da realsbet： Stephen Fleming’s New Zealanders are next on the agenda forWest Indies, in a match that has suddenly assumed pivotal importance.
The Preview by Andrew Miller in Antigua28-Mar-2007
With his searing pace Shane Bond will be New Zealand’s trump card © Getty Images
There’s no time for West Indies to lick their wounds and mull over amatch in which they have been comprehensively outplayed by Australia,the runaway favourites for the World Cup. In less than 24 hours theywill have to go through it all again – but this time against a sidewhose last encounter with the Aussies resulted in a memorable 3-0victory. Stephen Fleming’s New Zealanders are next on the agenda forWest Indies, in a match that has suddenly assumed pivotal importance.A second defeat in two days for West Indies will not condemn them toan early exit. Not yet at any rate. But victory for the Kiwis will inall probability send them hurtling towards one of the three remainingsemi-final slots, now that Australia have all but inked in theirattendance. Having already seen off England in their Group Cencounter, and with Bangladesh and Ireland still to come, the chanceto kick a fellow senior Test nation while they are down will dowonders for their prospects. (New Zealand did, of course, slip upagainst Bangladesh in the warm-ups, but they’ll not be taking theirnext meeting so lightly).”Of course it’s a disadvantage in playing one-day cricket on aTuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” said West Indies captain, BrianLara, in the aftermath of Australia’s 103-run victory. “That’s reallytough. The only saving grace is that our bowlers didn’t have to doanything today, only run around a bit with a bat in their hands. Itwas a possibility we knew about, with two games in three days and arain-day in between, but that’s not going to be an excuse tomorrow. Wehave our focus and the guys are looking forward to the game.”New Zealand is a very good one-day outfit,” added Lara. “We’re notgoing to take them any lighter than Australia. They are coming off theback of not just the first round but their performances againstAustralia in New Zealand, so they are very high in confidence and weknow it’s going to be a tough job tomorrow. But we’re confident we canget our act together.”New Zealand get landed with the “dark horses” label so often it hasgone beyond parody. But the fact remains that they have gone abouttheir business with a stealthful professionalism ever since theirearly exit from the CB Series. They have won six matches in a rowsince February, in spite of an injury crisis that would have derailedlesser sides.Craig McMillan has been struggling with a toe injury, Ross Taylor’shamstring strain is going to rule him out of tomorrow’s match, MarkGillespie’s shoulder is recovering from a peculiar case of paralysis,while Daryl Tuffey’s shoulder has failed to recover and instead hascaused him to be sent home.And then, upon arrival in Antigua, came quite ought to have been thefinal straw – when Shane Bond broke the wrist of his own openingbatsman, Lou Vincent, who has since been replaced in the squad byHamish Marshall. “Vincent will be a major factor,” said Lara. “He wasoutstanding in the field in the first round, and when they bat he batsin the way that gives themselves an opportunity.”However Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, managed to remainindifferent to his side’s plague of setbacks. “It’s been a dramaticweek with Lou going and ‘Rossco’ working hard on getting back,” headmitted. “It has changed the balance of the side. But the core isstill there and the bonus has been we’ve had six days to adjust – ithasn’t been thrown on us the day before a game so we’ve been able toprepare mentally for it.”In Vincent’s absence, the opening berth passes to Peter Fulton, who ishardly a man in the Matthew Hayden mould, but who nevertheless thumped76 not out from just 65 balls in the victory over Australia atAuckland last month. “Pete’s form is outstanding,” said Fleming. “Toleave him out of the first couple of games was incredibly difficult.The positive for himnow is he gets a chance, and a consistent chance to bat in one spotfor a while.”
The West Indies captain isn’t enthused playing three days in a row though he has said that wouldn’t be an excuse to perform below par against the tough New Zealanders © Getty Images
There is, however, one key reason why New Zealand have no fear of thecoming encounter – and to spot that you need to look no further thanthe cause of Vincent’s injury. Bond’s searing spell of 2 for 19 wasinstrumental in the victory over England, and in the absence of BrettLee and Shoaib Akhtar, only Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga and Australia’sShaun Tait can match Bond for pure speed. Malinga’s astoundingperformance in Guyana notwithstanding, Bond is the man who has theWorld Cup experience to fall back on.West Indies may not be best pleased to face a third consecutive day ofcompetition, but they do at least now know what to expect of anAntigua wicket that Lara this afternoon claimed was a belter. That maybe overstating the case somewhat, but after the best part of a weekaway from competition, New Zealand will be the ones feeling their wayin the early stages at a new venue.”Now that we’ve played on it we realise how easy it is to bat on,”said Lara. “Maybe New Zealand, coming from St Lucia, will take sometime to grow accustomed to it. But we’ll just put our feet up for thenext 18 hours or so to ensure we get the necessary rest. One game orone disappointment is not going to change anything. I’ve still gotconfidence in the job that’s required.”West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul,3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Brian Lara (capt), 6 DwayneBravo, 7 Dwayne Smith, 8 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 9 Daren Powell, 10 CoreyCollymore, 11 Jerome Taylor.New Zealand (probable) 1 Peter Fulton, 2 Stephen Fleming(capt), 3 Hamish Marshall, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Craig McMillan, 6 JacobOram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 James Franklin, 10Michael Mason, 11 Shane Bond.