew Jones.

Australia beat the Netherlands this morning and, as I write, England are closing in on victory against Canada. This is just as well. After the weekend's turn-arounds and upsets we need a little sanity and breathing space.

Ben on...minnow bashers, eat your words

Ireland and Bangladesh are this year's giant killers, adding to the list of World Cup upsets*. And mighty Pakistan is the first team to be eliminated. What a day at the World Cup.

Could it be that having associate members competing at the World Cup is actually helping improve the game in those countries? Bob Woolmer has wrtten a piece about how efforts to improve cricket in associate nations are working. He wrote the piece after Ireland's tie with Zimbabwe, and the win against Pakistan has strengtened Woolmer's argument immeasurably. (For those who aren't aware, Woolmer is the coach of Pakistan. The irony doesn't affect his argument however.)

With wonderful timing, Ian Chappell has piped up with his uncharitable opinion that there should only be 10 teams playing at the World Cup, with two of those spots requiring qualification. This could easily mean that no associate members get to the World Cup, despite Chappell's claim that he doesn't agree that there should be only one associate member at the Cup. If I understand the seedings, under Chappell's scheme, heroes of the hour Ireland would have been a long way off qualifying, as they would have had to beat both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (I presume these two countries would have to qualify) as well as Kenya and Scotland to qualify.

* Sri Lanka vs India 1979, Zimbabwe vs Australia 1983, Kenya vs Windies 1996, Bangladesh vs Pakistan 1999, Kenya vs Sri Lanka 2003.

Ben on...beating England!!!

C'mon Mike. Did the early morning kill your enthusiasm? A 6-wicket win with 9 overs to spare is worth more that just Super 8 points. And Bond had a better than good game – 2-19 off 10 – and Styris and Oram weren't just secure, they owned the English bowlers. Admittedly it was perhaps the least interesting game of the round so far, but in terms of the Black Caps prospects in the tournament (and pay back for the CB Series) it was a great result.

Beating England

So a first up victory and key points earned for the Super 8. A good performance by Bond and some middle order security from Styris and Oram saw us through. But the top order failure leaves us with a few things to worry about. Not that I feel too worried. Is anyone else finding it hard to get excited while watching early morning matches? Staying up and watch a game always gets the adrenaline pumping - but going to bed first just seems to suck the energy out of the watching experience. Maybe I just need to put all sleep on hold until after the World Cup is over.

Ben on...wah wah Herschelle Gibbs

Make sure you're following the games with the minnows. It's where all the action is. Yesterday's tie was one of the better games of cricket I have ever missed. And this morning, Herschelle Gibbs smacked 6 6s off one over against the Netherlands, a feat I can only experience on Cricinfo commentary.

I love the commentator's exclamations: Violence! Murder! Carnage! Wah wah! This is pure violence! The minnow bashing continues!

A tie!

Zimbabwe and Ireland are not exactly the two sides that you would pick to have just played "one of the greatest World Cup matches ever", but that is exactly what just happened. Set 221 to win, the last Zimbabwean player was run-out off the sixth and final ball of the 50th over.

Fitness worries ease

It seems McMillan and Fulton have both been passed fit for New Zealand's crunch match against England tomorrow. I suspect one of those two won't make the side anyway - Scott Styris may be in terrible form with the bat and ball, but I suspect the selectors would quite like to have his dobbers on hand. The wickets we have seen so far certainly seem to favour the slower bowlers.

The New Zealand Herald is reporting some rain in St Lucia at the moment, but the forecast for tomorrow is pretty good. Pretty damned good actually. Sunny, 30C high and not too much humidity. I wonder what the surf is like?

Another injury problem

According to the Black Caps' website, Craig McMillan is having his big toe x-rayed after getting yorked by Shane Bond in the practice nets.

Stats? Who needs stats?

When it comes to making predictions in the World Cup, why rely on such nebulous factors as form, talent and mental toughness? Why not just go straight for the jugular and get your predictions from a professional predictor. And here is a professional predictor with all the astrological mumbo-jumbo you could possibly want. Ganeshaspeaks includes a forecast for the entire tournament (New Zealand to make the semi-finals, but not the final - Dan Vettori and Craig McMillan to be contenders for man of the series), bewilderingly comprehensive pages for each player and an equally full page for each match on match day (here is the page for today's games)

Take a look at Dan Vettori's page - it includes his astrological profile, horoscope, solar chart, biorhythm report, element chart, tarot reading and a head to head chart so you can compare his current "natal strength" to the "natal strength" of any other World Cup player. What more could you possibly need?

World Cup diaries

Ben has already pointed out that Craig McMillan is keeping a tour diary over at the Black Caps website. But if that is his tour diary, then what the hell is this? You probably need to click on that link to believe it. It will take you to a blogsite which tells us that it belongs to Craig McMillan and that he is aiming to share any culinary insights he picks up while on tour. So far it seems to consist solely of badly photo-shopped images, extraordinarily unhealthy sounding recipes and odd anecdotes. Is it really Craig McMillan's doing? Given that his "official" tour diary has him claiming a love for the music of Westlife, Britney Spears and John Farnham - I wouldn't be at all surprised. Certainly the author of "Black Snacks" is someone warped - and McMillan's musical tastes would indicate he ain't exactly predictable.

Elsewhere, Public Address has started its own World Cup cricket blog. It is being run by three fanatical New Zealand fans (including Chris Cairn's biographer Hamish McDouall) who have certainly done their research. The first two posts cover New Zealand's group round opponents, Kenya and Canada.

Ben on...Ireland, the dark horse

An anonymous comment on an earlier post made the laughable prediction that Ireland might make it through to the Super 8. I dismissed this claim out of hand, naturally, even while I was checking Ireland's schedule and seeing for myself that Ireland qualifying for round 2 was not out of the question.

A follow up comment pointed out the advantages Ireland gains from its schedule that I had seen but failed to acknowledge. Ireland does have a chance. It is an outside chance, but surely the best of the minnows.

Ireland's opponents are, in this order,

Zimbabwe
West Indies
Pakistan

Zimbabwe are simply so poor at the moment that any small nation would fancy their chances against them.

The West Indies are an entirely different prospect and a Windies victory should be a forgone conclusion. But…there is some cricketing history between Ireland and the Windies that combined with the Windies ability to script absolute meltdowns makes this game rather more interesting. In their last match, in 2004, the West Indies managed to go down to Ireland by 6 wickets, defending 292. Back in 1969 however, Ireland and the Windies played one of the most remarkable games ever. The Irish (and a rumoured night out on the Guinness) dismissed West Indies out for 25 and were declared the winner.

