Friday's game proved the Black Caps are not a team who seek or enjoy comfort. Photo / Christine Cornege
Friday's game proved the Black Caps are not a team who seek or enjoy comfort. Photo / Christine Cornege
Opinion by
Perfect is what I'd call Friday night's final group match.
There would have been little gained from a cruisy win. But it was perfect for the Black Caps to be pushed by Bangladesh, when they were made to grovel just a little and a got a bit of a tickleup.
A failure for Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson was ideal. There is no point in doing a Kumar Sangakkara and using all your runs up early. A miss is not the start of poor form. It's the reality of cricket.
I feel so much more confident now that the pair have had a recent miss and I look to them to play large parts in the next few games.
There was a school of thought a couple of years ago that this current team were good bully boys. They could dish out a heck of hiding to the weaklings but succumbed meekly to the bigger boys. I don't think this is the case any longer.
The modus operandi is no longer to prove to us they are skilled by belting second-rate cricketers, but rather to look the big boys in the eye and prove to us they are up for the fight - to prove they are now one of the heavyweights.
Friday's game also proved the Black Caps are not a team who seek or enjoy comfort. There's no doubt an edge was missing against Bangladesh, given the situation they were in at the top of Pool A but, when things got testy, the Black Caps' depth shone out.
Martin Guptill celebrates after scoring a century. Photo / Christine Cornege
The Bangers aren't lightweights anymore and are capable of beating top sides but, given the form our boys are in right now, they should not have been allowed to topple us - and they weren't.
It was a great time for opener Martin Guptill to bank a big score. He says he's not out of form, and I believe him because he's actually been hitting the ball pretty well, but there is still no substitute for runs in the bank for a batsman.
The real currency of cricket is runs and wickets - not how you're looking and feeling. And nothing makes you look and feel better than runs in the bank.
I was surprised when Ross Taylor got out because I really thought he would bring the game home but his was still a telling hand and more valuable time in the middle under pressure. It also meant the lower order had to bring it home and they did so as a group.
There will come a time in the knockouts when the tail must stand up so this was a great result.
From a bowling perspective, there's no shame in Bangladesh getting a decent score because they are very capable and more experienced players now and it was good that Mitch McClenaghan got a run.
This might sound all very glass-half-full but us beaten-up, old media hacks can finally think this way because of what they have shown over the past year.
All things being equal - which is seldom the case with Pakistan - but if they beat Ireland today then the Black Caps will face the West Indies in the quarter-finals. If this is the case, then bowling becomes critical and the Boult-Southee combination against Chris Gayle is the wining and the losing of the game. Let's hope the ball swings in Wellington.
• Mark Richardson is on Radio Sport, Monday-Friday, 6am-9am.
