Cricket: NZ now in three-way race for a semi spot

By Richard Boock

at the World Cup

The New Zealand cricketers remain upbeat about their semifinal prospects despite the untimely arrival of the English summer yesterday morning.

The washout against Zimbabwe at Headingley has left New Zealand in a slightly more vulnerable position in terms of their top-four hopes, but still in with a strong chance as long as they beat either South Africa tomorrow night (NZ time) or India on Saturday.

In that sense, their task is no different from what it would have been had they won their match at Leeds. The only change is that they are now more susceptible to an upset result in other matches, and are effectively in a three-way race with Australia and Zimbabwe for the last two semifinal placings.

As long as the Kiwis pick up another win, the chances are high that they will end up level on points with Zimbabwe, but whether that will be in third or fourth-equal position depends heavily on the result of the last match of the Super Six.

The game on Sunday between South Africa and Australia at Headingley is looming as the most influential of the round, particularly if by that stage New Zealand have picked up a further two points.

In that event, a win to South Africa would probably leave Australia one point behind Zimbabwe and New Zealand in fifth-place, while an Australian win would more than likely lead to the side with the highest net run-rate (between the Kiwis and the Zimbabweans) qualifying in the fourth spot.

And apart from being denied a likely two points at Headingley yesterday, the New Zealanders were also unable to lift their net run-rate because a no-result is not permitted to be included in the calculations.

Characteristically, though, New Zealand coach Steve Rixon has reminded his side that they will not need to worry about the slide-rule theories if they simply continue to play winning cricket.

"There are all sorts of different permutations regarding the Super Six now," he said after arriving at the team hotel in Birmingham, where the Kiwis will prepare for tomorrow night's match against South Africa at Edgbaston.

"But to tell you the truth, we're not getting too wound up in them right now. If we can go out and win our next game we'll be in with a chance, and we already know that we can beat South Africa."

Rain fell throughout the day at Leeds yesterday, thwarting any chance groundstaff may have had of removing all the covers, and the match, already in its reserve day, was called off at 4.30pm (UK time).

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said afterwards that he fancied his side's chances of achieving the target if there had been a break in the weather and was frustrated to see such a strong position come to so little.

"We almost did enough to take maximum points, and with a shred of luck we would have," said Fleming of New Zealand's run-chase. "All we needed was an opportunity to get on the field, and it was disappointing not to get that chance.

"In the end, it might be that a point is as good as a win anyway, but there's no doubt that a washout was far more satisfactory to Zimbabwe than it was to us."