I’ve seen some pretty extraordinary things in my time watching cricket, but I have seldom seen anything like the last few overs of New Zealand’s innings against Pakistan. From a meandering first forty-five overs, enlivened early on by Brendon McCullum re-defining cameo and Martin Guptill’s knock, this was absolute carnage. Pakistan bowled dreadfully, it is true, but even so the rate of scoring was spectacular, even with Ross Taylor not facing any of the last over.
New Zealand were at it again in the closing stages of their innings against Canada, James Franklin contributing an astonishing thirty-one from eight balls as they plundered forty from the last two overs. One of the many lessons that we have learned from the World Cup so far is not to take your eyes off the action, even when it seems to be rather sedate.
New Zealand, then, can be happy with how things are progressing, the limp defeat to Australia fading into distant memory, but Pakistan are confounding no-one’s expectations by being a basket case. There is no doubting the talent that they have at their disposal, but while they insist on employing a keeper for whom the word inconsistent is merely the tip of the iceberg and fast bowlers, with the honourable exception of Umar Gul, who barely seem to possess a brain cell between them, then they will always be up and down. However, the comparatively easy path offered by Group A will see them safely through to the knock out stages and then pretty much anything could happen. The likelihood is still an early exit, but, ironically perhaps, I won’t be rushing to the bookies.
No comments:
Post a Comment