Cricket: New Zealand blunder-full, South Africans wonderful

By Richard Boock

It is not yet known if the New Zealand cricketer responsible for assessing the Eden Park pitch on Saturday night is a distant relation to Lord Cardigan, but as tactical blunders go, the Light Brigade got off fairly easily in comparison.

On the other hand, New Zealand were pulverised to such an extent in the fourth one-day international against South Africa that they ended up losing by almost the same amount of runs they managed to score.

Hot on the heels of the soul-destroying last ball-loss in Napier on Friday, New Zealand were powerless to stop the tourists racking up 290 for five in the first innings, and in reply scratched together just 147 in 36.1 overs to lose by 143 runs.

Before anything is said of the South African batting, it should be noted that the Kiwis - expecting a low, slow Eden Park pitch - played their much-acclaimed powder-puff bowling attack and decided to omit Wellington tearaway Carl Bulfin.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the pitch proved anything but paceless and the South Africans were able to paste the bowling to all corners of the ground, not to mention all corners of the grandstands.

Without Bulfin the Kiwis lacked the firepower to contain the tourists, with Jacques Kallis and Daryll Cullinan blasting all but the two opening bowlers during a whirlwind 116 ball fourth-wicket partnership of 145.

Although Geoff Allott, in particular, and Dion Nash survived the turkey-shoot, none of the slow bowlers were as fortunate, and at one stage the busiest fieldsman in the match was a certain gentleman seated 17 rows back in the West Stand.

Gavin Larsen and Nathan Astle went for seven an over, Chris Harris was more expansive than usual, and Daniel Vettori - after conceding three consecutive sixes and a total of 19 off his last over - ended up being flayed for 56 off nine.

Tactical blunders aside though, the South African batting was a joy to behold, with Kallis reaching his fifth ODI century (and his 2000th ODI run), and Cullinan delighting the crowd with a swashbuckling 94 off a mere 56 balls, his seven sixes the fifth-equal highest number ever struck in an ODI.

Cullinan, who recorded South Africa's highest ever test score (275) on the same ground a month ago, brought up his 50 off 32 balls and smashed 42 runs off 12 balls at one stage - including five sixes.

Faced with scoring about six an over to overhaul the target, New Zealand lost wickets regularly throughout their innings, with only Matt Horne, Bryan Young and Chris Harris able to make a genuine start.

A consolation for the sell-out crowd who attended Eden Park's first night cricket match was the quality of the fielding, with Roger Twose, Kallis and Jonty Rhodes reeling in some breathtaking catches, even though the ground-lighting was not exactly perfect.

"It was adequate," captain Stephen Fleming said afterwards. "On an international scale, the lights were perhaps not as good as some of the grounds we play on around the circuit, but they did their job and they're certainly an important addition to the ground."