Cricket: Now's the time to make our mark

By RICHARD BOOCK

John Bracewell can feel the weight of New Zealand's entire summer bearing down on his side as they approach tonight's Champions Trophy match against Australia.

The sudden-death aspect of the London engagement might seem edgy enough, but the New Zealand coach is also mindful of what's looming on the horizon, and particularly a swag of nine one-day internationals against Australia.

Apart from this evening's unofficial quarter-final at the Oval, New Zealand are scheduled to play three ODIs against Ricky Ponting's side in November, and another five when Australia come here at the end of the summer.

"This game is very important to us in its own right, but it's also the start of a lot of cricket against Australia this season - and we don't want to begin on the wrong foot," Bracewell said in London yesterday.

"Win or lose, it's vital that we leave a good performance on the park, that we make a strong impression on the opposition, and that we learn as much about them as possible."

New Zealand have shown strong ODI form since Bracewell took over as coach at the start of last summer, winning 14 of their 16 completed games, including the NatWest Trophy in England. On the other side of the coin, they have also fashioned a sobering losing streak against Australia, succumbing in their past six encounters, dating back to the 2002 VB Series thriller in Melbourne, when Michael Bevan brought Australia back from the dead with an unbeaten century.

That recurring nightmare, at least, can now be discarded by the New Zealanders, as Bevan has almost vanished from the cricketing landscape after being dropped by Australia, ousted by Kent, and having transferred from New South Wales to Tasmania.

But Australia have new and emerging threats, many would say more potent than Bevan, and are bristling with firepower in their middle-to-lower order - the area that invariably plays a key hand when setting or chasing meaningful totals.

Apart from the well-documented quality of the top-order, Australia can call on utility players such as Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke and Shane Watson, all of whom can play a role with bat or ball and have already tasted success against New Zealand.

Australia, having almost vaporised the United States in their pool match, lead New Zealand on run-rate, a factor that may become all-important should weather not only wash out proceedings tonight, but also during tomorrow's scheduled reserve day.

For all that, Bracewell was pleased his side decided to bat first against the US and learn as much as they could about the Oval surface - from a batting and bowling perspective - in the lead-up to such an important game.

He described the pitch as fresh and bowler-friendly at the start of the day, but slower and lower in the late afternoon; an unusual combination that would probably force the captain winning the toss to gamble on the first-strike philosophy.

To add weight to the theory, the covers being used at the Oval are apparently flat (as they are at the Basin Reserve) rather than the roof-like structures that allow air to circulate, and reduce the amount of sweating on the surface.

"You almost have to take the bowling-first option if the conditions are like that, because three quick wickets can give one side an enormous early advantage, so much so it almost ends the match as a contest."

His diagnosis probably means good news for Chris Harris, whose gravity-defying slow mediums are expected to prove effective on the Oval pitch, and a difficult decision over whether to include either Daryl Tuffey or Kyle Mills.

Teams

New Zealand (from): Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Hamish Marshall, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Chris Harris, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills, Daryl Tuffey, Ian Butler, Michael Papps.

Australia (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke, Ian Harvey, Shane Watson, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Brad Hogg.