Martin Guptill has failed thus far with the bat, yet his fielding and that run-out throw of MS Dhoni were worth thirty runs. –Christchurch based cricket authority, Paul Mulvaney

By Roger Childs

The Cricket World Cup has been full of surprises. The Blacks Caps had three losses in a row in their final round-robin matches and just made it into the semi –finals.

New Zealand had been top of the table after six matches and then it all turned to custard. The Pakistanis beat the Black Caps in a close match, but then the Kiwis were thrashed first by the Aussies and then by the English. So the team limped into the last four with the prospect of being hammered by the Aussies, again. 

But as Richard Hadlee says: Cricket is a funny game. Our cross-Tasman rivals also faltered, losing to the under-performing, but highly talented South Africans in their final round-robin game. So instead of again facing the powerful Australian bowling attack led by Mitchell Starc, and a formidable in-form batting line-up, the Black Caps were up against the top of the table Indians at Old Trafford in Manchester. 

Rain stopped play but not the Black Caps

Electing to bat first on a pitch which favoured pace bowlers, Martin Guptill went early, but Henry Nicholls with 28, the ever dependable skipper Kane Williamson with 67 and Ross Taylor with 74, saw the Black Caps through to 239. Rain had interrupted the game on the scheduled day, so India was faced with chasing down 240 on the reserve day. A seemingly gettable total given that they had scored over 300 in a number of their earlier matches.

However, the great strength of the New Zealand team is the pace bowling attack of Trent Boult, Matt Henry and Lachie Ferguson. The much vaunted Indian batting line-up struggled and at one point were four down for 24 and later six for 92. But it’s never over until the last run is scored or the tenth wicket taken. Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni led the recovery, enthusiastically supported by the largely Indian crowd.

The two put on put on over 100 runs to give India a real chance of making the final. At 208/6 they only required 32 more runs. But on that score Jadeja was out for a hard hitting 77, and then the turning point came with the score on 216. Dhoni was run-out going for a second run by a throw from Guptill which hit the stumps on the full. The Black Caps quickly wrapped up the last two wickets and got home by 18 runs.

Australia crumbles

Before the tournament most of the pundits were predicting an India v. Australia final. But, electing to bat first in their semi-final against England, the Australians could only manage 223. Former captain, Steve Smith scored 85, but others, who had played so well in earlier matches, didn’t fire. The English batsmen lead by Jason Roy 85, Joe Root 49 not out and captain, Eoin Morgan, 45 not out hit off the runs in 32 overs. The Aussies leading pace bowler, Mitchell Starc, had the embarrassing figures of 1/70.

So the experts got it wrong and New Zealand will play the hosts at the famous Lords ground in London on Sunday. Most observers, led by the British media, would favour the home side, however, the underdogs could come through.

Live screening of the Cricket Final in on Sky Sport 2 from 9.00 pm on Sunday.