Cricket: Harry Houdini does another reappearing act

By RICHARD BOOCK in Bloemfontein

The wheel of fortune seems to have turned full circle for World Cup veteran Chris Harris.

The man they call Harry Houdini lived up to his escape-artist billing again this week when he virtually assured himself of a place in the team to play Zimbabwe at Goodyear Park tonight, not to mention against Australia at Port Elizabeth on Tuesday.

After a summer of discontent marked by his axing from the test and one-day international teams, Harris' career seemed to be in decline, especially after it was reported that he was the 15th squad member picked for the World Cup campaign.

The selectors had apparently been unhappy with his strike rate with the bat and believed his bowling would carry little value on the batting-friendly pitches in South Africa, and were therefore unconvinced of his worth.

However, far from being pacey and bouncy, the pitches are carrying all the signs of end-of-season fatigue, mostly playing low and slow, and providing more turn for the spin bowlers than anyone expected.

Harris, who cracked 38 off 29 balls against Canada at Benoni, said he never accepted that his bowling would not be suited to South African conditions, even though his past record over here had not been impressive.

"I always thought it was a bit of a fallacy that these wickets would be hard and bouncy," he said. "Durban and Cape Town can be a bit quicker, but the rest are very much like old-fashioned New Zealand pitches, that is, reasonably even at the start, but slowing up through the day.

"That's exactly what I'm used to playing on, so yeah - I think the wickets are suiting my style, really."

As for his batting, chairman of selectors Sir Richard Hadlee had said it was imperative Harris approached his work with more aggression if he wanted to play a part in the tournament, and was delighted with the turn of events against Canada.

"We saw something from Harry at Benoni that we've wanted to see for a long time, and that was him coming out and hitting the ball," Hadlee said.

"He looked to score straight away, he played extremely positively and he found the boundary, which made a big difference to his game and that of the team.

"Harry's record is outstanding, we know that. But we've moved in a slightly different direction now and have looked at other multi-skilled cricketers who can do different things.

"However, he still has a role to play over here and he proved that against Canada."

Harris conceded that the past season had been mentally trying as he responded to the selectors' challenges, at one stage being pushed in at No 3 against India in what was an experiment doomed to fail.

Now at his fourth cup tournament, his ability and experience near the end of the innings are starting to be recognised more clearly, especially as he has made an effort to lift his batting tempo and play more forcefully.

"It's been a fairly tough time for me lately," he said. "I've been in and out of the side, but I think I'm still pretty much suited to the role I played against Canada. It was an important outing for me because I got the chance to bowl some overs and spend some time in the middle batting.

"I've been trying to play more positively. I know I've a reputation for starting slowly so I've been trying to rectify that without taking too many more risks. It's all about being more positive early-on, maybe scoring 15 off the first 20 balls, rather than 10 or less."

Harris said the onus was on the New Zealanders to win at least two of their three Super Six matches if they wanted to claim a place in the semifinals.

The 33-year-old all-rounder has been involved in two semifinals in previous tournaments, but believes this year's side are better equipped to take the extra step if they manage to qualify for the top four.

"We were better positioned in 1999 in that we carried more points through to the Super Six and subsequently only had to win one match to make the semis," Harris recalled.

"But we've got the all-round ability this time and we've especially got the bowling attack to go all the way. Bondy [fast bowler Shane Bond] is overdue to knock someone over at any time now, and there's good back-up with Andre Adams and Jacob Oram.

"If we get off to a good start by beating Zimbabwe, we've got to rate our chances of knocking over Australia or India or both, so there's a lot left for us to play for."

Harris said his gut feeling was that the side would beat Zimbabwe and would be in a confident frame of mind as they prepared for the game against Australia at Port Elizabeth, where the pitch was looking extremely tired and was likely to suit his batting and bowling.

For all their favouritism, New Zealand are unlikely to suffer from any sense of complacency against Heath Streak's Zimbabweans, given they have lost the past two series against them, including the first ever series loss at home in 2000-01.

* Zimbabwe's star batsman Andy Flower admits that he feels "hollow" about reaching the Super Six stage without beating a test-playing nation.

"In a way, I'm quite happy that we have to play really well if we want to go to the semifinals," said Flower. "We want to feel that we deserve to be here.

"We can beat any test team; we do believe we can beat these sides.

"It is up to us as the underdogs to upset them, but beating New Zealand last time certainly gives us a bit of a psychological edge."

The 34-year-old conceded that the bowling attack lacked penetration.

Flower's own form has not been outstanding during the tournament, so he feels he owes his country a good innings.

His international career is set to end after the cup. He will retire with a test average of 51.54, his 4794 runs coming from 63 matches. But there is still time to improve on his first-class statistics of 54.75 runs for each visit to the crease.

Only four men at present playing test cricket - Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden of Australia and India's Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid - average more than Flower.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (capt), Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Andre Adams, Kyle Mills, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond, Mathew Sinclair, Lou Vincent.

Zimbabwe: Heath Streak (capt), Andy Flower, Mark Vermeulen, Craig Wishart, Grant Flower, Guy Whittall, Doug Marillier, Tatenda Taibu, Dion Ebrahim, Sean Ervine, Andy Blignaut, Travis Friend, Brian Murphy, Henry Olonga, Doug Hondo.

* TV: Live on Sky Sports, Channel 10, 9pm.

World Cup schedule

Points table