Two wins should be enough to see Ireland through, but even Pakistan shouldn't feel too confident – their match against Ireland is on St Patrick's Day.

(Those of you who read the Sunday Star-Times may recognise that I cribbed most of this post from Denis Edward's article.)

What happens to old cricketers?

It seems some of them go into Real Estate. Check out the third salesperson in the lefthand column.

Ben on...New Zealand's blockbuster

The Age has given us their summary of New Zealand as a World Cup contender. In stark contrast to the Cricinfo article and expert commentary that Mike is salivating over, The Age article has one statistic (number of World Cups attended) and has commentary from a jockey who used to ride a New Zealand born horse.

The blockbuster is – surprise, surprise – the Super 8 game against Australia. (In a shock departure from tradition, Pakistan's blockbuster was given as the game against India.) Personally, the Black Caps game that I am really looking is the game against England. I believe this will be a bell-ringer for the prospects of both teams in the rest of the competition.

Ben on...warm-up #2 in context

We should all be feeling much more confident after the warm-up against Sri Lanka. 285 batting first was a good, defendable total and the bowlers were able to recover from a big opening partnership by the Sri Lankans and take regular wickets while keeping the scoring from boiling over. The game demonstrates a couple of things that we would like to believe about the Black Caps, that our top order can really sparkle and that our bowlers can apply pressure and reap the rewards.

However, again it was just a warm up. Not every game is going to be as easy as that. After all, the Sri Lankans had rested Vaas and Jayasuriya and Malinga only got 4 overs.

But all the same, it is great to see the Black Caps back on track with just 4 days until their first real game of the tournament, the match against England, which is arguably their most important of the pre-knock out rounds.

Poll results and a new poll

My last poll asked you to identify the highest point of Shane Warne's long and distinguished career. Three of you thought it was taking money from bookies. Four of you thought it was the use of performance enhancing drugs. Five thought it was the dodgy text messages. Eleven couldn't get past the inflatable dildo, but for eighteen of you that had nothing on the mullet. But, and perhaps we are biased here because it happened in this country, for twenty-eight of you, the absolute high point was when Warney beat up some kids in Wellingto to steal the photos they had taken of him smoking (while he was being paid big bucks to front an anti-smoking campaign).

My next poll asks you to tell me what John Bracewell's fate should be. His contract with New Zealand Cricket is up for review after the World Cup. Should it be renewed?

Focus on New Zealand

I'm back from Oz with a band on my finger and a hankering for some World Cup cricket. Luckily for me, Cricinfo is there to keep that interest burning. The big brother of all cricket websites has turned its focus on New Zealand as it previews the cup. They start with the kind of statistical analysis which can keep boffins like me occupied for hours, and bores everyone else in seconds. They follow it up with something even more fascinating - John Wright has produced a six minute long podcast in which he tells us that the New Zealand team is the most balanced at the World Cup and the side best prepared to cope with the conditions.

Ben on...the blockbusters

I'm rather enjoying the little "World Cup Countdown" country snippets on the website of the Australian newspaper The Age, light though are. Today's is South Africa. One section that intrigues me is the 'Blockbuster', the country's biggest anticipated game in the tournament. South Africa's blockbuster is its game against Australia in the Super 8. Which is fair enough, as both teams are battling for the no. 1 ranking.

The blockbusters of the minor nations are

The Netherlands	South Africa
Bermuda	Bangladesh
Canada	none given oddly, though I'm picking Ireland
Ireland	Zimbabwe
Scotland	Holland
Bangladesh	India
Kenya	Canada
Zimbabwe	Ireland

There are some quite interesting ones in there. I think the Bangladesh–India match is one to watch (India should win, but Bangladesh could put up a good fight). The Dutch–South African game has an interesting non-cricket aspect to it.

Something odd happened when we got to the likely Super 8 teams however.

India	Australia (repeat of 2003 final)
England	Australia (post-Ashes thing)
West Indies	Australia (having won 4 of the last 10 match-ups)
South Africa	Australia

I'm detecting a trend.

Ben on...Mark Gillespie and his shoulder

It is known now that Mark Gillespie's numb shoulder is in fact due to the unlikely spread of a viral infection. It is still not known what his future in the tournament is or what will happen if he is forced to withdraw.

Gillespie won't be playing in Friday's match against Sri Lanka, as it is acknowledged that he won't be fit by then. However, an assessment of his future fitness will be made on Friday. He is currently on antibiotics, though this is not sustainable. One of the problems is that the anti-doping policy makes medicating a condition complicated. Therefore, it is quite possible that he will be pulled from the squad and replaced with another player.

It is a bit of a mystery as to who could replace Gillespie however. Chris Martin has a lot of supporters, myself included. However, Martin is not a natural replacement for Gillespie. Bringing Martin in may leave us with no death bowlers. Andre Adams is another option, though it seems he is facing a ban, which could make him a less than attractive prospect. The article about Adams mentions that Iain O'Brien might be a consideration except that he is possibly injured. Bringing in someone with no ODI experience would be a bit of a risk anyway.

Ben on...NZ Herald at the Cup

Another World Cup diary to follow is Monique Devereux's World Cup blog for the NZ Herald. The latest entry, about the possibility that the Black Caps' body-slamming technique might have lost them yesterday's game, is worth a chuckle.

Another amusing Herald article is Chris Rattue's list of World Cup players to root for. (Don't know what the title means though. Perhaps it is a reference to the fact that several of the players he feels sorry for are fat.)

Ben on...warm-up #1 in context

Well, being beaten by Bangladesh is not going to help New Zealand's odds at the TAB, and it does serve to remind us of our potential weaknesses, namely a brittle top order and a largely toothless attack. However, we needn't panic over the result.

It was after all only a warm-up. While the Black Caps were probably playing the game like they would any other (i.e. they weren't experimenting), the pressure to win would not have been as high and the conditions may still have been somewhat unfamiliar. Or maybe that doesn't make a difference, perhaps I'm just finding excuses. It is however important to realise that Bangladesh is not a terrible team and losing to them is not a disaster, certainly not as bad as being restricted to under 200 by Ireland.

I think many people still measure Bangladesh by their last World Cup appearance. They have really improved since then and have now registered wins against most of the test-playing nations (namely Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe – unfortunately for them, this win against New Zealand isn't official).

More than anything else, this result shows that we should be watching Group B for a possible upset.

Ben on...those minnows

Ponting is the latest expert to complain about the minnows in the World Cup. It's an easy complaint to make, you'll always have someone to back you up and you can rely on the minnows to largely confirm your predictions. It is an entirely unhelpful comment, however, and I doubt he thought about it all that much when he said it.

