The new zeal of New Zealand

The Kiwis are back on track

Cricket can often turn out to be a zero-sum game; someone’s loss translates to someone’s gain. The chaos that has set into the Indian team after their disastrous One-day international series against New Zealand is for everyone to see. Most of their batsmen look listless all of a sudden, and the bowling attack reeks of inexperience. As the talks of World Cup 2015 garner more buzz, the Indian team now has questions than answers.

Meanwhile, after an evenly fought ODI series against the West Indies, the 4-0 bashing of India has started to give the Kiwis a confidence about their current squad and a belief in their abilities. The good part of this newly found zeal is that they are peaking at the right time and, unlike India, finding more solutions with each passing match.

It is heartening to see one of the most talented and lively ODI units starting to settle into a cohesive and dangerous team even if this process of their rise included a heart-wrenching 0-4 damage inflicted on India. The Kiwi openers Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder have clicked of late, but in silos. Both of them had a couple of good knocks each to bolster their CVs in the West Indies and India series.

Ryder’s sixth-fastest hundred was overshadowed by a Corey Anderson gem at Queenstown. However, with a quiet series against India, he failed to add anything substantial to it. Guptill, on the other hand, finally came off when he dropped anchor and scored a resilient 111 against India. What might worry New Zealand a little is that both of them have not given a partnership at the top and that their knocks have not come as consistently as the team would have liked it to be.

The middle order, however, has been in terrific touch for New Zealand. Ross Taylor amassed 2 centuries against the touring Indians, and the classy Williamson scored five fifties in a row. Both of them add flair and stability to the middle order. The purple patch followed Williamson to the first day of the Auckland Test match against India. The hosts must be hoping that the middle order flourishes in the 2015 mega-event, too. The void left by Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan and Daniel Vettori in their lower batting order seems to be getting filled to a large extent, finally.

Brendon McCullum at 5 had a quiet series, but the century on day 1 of the Test match at Auckland will bring back his confidence in the shorter format, too. His ability to destruct a side in no time can prove to be lethal at no 5. But the find of the season has definitely been Corey Anderson, who smashed into record books with a stunning 36-ball 100 and followed that up with destructive cameos against India. He was the leading wicket taker for NZ in that series and troubled the visitors with nippy in-swingers.

Luke Ronchi’s Australian diaspora has helped NZ in fortifying its lower batting power, and he along with McCullum and Anderson form a dangerous trio for oppositions in the slog overs. Ronchi played two match winning innings in the T20 series against Windies, and if he curbs his wicket-keeping mistakes, he can add a lot of value for the team lower down the order. His incumbency is threatened by Bradley Watling, who is an established Test wicketkeeper for Kiwis and is now making waves in First-class arena.

The pace attack looks formidable with Tim Southee and Kyle Mills providing the necessary zip, especially in conditions helping fast bowling. Southee wreaked havoc on India in the series, troubling them with pace and bounce consistently and bagging 8 wickets. Mitchell McClenaghan’s dream run in ODIs went a little off-track in the India series as he managed to grab only 5 wickets in 4 matches, which included one four-wicket haul. His position looked for grabs mid-way through the series, and the replacements latched onto the chances to show why they are no walkovers.

The 22-year old Matt Henry and the Canterbury boy Hamish Bennett were impressive in the lone one-day match they played. The pool of pace bowling options has a potential depth after a long time. One vacant spot at no.8 is what Adam Milne and James Neesham are vying for, with Nathan McCullum also chipping in the picture with his innocuous yet economic off-spin.

The team that featured Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle, McMillan, Cairns and Vettori had the elements of a World Cup winning team, but that never happened. Many generations of New Zealand teams have fell short of this dream, sometimes by a whisker and sometimes by more. With the Test series and the World Cup T20 ahead of them, every series must be seen as a step closer to the 2015 World Cup.

It will be good for the Kiwis and the world cricket if this team grows from strength to strength and emerges as a major contender for the home edition of the ultimate championship in 2015. It has been a long wait for one of the most livewire teams of international cricket and the men in black know it better than anyone else.