Chris Rattue

Chris Rattue

New Zealand cricket must be thankful for small mercies and one arrived in the nation's capital, albeit carrying the charm associated with parliamentary debates.

The Black Caps and England were given a pudding of a pitch to play on, and it was England who made a meal of it batting first.

They set a target even the Black Caps couldn't botch. Daniel Vettori's young pea shooters delivered.

You can only imagine what defeat would have meant given the mood of cricket in this land. Victory has offered a little ray of light in a long tunnel although it hasn't shed much on the true, and dubious, ability of these Black Caps.

It is tempting to take the gloss off Saturday night's win by pointing to a pitch that was to cricket entertainment what William Shatner was to opera singing. It's also the sort of track that Kiwi trundlers of the Gavin Larsen ilk prosper on.

All power to Vettori and his men, and congratulations. But this lifeless drop in was a most unwelcome visitor and if the Cake Tin can't get its recipe right, New Zealand Cricket should pull up the one day stumps in the capital and find places that encourage rip-roaring action under lights.

The result though was a godsend for Vettori, whose position at the head of our knee-buckling heroes is enhanced because he missed the Twenty20 debacles.

A reversal of these fortunes - stirring Twenty20 wins followed by a one day collapse - would have put a large and slippery rug under Vettori. A nervous electorate might already have wondered if the cocky, blazing bat of Brendon McCullum might soon be a better conductor for this orchestra.

Whether real or imagined, Vettori's presence has appeared to galvanise the troops and this triumph on home turf could put impetus into the era of his captaincy.

Coaches may swarm over the players' area these days. But cricket is still a game that should be rooted in the power of the captain. More than any sport, cricket eras are defined by skippers because they have so much influence on the field.

The difficult task for Vettori now is to increase the demands on his inexperienced players while giving them a confidence to play at this level, even though most have barely enough in their backgrounds to promote much belief in them as first class cricketers.

It was a very significant win on Saturday night. The Black Caps had one glorious moment in South Africa under Vettori. But it was achieved in virtual obscurity and enthusing the home audience is far more important for a budding captain.