A lot is being made of the example Ponting cited, Australia's 2004 Champions Trophy match against USA, where Australia won with 42.1 overs to spare, as if this is some sort of standard for the performance of minnows at major tournaments rather than an extreme example.

Another argument being thrown about a bit today is that the ratio of minnows to major teams in the tournament (6 to 10 or 8 to 8, depending on how you count it) is too high. This argument seems weak to me. The different rounds of the tournament are designed to give the minnows a taste of the competition and then discard them. So Ponting will only be playing minnows in 2 out of his 9 qualifying matches.

The other argument is having so many teams makes the tournament too long. But considering that the Football World Cup can fit a competition of 32 teams into 1 month, I suspect cutting down the 1 ½ months that the Cricket World Cup runs for is largely a scheduling issue.

The most annoying point for me in this whole argument is Ponting's statement that "there are places and times for the minnow nations to be playing" and that those times might not include the World Cup and Champions Trophy. The question then arises, when would be a good time? A quick check of Statsguru shows that Australia has played USA only once (likewise Canada, Namibia, the Netherlands and Scotland). Unless I'm missing something, it seems that the major associations only play the minor nations at the World Cup and Champions Trophy. Is Ponting then suggesting that the appropriate time for the minnows is some time when Australia isn't playing?

In my opinion, it would be a much lesser tournament without the minor nations. It is after all the World Cup.

Ben on...the oddest Odd Spot

The Age has been running little previews of the teams in the World Cup in reverse order of their seedings. India, seeded 8th, is today's feature. There's plenty of interesting facts about the team, including its performances at past cups and a player to watch. However, the reporter had real difficulty finding something noteworthy to say about India the country, home to 89% of the world's Hindus and birthplace of Hinduism:

Odd spot: India has the world's biggest Hindu Temple, the Srirangam Temple in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.

Ben on...Scotty speaks

Scott Styris is writing a tour diary for the Black Caps website. It's pretty banal stuff. Which is a shame, because I've heard he's a bit of joker within the team – the Mark Richardson sprint race was apparently his idea. Still, it may get better as stuff starts to happen and it is great to have one of the team reporting from the tournament.

We haven't heard much from Scotty on the field since he got back into the team after his injuries, however. Just 70-odd runs and one wicket. No wonder he is talking about upping the intensity. If he can find some form though he'll be a key player. His record in the West Indies, based on one visit in 2002, is very impressive. He averages about 40 batting and 17.14 bowling (with a best of 6/25!), so it seems the conditions there do seem to suit him. His batting has always been erratic, so hopefully it'll come right after the warm up matches. However, his bowling has seriously fallen away in recent time, so any help he can get will be a real boon.

Ben on...the serious story of Oram's finger

It was amazing how the sports media picked up the story of Jacob Oram's finger and his willingness to amputate it.

A quick Google search of 'oram finger amputate' brings up countless articles. All are much the same. In fact, many of them are identical. The Sydney Morning Herald article stands out amongst them in being clear that they consider that Oram was "presumably serious" when he made the comment. Apparently some journalists thought he had already cut it off, though a search for 'oram finger amputated' doesn't bring up any official reports.

Well, Jake has rather spoiled the fun by revealing that he was not serious. Though anyone who actually saw the news report and spotted his cheeky grin as he made the comment would already know this.

Ben on…what New Zealand have to do to get to the semis

The organisation of the World Cup is rather complicated. There are three rounds to the competition (you know all this already, but bear with me):

• Group round, where the 16 teams are split into 4 groups of 4. In this round, teams gain points from wins and ties. The 2 top qualifiers from each group go through to the next round.
• Super 8 round where each qualifying team plays the 6 qualifiers from the other groups (but not the other qualifier from their group, i.e. New Zealand won’t be playing England in this round). Points are gained as for the group round, plus points are carried over from the group round for games against other qualifiers. The top four qualifiers move on in the competition.
• Knock-out round. The semis and final.

So what does New Zealand need to do to navigate these three rounds? Obviously they have to win as many games as possible, but how many and which ones do they have to win to get through?

Given the gulf between the top 8 teams and the rest, we have to expect the Super 8 qualifiers to be the top 8 teams, i.e. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe should miss out. The group round is hardly a competition. (That having been said, with groups of only 4, it could take just one win by a minor association against a top 8 team to force their way through to the next round.) In that case, it is useful to think of the real competition as comprising the Super 8 round plus the group round games between the Super 8 qualifiers. The rest of the group round matches become irrelevant once the Super 8 starts, so they can almost be considered warm up matches. Essentially then, each team of the top 8 plays each of the other teams once, making it basically a round-robin tournament.

Winning 4 out of the 7 games will guarantee New Zealand a place in the semis, so that should be the target. However, the top couple of teams should get more than their quota of wins, so it actually should be possible to get through with 3 wins, though that might require comparing net run rates. (I note that head-to-head wins seems to be less important in breaking points-table ties now. I always preferred that wins alone should determine who was higher on the table, rather than how good the wins were.)

So where will those 3 or 4 wins come from? In any other year, with New Zealand at 3 in the rankings these wins should come easily. Maybe 3 wins against the struggling teams and 1 win against the in-form teams. This tournament, however, is wide open. All of the top 8 are looking good, even the Windies. Therefore, the rest of this article is complete, out-on-a-limb speculation.

Despite their revival, the Windies are still the weakest team in the top 8. Pakistan are surely the team most effected by injuries and other absences. And England, despite their wins in the CB Series final and the return of Kevin Peterson, are very beatable. Against these 3 teams, the Black Caps should look to win at least 2 games.

This would leave 1 or 2 wins required against Sri Lanka, India, South Africa and Australia. Getting at least 1 win is pretty much a certainty. 2 wins would be a good performance.

With the competition being so even, it is impossible at this stage to identify any must-win games. If we drop a game against a team we should have beaten, such as England, we know that we are capable of beating any of the other teams and making up for that loss.

I see it this way: Every loss against one of the 3 weaker-looking teams puts pressure on us to beat the stronger 4 teams. Whereas every win against the 4 stronger teams reduces the pressure.

Karl on ... the warmups begin

New Zealand's group at the World Cup include England, Kenya and Canada. The Canadians are currently in a triseries, with Bangladesh and Bermuda. These are official ODIs (which helps explain why some of the Bangladeshis have very good averages!). They played Bangladesh today. In the last World Cup they beat Bangladesh. Today the Bangladeshis turned the tables, but only just - beating them by 13 runs. The Canadians scored 265/7 in their 50 overs.

