The Grudge Match

By The Spotter

Let’s face it. The Proteas pretty much despise us.  They’ve made that quite plain in the media, haven’t they? That flare-up with the Caps at the 2011 World Cup still grates them a lot.  Dale the haircut would probably love nothing better than knocking the block off Super Mac (not the original, I know) or Super Fish (Guppy) on Eden Park.

Actually the match-ups are all so tantalising. How about Southee and Thunder Boult up against Amla and De Kock?  Could De Kock be a sucker for a short ball?   It’s hard to find many better technically correct and composed batsmen than Amla, but should he weather our opening attack, can Dan the Magnificent induce him into a rash shot?  So many permutations and so near to finding out…

And as huge a blow as the injury to Milne is, let’s be glass half-full and speculate that if De Villiers started hitting us to all parts, he might find someone like Milne very tasty indeed, with the ball coming so quickly onto the bat from a surface as hard and true as the Eden Park wicket.  And forget the aspect of Milne’s extra pace in such a situation- De Villiers’ eye and hand speed is so good he could probably deposit a 160kmph ball straight into Row F.

With the crying-off of Milne, will a chain of events now evolve whereby the new addition Matt Henry becomes the 2015 re-incarnation of Stephen Donald?  Even if another of our bowlers don’t fall injured and we are on the silver bird to Melbourne, watch this space…

The psychological bit is fascinating too.  Will those matches in the late-spring at Mt Maunganui count for much head space-wise? Even though we were trounced somewhat,  I think not.  It’s now do the business or go home and with around 40,000 screaming home fans yelling them on the Black Caps will look to keep riding the huge wave they have been on.  In any case, I tend to think that any psychological upper-hand rests on our side, as we rolled them when firm underdogs at the 2003 and 2011 World Cups.  So with that stat in mind, let’s all thumb our noses in unison at any perceived psychological advantage the Proteas may think they hold.