Gurbaaz 80…. Blackcaps 75

By Rahul Patil

In the English language the word upset has two meanings. When used as a verb it means unhappy. When used as noun it means an unexpected result. New Zealand fans will be upset that their team lost against Afghanistan, but by no means was this an upset. T20 is Afghanistan’s best format and if we compare the combined number of T20’s played by the playing XIs of both sides, Afghanistan’s experience of 2012 matches beats New Zealand’s experience of 1986 matches by 26. That number would have been a lot higher if Mujeeb Ur Rahman (241 T20 matches) had not missed the game due to an injury. How experienced the opposition is, is not something that one can control. But were there things in New Zealand’s control that could have been done differently to give themselves the best chance of success?

Let’s start with our preparation for this World Cup. I had mentioned in my tournament preview (https://www.sportsfreak.co.nz/another-year-another-cricket-world-cup/) that the lack of quality game time was our biggest issue. Trent Boult (4-0-22-2) was our most effective player yesterday. The reason – He played 15 out of 16 games for the Rajasthan Royals in this year’s IPL. He was match fit. The rest didn’t have enough miles in their legs. Every team had the opportunity to play two practice matches before the start of the tournament. The blackcaps chose not to play theirs. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but the simple question to ask themselves was “What do we need to do to give ourselves the best chance of success?” and although success is never guaranteed, optics do matter.

For a long time now, the Blackcaps have been poor at reading surfaces. In the Hamilton test against South Africa, we didn’t pick a frontline spinner and Dane Piedt picked 8 wickets in the match while turning the ball square. Then at the Basin against Australia once again we didn’t pick a spinner and Nathan Lyon picked up 10 wickets in the match. We knew that spin is one of Afghanistan’s strengths, yet we gave them the opportunity to bowl second on a slow and low surface. Again, I am writing this after the event but the frequency with which we are making mistakes in reading surfaces suggests a deeper problem.

Over the years New Zealand’s fielding and catching has built a reputation of consistently being amongst the best in the world but of late that reputation has been tarnished significantly. Finn Allen gave Zadran a life when he was on 13. Zadran added a further 31. Conway had a terrible day with the gloves. His failure to collect the ball cleanly gave Gurbaaz a life when he was on 19. That lapse cost the blackcaps a further 61 runs. Cricket can be a brutal sport where the sentence can be different for the same error. World Cup winning teams are generally the ones with the least number of errors.

A little research on Fazalhaq Farooqui would have told us that his strength lies in swinging the new ball into the right hander. Why didn’t the left hander Conway take strike against him then? The new white Kookaburra swings for about 2 to 3 overs. We were chasing 160 so could have afforded to take a bit of time to see what was happening before swinging for hills. Simple game awareness that becomes a bit rusty when you are not match fit.

I cannot understand the reluctance to pick Rachin either. He was our best batter at the ODI World Cup, but we still decided to go with Henry Nicholls against Bangladesh. Then we picked Rachin against South Africa and Australia, and once again he was our best batter but finds himself outside the playing XI. Over the last 3 years I have watched Rachin from close quarters. He has worked hard on his power game to meet the demands of T20 cricket. Number crunchers will use his ordinary T20 stats as the excuse, but you can’t deny the fact that he’s a big match/big occasion player who steps up against quality opposition. Who should be dropped then? Either Bracewell or Conway. Phillips and Finn Allen can share the wicket keeping duties.

An 84-run defeat means that our net run rate has taken a pounding. If two teams end up on the same number of points the playing conditions for this tournament first look at the number of wins and then net run rate. Can New Zealand still make it to the super 8’s from here? The answer is yes they can, but for that they will need to win all their remaining matches and hope that Afghanistan beats West Indies. Control what’s within your control first and then keep your fingers crossed.

Follow Rahul on Twitter