Colin de Grandhomme of New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Colin de Grandhomme of New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Martin Guptill's matchwinning throw created such euphoria in a barely believing New Zealand that it obscured the fact that the win over India was such a classic team effort.
In the same breath, the way to beat England – and claim the Cricket World Cup for the first time –is a couple of adjustments to that team.
Contradictory? Maybe so, but hear me out.
The team ethic so carefully tended by Kane Williamson and coach Gary Stead won out big time against India. It wasn't just Guptill's arrow to the stumps nor the ultimately insurmountable accrual of runs by Williamson and Ross Taylor. It was in Tom Latham's wicketkeeping. Criticised more than once in this campaign for being a bit sloppy behind the stumps, he took all the chances that came his way in efficient style.
It was there in the perfect line and length (and that beguiling, subtle outswing) struck by Matt Henry, partnered by Trent Boult's trapping of Virat Kohil as the main man shuffled in front of his stumps. You saw it in Jimmy Neesham's instinctive dive for his remarkable catch. Mitchell Santner produced his best bowling for the Black Caps yet – choking India even as the TV commentators (the non-Kiwis) twaddled on about how he didn't actually spin the ball.
Neither did Daniel Vettori, much, but he claimed 667 international wickets (362 of them in test matches. Clearly great, biting spin isn't everything if you have flight, variations in speed and length, control and guile.
Lockie Ferguson's value was in those early-middle overs. His extra pace forced the Indian batsmen, trying to mount a rearguard, into hurried defensive shots which made even a single impossible and building, always building, pressure.
Colin de Grandhomme deserves huge praise for knowing Guptill's throw was hitting the stumps. The temptation is for the player guarding the wickets to catch the ball and knock the bails off. If de Grandhomme had done that – and he nearly did – MS Dhoni would have made it home and this column would likely be a lament; Dhoni is the most dangerous of finishers, able to take a game away from anybody.
Sadly de Grandhomme is one of the adjustments that should be made to the Black Caps team, in my view. So is Latham – but promoted to opener, changing places with Henry Nicholls.
The conventional wisdom from the team is that it is too much to ask him to keep wickets plus open the batting. Not for one game it isn't, especially if that one game is a World Cup final against an England team with real firepower. With all due respect to the Black Caps, they will need something extra to unseat them; having wobbly old openers is not a winning strategy.
In his 87 ODI innings, Latham has played 37 as an opener, scoring three hundreds and eight 50s for an average of 38), much better than his stats at No. 5. If Williamson can win the toss – and bat first – the burden of keeping wickets and then batting is removed.
Tom Latham. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Latham could be a further psychological boost for an out-of-form Guptill. He can come right at the drop of a hat – and an opening partner who can look after himself could help that hat drop.
Legspinner Ish Sodhi should replace de Grandhomme. Yes, it weakens the batting which has not been a runaway success for the Black Caps so far.
But this is the World Cup final; England's dashers have to be given something to think about other than fast-medium deliveries which often crack sweetly off the face of their giant slabs of wood.
Ish Sodhi. Photo / Andrew Warner.
de Grandhomme has had a relatively quiet World Cup. He's had a couple of 60s (against South Africa and Pakistan); his bowling has been functional but not much used. In nine matches, he's bowled only 41 overs for 5 wickets at an average of 37.4 runs. He's not been collared by anyone – and was miserly enough with the ball against Australia (at Lord's) and South Africa.
But in the World Cup loss to England, Williamson took him off after one over costing 11 runs. In the last six ODI matches against England, de Grandhomme has a top score of 38 (and a total of 72 runs at an average of 12); his bowling totals 23 overs, one wicket and 122 runs. It's fair to say the English will not view him as a major threat.
Sodhi may not have de Grandhomme's occasionally incendiary batting but, in his four ODI matches against England last year, he took 10 wickets off his 37.4 overs at an average of 25.2.
Among them were skipper Eoin Morgan (twice), Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (twice), Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali (twice) – not a bad list of scalps. Bairstow gained revenge in the final ODI when he savaged Sodhi for five sixes in eight balls (and seven sixes in all) in a blistering 50-ball hundred.
In his only outing at this World Cup, Sodhi bowled six overs for 35 runs and no wickets against Australia – hardly compelling form. But, having bowled once at Lord's already, his nerves should be a little more settled and that team ethic will apply – albeit a slightly changed team designed literally to put England off their stroke.
