KEY POINTS:
The Chappell-Hadlee series will be decided by the team that bowls better at the death.
In fact, the next period of one-day international dominance could be determined by which team masters this difficult art,
New Zealand captain Daniel
Vettori said, ahead of the five-match series beginning next week,
that death bowling was the one area of the game where there was massive room for improvement.
"There's an opportunity for every team in the world to get the death bowling right. I haven't seen anyone do it consistently enough," Vettori said.
"The first team that manages to do that could set themselves apart and the rest will be playing catch-up."
Bowling when the slog is on has become a 'shifting sands' art form as batting trends change as well.
Where once mixing the pace up was the big trend, batsmen now tend to wait on the slower one and are more often depositing it somewhere near Row F.
Full and outside off also had its day in the sun but that relies on the full quota of outfielders, not available in a power play and, with batsmen more comfortable in moving around the crease, there is no margin for error.
The importance of the final overs has been exacerbated further by the new power play rules that have seen many batting sides wait until the final overs to utilise their option.
Noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck perhaps summed up the bowling teams' preparedness for this innovation best when he wrote: "These power plays make fielding teams flap around as much as a chapter of the Country Women's Association that has just received an application for membership from Germaine Greer."
It is something Vettori has clearly thought a lot about but at this stage he talks about most bowling options in terms of "potential".
"We've done it alright at times but there is definitely room for improvement there. Kyle Mills is a pretty good exponent of it, Tim Southee looks as if he has potential there and Mark
Gillespie [who has not made the team for the C-H Trophy] looks as if he has a bit of potential there as well.
"If we can improve that seam bowling department, to give more back-up to Mills, we'll be a much better side."
The seam bowling is an area of concern, as noted by Mark Richardson in last week's column on these pages.
"Between Mills, Vettori and Jacob Oram, when fit, New Zealand have the ability to restrict in the first half of an innings," he wrote. "However, they are still searching for a genuine ODI third seamer or trying to find a way of playing Jeetan Patel in the mix with the 20 overs of fielding restrictions.
"It means that you need at least 15 overs of 'death-style' bowling... Somehow New Zealand have to find consistent death bowling out of the likes of Grant Elliott, Jesse Ryder, Patel, Gillespie and Southee. None of them have shown consistent effectiveness in this role just yet."
