Zimbabwe was the entree, and a pretty unasppetising one at that. But the real international cricket season starts this evening in Wellington when New Zealand goes head to head with South Africa.
We've been looking forward to this series for some time. The Proteas are on the up-and-up, and with a convincing test series performance could become the #1 ranked test team. New Zealand will, of course be keen not to let that happen.
But first there's a couple of weeks of men in coloured clothing to enjoy. The first of three T-20 matches takes place tonight at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, and it should be a competitive series. A number of South Africa's better players (Smith, Kallis and Steyn, to name just three) are missing from the T-20 squad, but they still have a very strong squad with the likes of AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Johan Botha and the Morkel brothers, Morne and Albie. This will be a significant step up for the Black Caps.
But winning is a habit, and it was great to see New Zealand chase down a score of 200 in Hamilton on Tuesday night to clean-sweep Zimbabwe. Had they lost that match, much of their recent momentum would have been lost. They will take confidence into tonight's clash, and a victory over the Saffers would be a great way to start this phase of the summer.
A tour by South Africa is always worth watching. We're hoping to get down to the ODI in Wellington next Saturday, and we have already started to form a plan to enable us to take in the first couple of days of the Wellington test match later in March. All that is needed now is for the weather to cooperate, and there should be a feast of international quality cricket in the next six weeks.
And although we're often critical of New Zealand Cricket, we commend them on putting the White Ferns on display in curtainraiser matches to the T-20's. The New Zealand women will take on England in a five-match T-20 series starting this afternoon in Wellington, and the first three matches will be played immediately prior to the matches today, in Hamilton on Sunday and in Auckland next Wednesday. All NZC needs do now is lock John Wright into a contract to coach the Black Caps through to the 2015 World Cup, and David White's reign as CEO will be off to a great start.
Right; bring on the cricket!
4 comments:
Don't worry about the 20/20 games Inv - ther are irrelevant and who cares.
It is only when we get into the real cricket that we will know.
I disagree pdm; T-20 has become a legitimate form of the game, and indeed there is a world championship to be contested later in the year. We traditionalists may not like it, but we need to embrace it, because it isn't going away.
Sorry Inv you will never convince me.
I learned an interesting thing about the rankings of the two sides from the game. NZ are actually ranked ahead of SA in T20, with NZ at 2nd and SA at 4th. NZ is only 11 points or so behind 1st placed England, so if they win this series they will have a chance to ain for the top ranking in the T20 world cup later in the year.
pdm, look at Kane Williamson's clever batting in the final T20 match against Zimbabwe and see if you can still say it is not a legitimate form of the game and keep a straight face. He had to work real hard to do that. 20 off 5 balls is never easy no matter who you play and it takes skill to achieve it.
Besides, people used to criticise ODIs for the same reason as T20s when they were first introduced, but ODIs proved their worth and now T20s are in the stage of doing the same.
And the most important thing is that the Black Caps started the tour off with a win, which you need to do against a great side like the Proteas.
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