Two
ODIs at the Basin in 17 years, then two in two weeks. For the final game of
their five-match series, New Zealand and Pakistan returned to the scene of the
first. This match was originally scheduled for McLean Park, Napier, but moved
because of the poor drainage that caused the abandonment of an ODI against
Australia last season. With grounds from Whangarei to Queenstown being used for
the under-19 World Cup, the Basin it was.
It
is an unfortunate time for Napier to lose its status as an international venue.
Attractive cricket grounds with good facilities have sprung up all over the
country in recent years, making rugby grounds that cricket borrows for the
summer—of which McLean Park is one—look somewhat last century.
It
has been gratifying to note the admiring attention that New Zealand’s grounds
have been receiving on social media. The Basin is the best of the lot when the
sun shines as it did once more today (of the international venues, at least;
Pukekura Park, New Plymouth is without equal as a domestic venue). There were
4,300 present, not bad for a workday (or as near as Wellington gets to one
during January) and enough for the ground to appear well-populated; at the Cake
Tin it would have seemed that almost no one was there.
New
Zealand won all the first four matches—all with something to spare—following
their clean sweep against the West Indies. As I wrote in my post about the
first game, whereas in Australia such results would inflate the national ego,
here we just assume that the opposition can’t be any good. The hope for this
game was that it would help us better assess how good New Zealand actually are.
Kane
Williamson won the toss and chose to bat. There aren’t many occasions on which
New Zealand have reached 22 without Martin Guptill getting off the mark, but
that was the case today. Since Colin Munro became his partner, Guptill has
become the health and safety officer of the opening pair, his job to make sure
that accidents are not repeated. When he did score, it was in style: a straight
six that rattled the TV tower at the southern end.
Munro
has become subject to the same double standard of judgement that has been
applied to aggressive top order players from Milburn to McCullum. If they thump
the ball to the boundary they are heroes; if it goes wrong, they are fools. Here,
Munro got to 34 from 24 balls before top edging one to mid off. His timing was
not the best, but once more he had got the innings off to a speedy and
substantial start.
Williamson
was looking comfortable when he flicked a catch to deep mid-wicket as if he had
not noticed that Umar Amin was there. It was a casual, shorts-and-jandals sort
of shot from a man who normally bats in a dinner jacket.
Guptill
and Taylor put on 112 in 24 overs, a stately rate of progress mostly because of
19-year-old legspinner Shadab Khan, who conceded only 35 from his ten overs.
Guptill reached his hundred from 125 balls. At this point my mind went back to
the World Cup quarter-final two years ago when he scored 92 off the last ten
overs of the innings. A total of 300 plus looked likely.
But
Guptill holed out to long on from the next ball and from then on, some fine
bowling, in particular by Rumman Raees and Faheem Ashraf, kept the final total
down to 271. They delivered full length deliveries with precision and
intelligence.
Ross
Taylor also went just as he would have been expected to start blasting. De
Grandhomme made 29 from 21 balls, well short of the destruction setting that is
his default at these times. Nobody else lasted long enough to make a
difference.
The
Pakistan innings was a flame of hope that refused to be extinguished despite
regular dousing. At 57 for five after 17 overs it looked all over. Matt Henry
was mostly responsible. Brought in for the resting Trent Boult, he had three
for nine at one point, his focused pace being too much for the Pakistan top
order. Babar Azam, freshly named in the ICC’s one-day World XI, was out cheaply
for the fifth time in the series. Haris Sohail and Shadab Khan maintained
Pakistan’s interest in the match with a sixth-wicket stand of 105. This was the
sort of intelligent retrenchment that there can be time for in 50-over cricket,
but not in T20. But the departure of both left Pakistan needing 100 from the last
ten with only three wickets remaining. Quite a number of people packed their
bags and shuffled off at this point. When will they learn? They missed some of
the most interesting cricket of the series.
Faheem
Ashraf and Aamir Yamin began to find the boundary, with three sixes in their
31-run partnership in under four overs. Mohammad Nawaz took 16 from the next
over, using Ferguson’s pace against him. The luck was with Pakistan, with the
edge as effective as the middle of the bat, but it was no more than their refusal
to submit to the odds deserved. The WASP predictor still had Pakistan’s chances
of winning at 3%, but the sense in the ground was that they had the momentum.
It felt closer.
Ferguson’s
speed had its way in his next over by bowling Mohammad Nawaz. This left 37
needed from 23 balls and one wicket to fall, yet still Pakistan’s self-belief
appeared unshaken. Three more boundaries were hit or edged before Rumman Raees
holed out at mid-wicket to leave New Zealand winners by 15 runs with an over
remaining.
I
hope that Pakistan doesn’t over-react to the five-nil defeat. Twice in this
match they fought back when many teams would have been mentally heading for the
plane. There is class in the batting, even if it hid in this series. Shadab
Khan has the potential to become world-class, and the attack is also talented.
There
is also the issue of dumping cricketers in foreign conditions (one warm-up game
before this series) and then being surprised that they take time to adjust. As
cricket’s attention span grows ever shorter, tests and ODIs need to be good
contests. Inadequate preparation for visiting teams makes this far less likely,
and is a threat to the future of these forms. I have no idea what the answer
is, though a common agreement that what warm-up games there are should be
played on good pitches against decent opposition would be a start.
Today,
New Zealand had just five bowlers, Munro—the notional sixth—not being called
upon even though it seemed the perfect opportunity to give him a bit of
experience. Having only five bowlers will cost New Zealand games—when, not
if—particularly if one is a wayward speedster in the form of Lockie Ferguson.
Form or fitness will expose the weakness. Unless Grant Elliott becomes five years
younger, or Corey Anderson regains fitness (the former is the more likely), keeping
Matt Henry in the side at the expense of a batsman (probably Henry Nicholls,
who has done well in this series) would be the way to do it, though it makes
the tail long.
The
New Zealand public must come to terms with the reality that their one-day team
is very good. So is England’s. Whoever wins the forthcoming series against
England could well finish top-ranked ODI side. Prediction: the pitches will be
so slow that their pace will be measured in geological eras.