Ben on...McMillan charming his critics

It is so great to see McMillan back to his best.

I feel vindicated after defending him for so long (though rather quietly over the past couple of years I must be honest). After his magnificent of 117, I had to ask his biggest critic what his thoughts were. His reply was priceless:

I feel like a battered wife. He keeps on disappointing me, but every time I think I'm over him and ready to move on, he does something to woo me back.

Ben on...the new guard

Sri Lanka's captain Kumar Sangakarra has predicted that the players at the end of their careers – Jayasuriya, Tendulkar and Lara in particular – will be the most dangerous at the World Cup. I have a hunch that he is quite wrong and that it will be the younger, up-and-coming players that will shine in the West Indies.

Several teams are carrying ageing players, many with gradually decreasing reputations and it would be fantastic to see one of the old greats go out in glory. However, the World Cup has never struck me as a tournament that particularly brings out the best in old players. I also think that the intensity at which one-day cricket is played at the moment rather favours younger players. And wouldn't be just as exciting to have a new player announce himself to the world through an amazing Cup performance.

So in the grand blogging tradition, I have compiled a top ten list (in no particular order) of young players to watch at this World Cup.

1. Our own Ross Taylor

After much anticipation and a tease of an appearance last season, we finally got to see what he can do. Already this season he has hit two 100s and two 50s. If he takes this form into the World Cup he could well be the player of the tournament.

2. Kieran Pollard – West Indies

A true youngster, only 19 years old and made his first class debut for Trinidad and Tobago last year, opening his account with a century. Some huge twenty20 hitting has also impressed.

3. Kevin Peterson – England

A predictable choice but he really must be on the list. A simply devastating batsman and getting better. He is my greatest fear for the Black Caps' chances of progressing through the Super 8s. We really need to get the points in the game against England, but Peterson should eat our mid-innings bowlers for lunch.

4. Jeetan Patel – Black Caps

While Patel's 25 ODI wickets have so far come at only a decent average and economy rate, look for him bowling in tandem with Vettori. The stats are a bit out of date (two 300+ scores by Australia have damaged his record somewhat), but this article shows that Patel plays out of his skin when Vettori is tying the batsmen down.

5. Mahendra Dhoni – India

Where did this guy come from? The wicketkeeper from Jharkhand is rated as the no. 2 batsman in the world. He's played a mere three games against New Zealand for an average of 25, so I can see why I missed him.

6. Umar Gul – Pakistan

With Akhtar and Asif looking likely to miss the whole of the Cup, there is a real opportunity for some of Pakistan's other pace prospects to shine. Umar Gul has been in Asif's shadow somewhat, but he actually appears to offer more problems for batsmen with good movement, accuracy and bounce.

7. Shahriar Nafees – Bangladesh

Pretty much anyone from Bangladesh will be an unknown and we may not get to see Nafees play New Zealand. This could be a bit of a break-out year for Bangladesh, as they aren't looking too bad. However, with Sri Lanka and India in their pool, it is hard to see them progressing. Still, if any of the young guns in Bangladesh can perform a miracle, it would be Nafees.

8. Lasith Malinga – Sri Lanka

Malinga had the Black Caps skipping all over the place in avoiding his rocket Yorkers this season, showing again what a dangerous bowler he is. The non-Subcontinental teams just haven't sorted him out. While the pitches in the West Indies reportedly won't favour pace, Malinga's most devastating deliveries don't use the pitch.

9. Mitchell Johnson – Australia

It is hard to pick a youngster or up-and-coming player for Australia, because it generally turns out that the fresh faces in the team are actually well into their first-class careers and have been waiting for years to break into the team (Hodge), or have played so many internationals that they would be considered a journeyman in any other squad (Watson). Also, a close look at the current Australian squad appears to confirm what many have been suspecting, that the next generation are not showing the promise of the previous lot. They aren't bad necessarily, but Australia's dominance of the game cannot continue and it could well be this tournament that the tide turns.

I'm picking Mitchell Johnson to be the most exciting young prospect for Australia in the West Indies. We haven't seen much from him yet, but with his height and pace, he has the potential to be devastating, even with conditions not favouring him.

10. Hiren Varaiya – Kenya

I had in mind that I would make my selections from across the major associations, so by rights, South Africa or Zimbabwe should be represented. However, I was just not at all impressed by the young talent in either of these teams. All South Africa's strength seems to be contained in its older talent, whereas Zimbabwe just doesn't seem to have any. So instead I considered which young player might give us a scare in the group round.

Left-arm spinner Varaiya has compiled a very impressive record over the last year or so against such opposition as Canada, Bermuda, Scotland and the Netherlands (all World Cup qualifiers mind you). I see no reason why the next natural talent waiting to take the world by storm shouldn't be born in Kenya, and perhaps his first outing against real opposition – the match with New Zealand on March 20 – could be his big opportunity.

Ben on...World Cup form guide

The BBC is running some preview articles for the World Cup. The latest is a form guide, outlining the major teams and how they have fared in previous World Cups and in their last 10 matches. Listed with the outlines are run downs of key players, including the the captain, most dangerous bowler, most explosive batsman, a rising star and a 'dark horse' for each team.

It's pretty good for giving a brief overview of the teams that should make the Super 8.

The only statistic that is easy to reproduce from the team overviews is the win/loss ratio, which is not very useful at all for making predictions, but is interesting enough. Perhaps the most significant point is that 6 of the 8 teams have even win/loss ratios or are just one step away from an even ratio, giving some credence to the idea that the competition is very even.

South Africa: 8/2
England, India, New Zealand: 5/5
Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka: 4/6
West Indies: 3/7

Ben on...NZ in previous World Cups

With the World Cup only 17 days, 10 hours, 41 minutes, 55 seconds away, I thought I would look forward by looking back at New Zealand's performances in previous World Cups.

1975: New Zealand made the semis in the inaugural tournament, beating out India and East Africa in the group stage, to go down to the eventual Winners West Indies by 5 wickets.

1979: Made the semis again, beating out India and Sri Lanka. Went down to England by 9 runs.

1983: Failed to make semis, despite having as many wins as Pakistan in the annoying group stage (the number of preliminary round matches was doubled, but rather than have everyone play each other once, as would be done in 1992, each team played the other teams in their group twice; New Zealand and Pakistan registered a win and a loss against each of the other teams).

1987: Easily the worst Cup for New Zealand, with only two wins in the group stage, both against Zimbabwe.

1992: Far and away the best Cup, though we only made the semis. We dominated the round robin stage, sweeping aside all but Pakistan. But then we lost to the eventual winners Pakistan in the semi by 4 wickets.

