Cricket: Kiwis win as expected but batting tentative

By Richard Boock

CHELMSFORD - There was a certain amount of relief in the eyes of the New Zealand cricketers yesterday after they began their World Cup campaign with a runaway six-wicket win over Bangladesh.

The side, who square off against Australia at Cardiff tomorrow night (NZ time), generally lived up to expectations by outplaying Bangladesh in all facets of the game, but still have a lot to improve on if they hope to add another two points to their tally at the Sophia Gardens.

Even so, there were almost audible exhales detected when the New Zealanders awoke on Monday to find the Essex weather cold but dry.

Their breathing (not to mention their countenance) was a lot more relaxed later in the day after they accounted for their opponents with 17 overs and six wickets in hand.

The weight of expectation, the fear of the losing to one of the tournament minnows, and the knowledge that a washout could cost them everything, had led to fairly stony-faced New Zealand team disembarking from the team bus at Chelmsford.

There, they found a pitch so suited to medium-pace and seam bowling that they opted to rest left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori and, as it happens, are considering doing the same thing in Wales, if conditions are similar.

The Kiwis took just 37.4 overs to bowl Bangladesh out for 116, with Geoff Allott, Chris Cairns and man-of-the-match Gavin Larsen each picking up three wickets, before lurching to the target in 33 overs, as Matt Horne and Roger Twose featured with the bat.

While their bowling was tidy and direct, the New Zealanders' batting looked a shade woolly, both in the way the batsmen tried to plan their innings, and in the execution of their shots themselves.

In some ways, the pitch should carry a substantial portion of blame for this because it was far from an ideal ODI surface, with very little pace or bounce, and quite a bit of seam; and was probably worth only 185 runs on a good day.

It contained so little pace that there were few opportunities to back-cut or run the ball down to third man, while driving off the front foot was always a risky business, as was any attempt to close the face.

Nathan Astle went for the doctor straight away and holed out to mid-off, Craig McMillan played a stiff-wristed poke at spin bowler Naimur Rahman, and Stephen Fleming tried to cut a horrendously wide ball from the same bowler only to be caught at the wicket.

Perhaps the most worrying sight was the form of McMillan. The guy who scored so prolifically in the warm-up games found things a spot tougher yesterday, being constantly hurried for time, particularly by Bangladesh's opening pair, Hasibul Hossain and Monjural Islam, and preferred a stand-and-deliver approach to one containing a necessary degree of footwork.

Only Horne showed enough patience in the conditions, although Fleming may well have had his opening batsman in mind when he said afterwards that the chase was far too tentative for his liking.

The New Zealand captain said the main reason for making Vettori 12th-man was the pitch.

"We expected on that track that our seamers would do the damage, and that Daniel would be solely used in a containment role. And since Gavin Larsen is one of the best in the world at containment, Daniel was the one who had to miss out."

He said the atmosphere at the County Ground, which was brimful with 4000 supporters, most of them Bangladeshi, made it feel as if the game was being played at Dhaka, particularly when hordes of them invaded the ground after Cairns stroked the winning runs.

"It was fantastic, really. Like an away game. It picked us all up and there was a bit of a response in the way we bowled and fielded, I think."