1996: Young team made the quarter-finals to be beaten by eventual finalists Australia by 6 wickets.

1999: Another good Cup, making the semis. New Zealand were feared in this tournament...well somewhat at least. Australia slowed down their run chase against West Indies in an effort to keep New Zealand out of the Super Six. Lost semi to Pakistan by 9 wickets.

2003: Failed to reach semis, though so did other teams as Kenya burst through, making the Super Six only thanks to New Zealand's forfeit and then the semis thanks to the vagaries of the Super Six points system.

Summary: Out of 8 World Cups, New Zealand has made the semis 4 times. A statistic that would surprise many commentators I think, who probably expect that New Zealand hasn't done that well in World Cups. I feel also that in several of the other tournaments, we were not far off making the semis. Only in 1992, however, did we look like we could go further. I'd like to claim that New Zealand are natural semi-finalists in World Cups, and based on that alone, we should expect to get that far in the West Indies. And if we can get to the semis we're only one win away from our best result to date, and then...

Australian navel-gazing, part 133

The Age contains another piece, this time by Greg Baum, on the current state of the Australian cricket team. You are probably sick of these by now, but this one does contain a particularly good put down of under-performing all-rounder Shane Watson. After taking note of Watson's limitations with bat and ball, Baum looks at Watson's failure to develop and mature and notes:

Watson is nearly 26. In NZ, he said: "During my time out, I actually read Keith Miller's book, and he said he didn't make it until around 27. He's our greatest all-rounder, so that shows how difficult it can be." It also shows how much of an interruption five years of world war can be.

Banging beer-cans and chanting Hadlee's name

Richard Boock was mightily impressed by the crowds at Eden Park and Seddon Park. For him they took him back to a youth full of towelling sunhats, stubbies, clashing beer cans and chanting Richard Hadlee's name. And the atmosphere for the last two matches of the Chappell-Hadlee series really was electric. Perhaps the best seen in this country since the 1992 World Cup. It is just a pity then, that those matches marked the end of the New Zealand season and not the beginning of it. While we have the World Cup in the West Indies to look forward to, watching the television at 8am on a Tuesday morning won't be quite be the same thing as watching a match at the Basin on a Friday night.

Like Boocky, Jonathan Millmow is today focused on the reactions of the crowds and of the people at home. He specifically recalls 1992 and tells a few stories about reactions - the saddest being the New Zealand team returning after a night out celebrating to find the bewildered and demoralised Michael Hussey in the hotel bar, still dressed in his one day outfit.

One of the highlights of both articles is the way the authors demonstrate the same giddiness and excitement as the fans in their writing. The fact that a grumpy old pessimist like Richard Boock is still as excited as a pre-schooler full of sugar and food-colouring two days after the fact shows the effect the Chappell-Hadlee series had on those who follow New Zealand cricket.

Across the Tasman, the recriminations rumble on. Glenn McGrath is as cocky as usual, but the Sydney Morning Herald also reports that Michael Hussey is beginning to realise a few truths about his side - in particular about his bowlers:

"The guys were pretty keen to do well and someone like Mitchell Johnson, who played two of the games, he wouldn't be jaded, he hasn't played much cricket at all this summer.

I don't think that's a reason.

...that's the really disappointing thing, we had them 4-40 and for them to be able to chase down 350 is pretty disappointing.

It was an excellent start ... [but] we couldn't maintain it."

This is about as much insight as the Sydney Morning Herald is willing to share. The much braver Australian goes a lot deeper. An editorial in that paper firmly announces that the "Humiliated attack can't win cup". This clearly isn't quite enough because a second opinion piece is also in the paper to tell us why the "NZ debacle [is] relevant to [the] World Cup". Elsewhere Geoff Lawson outlines exactly what is wrong with those shame-faced bowlers and Prime Minister John Howard stops being George Bush's lapdog just long enough to show he is just as inept at judging cricket as he is at international relations.

The Herald Sun is just as judgemental as the Australian, but is perhaps a little more focused on ways to rebuild. It identifies areas for debate which it believes the Australian side should look to address.

There is often a huge contrast between reporting of cricket in New Zealand and reporting of cricket in Australia. It is relief to find that when we are in the ascendent we do not resort to belittling the opposition, and that the Australian press can be just as vicious and blame-throwing as our own when their side does poorly.

Testify!

Today's Hard News, the blog of journalist Russell Brown, deals with the state of religion in New Zealand. The article ends on a light note by pointing out that 12,000 people sang, danced and testifed in Hamilton last night. A picture of "religious leader" Brendon McCullum ascending to the heavens follows.

The blackwash

The Age found New Zealand's one wicket victory last night so stressful that all it could do was scream. Meanwhile the Australian just seemed depressed and unsurprised. The Herald Sun tries to focus on the positive (Hayden's innings) and then lets the facade slip at the end with an angry demand that Australia's bowlers offer an apology.

On this side of the Tasman the Herald begins with a comprehensive look at Craig McMillan's record breaking century and then jumps to Richard Boock who struggles to find enough superlatives. Geoff Longley in the Press can't help but notice that it was Canterbury players who took the New Zealand side to victory while the Dominion-Post's Jonathan Millmow is another who just can't stop babbling about McMillan's knock.

The result has moved New Zealand to third in the international ODI rankings. Only South Africa and Australia are above us. The Chappell-Hadlee series also gave a boost to several players' individual ratings. The batting charts still aren't that flash, but Fleming is up to 24 and the patch between 43 and 49 is owned by New Zealand (Fulton and McMillan share 43, Vincent is at 45, and Styris and Taylor follow at 48 and 49). The bowling charts see Dan Vettori climb to a dizzy 4 and Shane Bond claw his way back up to 7. The injured Kyle Mills is still lurking at 15 and Jacob Oram is at 25. It is interesting to note that behind McGrath (2) and Lee (6), the next Australian bowlers to rank are Hogg and Watson - way back at 33 and 42 respectively.

I guess it is time for a few apologies to John Bracewell to start flowing. So here comes mine - well done Braces, and sorry for doubting your selection policies and tactics. You were right.

Another one!

Another run chase. Another record. And with our two best bowlers sitting on the sidelines. You little bloody bewdies!

Contents of an email from Marie

Did you see Gilly saying they didn’t even want to tour NZ - ohh poor thing - so hard being a professional cricketer, getting paid heaps to do something you love and fly all around the world. Try sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day!

That is all.

M

Ben on...The Twelfth Man

Did anyone else catch The Twelfth Man being interviewed on the news the other night? Marvellous.

Turns out though, that The 12th Man is a guy called Billy Birmingham. He's got an idiosyncratic hair style, but apart from that he's just a guy doing funny voices. Somehow I feel the mystique has been broken.

Anyway, The 12th Man has a MySpace page. Some of his friends include Shane Warne, David Boon, Mike Whitney and Shane Warne. What a crazy place is MySpace.

More Aussie handwringing

The Australian has stuck the boot into Australian cricket this morning, headlining a scathing interview with CEO James Sutherland with the words "Cricket Australia boss in denial".

Meanwhile Australian bowling coach Troy Cooley spends an interview with the Age coming up with some pretty airy fairy sounding excuses for his charges' lack of penetration. Elsewhere in the paper Peter Roebuck has a real lash at the bowling, fielding and captaincy:

Phil Jaques is inept, Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait cannot throw, White is a slowcoach and McGrath's bones creak.

The bowling has been erratic. Bracken lacks hostility, Tait sends down too much leg-side rubbish, Brad Hogg has hardly beaten the bat in five outings and was lucky to secure a place in the World Cup squad, and White is bowling pies. Hussey's field placements have been dubious, but inaccurate bowling can make even an experienced tactician look foolish.

While all this Aussie handwringing and disharmony is a delight, it also brings with it a downside - English gloating. Simon Barnes has published a particularly prime example in the Times. Personally I think if you are going to include a reference to hubris in your work, you had better not tempt it yourself. By writing off Australia so quickly, Barnes may find himself a little shamefaced should the side suddenly revive. And given New Zealand have decided not to play Vettori and Bond in Hamilton today that revival may come quicker than he imagined.

Cleaver on the revival

New Zealand's man at Cricinfo, Dylan Cleaver, has written a piece on the recent New Zealand revival.

Mayor shocked by councillor's resignation

The Otago Daily Times carries a report about the resignation of Dunedin City councillor Leah McBey. What has this got to do with cricket? Not much - except for this comment from Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin:

“It is a shock. She rang to tell me late this afternoon during a particularly tense time during the New Zealand and Australia cricket match.”

She really should have waited till the match was over.

Mediawatch

Sunday's edition of Mediawatch, the National Programme's entertaining and informative review of the media, looked at the bashing the Black Caps have received in the press lately. You can download a podcast of the show here.

Wheels clattering to the ground

The fact that Shane Warne "retired" only to continue playing cricket in England seemed to be an indication that he could have kept playing for Australia, but didn't want to because he doesn't like coach John Buchanan. The blast he gave Buchanan in the press after the loss in Wellington just seems to reinforce that.

An even better win

It is hard to believe how quickly a losing team can become a winning team and vice versa. Only a week or so ago the New Zealanders were being lambasted for their performance in Australia and now they have the world champions under their thumb. The Australian papers are a source of great entertainment lately, and today is no different. Both the Age and the Australian state that Sunday's loss was even worse than Friday's. Alex Brown in the Age sums up why this is best:

In many ways, yesterday's defeat, which sealed Australia's first four-game losing streak in almost a decade, was more concerning than the 10-wicket loss in Wellington on Friday. On that occasion, Australia's inexperienced batsmen were caught out on a seaming wicket by one of the world's premier pacemen, Shane Bond. But in Auckland there was no such excuse, as Australia's high-profile bowling attack was plastered across the Eden Park turf by the home side's batsmen.

In the New Zealand papers we find a much more upbeat tune. In the Herald Richard Boock prostrates himself at Ross Taylor's feet while David Leggat muses thoughtfully on the contrasting innings of Hussey and Taylor. In the Dominion-Post Jonathan Millmow just sits back and marvels at what this might mean for our once almost dead World Cup hopes.

Despite the brilliance of the run chase, I find it hard to look at a match involving New Zealand without at least one small mote irritating my eye. This time it was the performance of the bowlers. Tuffey looked wobbly and the part-timers were just dreadful. Styris in particular has bowled absolute rubbish since his return from injury. Personally I think a haircut could help.

I don't want to end on a low note however. So here are a couple of things that came as a bonus with the victory. The first was the Eden Park pitch. "This is one of the best, if not the best one-day conditions I've ever played in", said Michael Hussey. And the second thing was the crowd. Eden Park was absolutely humming. The crowd wasn't just the largest we have seen in Auckland for a long time, it was also the noisest and most excited I have seen in New Zealand since the early 1980s. By the end of the match the atmosphere in my lounge was just electric. Lord knows what it must have felt like at the ground.

A ten wicket win!

I couldn't wait to get up this morning to see what the papers made of New Zealand's ten wicket victory over Australia. And I wasn't disappointed. The Age devotes three pages to "one of its darkest days" but also gives full credit to a "powerful effort" from the New Zealanders. The headline in The Australian is "Australia's humiliation" and its match report is equally damning.

On this side of the Tasman Richard Boock is so excited that he almost brings himself to praise the New Zealand side while the Dominon-Post still hasn't recovered from the post-match celebrations enough to publish its report.

To put the New Zealand effort into perspective - this is Australia's heaviest ever one day loss and the first time it has ever lost by ten wickets. The opening partnership between Fleming and Vincent is also a record score against Australia. And by crickey it was good to watch.

Ben on...!

A 10-wicket victory! That's a down trou!

World Cup preparations

Where would you expect to find an indepth article on preparations in the West Indies for the World Cup? Cricinfo? The English broadsheets? Wisden monthly? Well all those sources seem strangely quiet on the subject. Luckily for us, that most unlikely of sources of cricket news, the Los Angeles Times, has stepped into the breach.

Lee injury scare

According to the Sydney Morning Herald Brett Lee has done some potentially serious damage to his left knee and ankle after taking a tumble at training this morning. The SMH seems convinced that Lee is out of the entire Chappell-Hadlee series and that he may not make the World Cup.

First Chappell-Hadlee preview

First an apology. Mike on Cricket has been a bit quiet lately. Life has become very complicated thanks to a staggering number of births, deaths and marriages happening around me. Since I am getting married next week myself, this is only likely to get worse.

Anyway. Onto the serious stuff. The first Chappell-Hadlee match to be played in Wellington tomorrow. I will be there. And the weather has been so nice lately that I am confident the forecast for southerlies and possible showers is not going to have too much of an impact on the game. In my opinion the match is much more likely to be affected by idiotic groundskeeping. The cricket on Friday is to be followed by another of the endless and increasingly meaningless Super 14 rugby matches on Saturday. And yesterday's Dominion-Post (article not online unfortunately) seemed to indicate that the groundsman is more concerned about making sure the wicket block is soft enough for rugby than he is about making sure it is a good, hard wicket for cricket. According to the paper he has been watering it daily to make sure those delicate rugby players won't damage themselves on its hard surface.

In other news Ross Taylor moves up to number three in the batting order and Daryl Tuffey is likely to play. It will be particularly interesting to see how Tuffey copes with the pressures of international cricket after his meltdown and breakdown two years ago, and to see how he copes with the reception a rowdy crowd will no doubt give him. People have long memories for sex scandals and I have already received a couple of joke emails containing references to milkshakes and video cameras.

Pot kettle black

There are times when hypocrisy is so blatant that it takes the breath away. The White House is particularly good at providing examples of this. But when Richard Boock writes an article calling for "balance" you really have to wonder at the sanity of the world. Boock is not a bad writer, and he is certainly an entertaining one, but balance is perhaps the last word that would leap to mind when describing his work. As far as he seems concerned any angle is good, so long as it paints John Bracewell in a bad light. And despite this article purportedly being about how nice and balanced the New Zealand World Cup squad looks, Boock can't quite stop his own rather unbalanced view of the world from intruding. "Balance hasn't been a word widely associated with John Bracewell since he took over as New Zealand coach" he starts with before grudgingly accepting that "Whatever you might make of his 2007 combination, Bracewell has at least avoided [the] sorts of extremes [experienced in 1999 and 2003]." The annoying thing is that this build-up is followed by some genuine praise of the line-up. It is almost as if Boock wanted to praise the selections, but really, really didn't want to give any credit to the selector.

World Cup squad announced

The New Zealand team for the World Cup has just been announced. The bolter in the side is Daryl Tuffey. Jonathan Millmow spent this morning dithering over whether selectors should go with Chris Martin or Andre Adams - it turns out that High Tower beat them both out. The rest of the 15 has no suprises in it:

Stephen Fleming (c)
Shane Bond
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Michael Mason
Brendon McCullum
Craig McMillan
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daryl Tuffey
Daniel Vettori
Lou Vincent

A note with the announcement said that Mason and Fulton won't be playing in the Chappell-Hadlee series. Both are developing players who have shown some talent, but became a little worringly one dimensional in Australia. I suspect they have been told to go back to the domestic game to experiment a little with their variations.

EDIT: Correction in the last sentence - originally I mistakenly put Gillespie's name where Mason's should have been.

Ben on...Australia still the best, but just

An 11/3 win/loss ratio for 2006/7 has nudged South Africa's ICC rating to 127, while Australia's rating has dwindled over the past two years from a high of 140 to a mere 130.

A quick play with the Predictor shows that there is a possibility that South Africa could go into the World Cup as the highest ranked team.

If South Africa beats Pakistan tomorrow, they will raise their rating to 128. Whereas, Australia must win 2 of the 3 Chappell–Hadlee matches to retain first place. (And it is an odd consequence of the system that even if they do win 2 out of 3 matches, their rating will still fall.)

Based on the ratings trends, you would expect South Africa to rise and Australia to drop. However, the one team, apart from Zimbabwe, that has fallen faster in the rankings than Australia in the last year is New Zealand.

NZ vs Australia

Here is something that might surprise you after hearing Bill Lawry and co bang on about how New Zealand always challenges Australia - since 2003 not one single country has a worse record in ODIs against Australia than New Zealand. Believe it or not, our win/loss ratio against the Aussies is even worse than Bangladesh's.

The real problem

I think I might have found the root cause of New Zealand cricket's problems. Peter Roebuck gave me the first clue when he pointed out that:

Ten nations are deemed fit to play the game to Test standard. Among them, India and Pakistan suffered mutual slaughters on the day of their birth, and still fight over Kashmir. Sri Lanka continues to endure a civil war in its northeast. Australia and England are engaged in a war in Iraq opposed by other nations. Zimbabwe is governed by a tyrant. Bangladesh is impoverished. South Africa has only just started treating black inhabitants as equals. Save for cricketing purposes, the West Indies does not exist. New Zealand is the only peaceful place.

And as Orson Welles, playing Harry Lime, says in "The Third Man":

"...in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Clearly what the team needs is a bit of friction in the country. Perhaps we should try to convince Helen Clark to send the army off to invade Tasmania? Not only might the warfare provide the spark our team needs, but we could also annex Ricky Ponting at the same time.

The post-mortem continues

Richard Boock is in a fickle mood. After his apology to John Bracewell and his rotation policy the other day, the last thing I expected was a new column telling us that Fleming didn't lose us the match against England - "the unsettling selection policies" did. But that is exactly what Boocky has given us.

The players themselves seem to blame the mental side of their game for their recent failures. Oh, and the physical side as well. Which pretty much has everything but the spiritual aspect covered. And given that our outfield catching mostly seemed to involve players putting their hands together, closing their eyes and looking skyward - I would say that ain't working either.

While the players have most of their bases covered, former coach Denis Aberhart decided to go the whole hog and told the Press that we just need to improve three things to start winning again - the batting, bowling and fielding.

I get the sense we are not narrowing things down yet.

Still, if we can't find the root of the problems, at least we know what the positives are. And if we don't, Jonathan Millmow is there to remind us. Lou Vincent's batting, Jacob Oram's hitting, Ross Taylor's development and the continuing improvement of Mark Gillespie and Jeetan Patel.

Millmow is also a little better at pin-pointing problems. He questions Franklin's position as a new-ball bowler - particularly when the ball isn't swinging - Peter Fulton's place at number 3 and the change in fielding practice routines. He also comes through with ratings for all the New Zealand players.

Meanwhile, there is more bad news for New Zealand. First of all Kyle Mills needs surgery that will put him out of the game for a year. And secondly, Shane Warne has scheduled a "tribute match" for himself at the same time as the second Chappell-Hadlee match - an indication that the Australians might send a weakened side to these shores to allow the stars to participate. Hmmm, I guess that means we have a chance of winning. Perhaps that last one isn't really that bad then.

Its not just New Zealand cricket that has problems though. In bad news for the world game, it seems that Marlon Samuels has been caught talking to a bookie.

Luckily for us there are a couple of up notes to end on. Darrell Hair, who you may remembers is a pasty white Aussie, has decided to sue the ICC for racial discrimination. And Australia's number 1 ranking in ODIs is under threat from South Africa.

We blew it

Stephen Fleming finally found his form. Shane Bond finally got his swing back. And we still blew it. I stayed up to the bitter end last night, and really wish I hadn't. From Taylor's run-out onwards it was like watching a train wreck happening in slow motion. Peter Roebuck has summed it up better than I can:

New Zealand looked the stronger side and had the winning of the match. But Fleming's team has mislaid its killer instinct. It is not enough to play good cricket. A bit of mongrel is required.

Sigh. I guess if we want some excuses to make ourselves feel better we could start with the toss. It was a poor one to lose because Brisbane day/nighters have always suited batting first - and yesterday afternoon was a particularly hot time to be in the field. But we can't excuse the fielding. Jonthan Millmow wonders in this morning's Dominion-Post whether having a specialist fielding coach means the New Zealanders are thinking too much about fielding techinque, and not enough about just catching the damn ball. He might have a point.

So the side returns home from Australia to lick their wounds for a week. We might have avoided a tough best of three finals series against Australia, but we haven't avoided the Aussies altogether just yet. The Chappell-Hadlee series starts next week.

Australia vs New Zealand

First we couldn't bat, but fielded and bowled well. Then we couldn't field, but our batting and bowling were pretty sharp. Now it is the turn of the bowlers to be rubbish.

In last night's game Shane Bond didn't attack the crease like he used to. He seems to be bowling within himself. He was told before the match that he will be playing against England on Tuesday and I wonder if that was playing on his mind. Meanwhile Jacob Oram has frankly been bowling tripe ever since he arrived in Australia (it is just as well his batting is coming along). Mark Gillespie and James Franklin were the best of the seamers and I think Oram and Bond should be looking at Gillespie for tips. His line and length has been excellent.

Still, at least the Australians have something to worry about as well. Their bowlers have now conceeded three totals in a row of 290 or more. Peter Roebuck claims Mitchell Johnson deserved better figures last night, but he has been chased a couple of times now and hasn't responded well. I think it is indicative that his captain does not hesitate to whip him out of the attack as soon as the ball starts flying around.

The lower order

How good had New Zealand's lower order batting been in recent years? Cricinfo shows us.

Bloody England

While it was great to see Australia do so badly last night, England's victory does put a spanner in the works for New Zealand. Qualifying for the final has suddenly become something more than a formality. Still. I am not going to complain too much. Seeing such vaunted Australian hopes as Shaun Tait and Cameron White look rubbish was worth the result.

Rankings update

The ICC has issued updated individual player rankings. The biggest mover in recent weeks for New Zealand has been Dan Vettori. His performances in Australia have seen him rise to the 3rd best ODI bowler in the world (after Shaun Pollock and Glenn McGrath). Shane Bond is at 10 and Kyle Mills is at 14, while Jacob Oram has slumped to 25th (his batting form might be great, but his bowling in Australia has really been rubbish so far) and James Franklin to 51st.

Interestingly Kenya has two pace men in the top 40. The side is currently carving a swathe through the World Cup qualifying tournament and may well prove that its semi-final placing in the 2003 World Cup was no fluke. Kenya are in New Zealand's group during the pool stages of the 2007 World Cup so we should probably keep an eye on them.

In the batting charts you have to go as far as 29 before you find a New Zealander - and that is out of form captain Stephen Fleming. The recently retired Nathan Astle is next at 37. Scott Styris follows at 43 and Craig McMillan is at 47. Jacob Oram's stunning form has only seen him rise to 53rd (which is still a career high) while Brendon McCullum and Peter Fulton follow at 58 and 59 respectively. Ross Taylor is still in the "restricted" phase of his rankings career (because rankings reflect form over a period of time, new players have their rankings dampened to prevent them from sky-rocketing on the basis of a few good scores), but he has still managed to leap-frog Hamish Marsall and hits the charts at 65.

Millmow on Vincent

Jonathan Millmow has a nice profile on Lou Vincent in this morning's Dominion-Post sports supplement. New Zealand being such a village, I spent last weekend with a cousin who knows Lou vaguely. After a bit of a gossip I was left with the impression that Vincent was pretty scarred by his treatment at the hands of New Zealand Cricket's management and selectors in recent years. This, coupled with changes in his lifestyle (fatherhood, moving to the country), has meant that cricket is less of a life or death affair for him anymore. If Vincent's form in the last two games against England and Australia is anything to go by, that doesn't seem a bad thing.

Lou Vincent seems one of the genuinely nice people in world cricket, so let's hope his experience at the top level is much better this time around.

The Aussie public's opinion of Lou

The Sydney Morning Herald is currently running a poll to discover whether people agree with Lou Vincent's assessment of the Aussie team as "arrogant". The poll is currently running with 47% agreeing with Lou, 14% saying the team is merely "confident" and 23% thinking the team is either "aggressive" or "abrasive".

The Herald has also set up a blog so people can post their own comments. There are a few statements along the lines of "Lou is such a whinger that he should play for England" and one or two remarking that the New Zealanders are bad sports, but there are also a liberal sprinkling of comments agreeing with Vincent.

The sledging issue drags on

With the summer of cricket being largely anti-climactic in Australia, a slight New Zealand revival was always in danger of being over-hyped by an Aussie press desperate to find something interesting to say. So the Aussie papers have leapt on Lou Vincent's comments about the Aussie sledgers "hunting like a pack of dogs" like, well, a pack of dogs. As the coverage drags into its third day the Age drags out Matthew Hayden and Stuart Clark to talk about the issue while the Australian quizzes Ricky Ponting.

Not that John Bracewell seems bothered by all the talk. In fact, I would consider his response almost brilliantly diplomatic, admitting their is some merit in Vincent's words but at the same time effectively toning them down by replacing "arrogant" with "confident":

We all know the Australian side are extremely confident people in their cricket. Their record suggests they're allowed to be confident.

"They want us to be a strong cricketing nation, they're doing everything they can to help us do that. Playing against the best in the world, a confident team, is only going to help us."

What on earth is happening to the world? First Richard Boock admits he is wrong, and then John Bracewell morphs into a honey-tongued diplomat. At this rate, don't be too surprised to see England thrash Australia on Friday.

An apology

Here is something very unusual. It is an apology from Richard Boock to John Bracewell. Boock admits that rotating in Mark Gillespie and Michael Mason was a good idea, and that he was probably a bit silly to pour scorn on the proposal. And he admits that shuffling McCullum back down the order was sensible too, despite his complaints to the contrary only a game or so ago. And he adds that perhaps Bracewell's selection policies probably aren't the designs of a group of Alzheimer's victims like he has been alleging. The only problem with all of this apologising is that Boock is so effusive I am not really sure whether he is serious or not. And the final line kind of spoils any sense that Boock really wants to make nice:

"You never know, if he keeps on like this, we may even start believing him about Astle's retirement decision."

Top performer

Cricinfo's "Top Performer" column takes a gander at Jacob Oram this week, and likes what it sees.