Twenty 20 Is it the real deal?
AUCKLAND: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson says bowling may prove the difference in tonight’s twenty20 triseries final against Australia.
An Eden Park pitch, which can only be described as a batsman’s paradise, and the Auckland ground’s short straight boundaries made for a recordbreaking game the last time the teams played.
Batting first, the Black Caps scored 243 for six on Friday, only for the Australians to hit their 244 target with ease.
Capitalising on Eden Park’s straight boundaries — well short of the regulation 59.43m — the two sides hit a combined 32 sixes.
New Zealander opener Martin Guptill alone hit nine sixes
And with conditions set to be nearidentical in tonight’s final, Williamson believed another runfest is on the cards.
‘‘If we look back at that last game, the difference of half an over — or each ball — can be the deciding moment in a game,’’ Williamson said.
‘‘If a bowler does achieve something like that, has an over or two where the game can swing, then I suppose that, if you step back, it’s the difference between [bowling] 18 or 19 overs versus an opposition with 20.
‘‘It’s a tough art, as we’ve seen.’’
Having struggled to make inroads with his pace attack in the loss to Australia and Sunday’s defeat to England in Hamilton, Williamson hopes to see the Eden Park wicket turn a little more.
That would help his side’s spin bowlers — Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi and Williamson him self — influence the match.
Williamson will also look to mix up his team’s strategy in the field.
‘‘You have positions where you go, ‘well, it’s going to beat them on the boundary anyway, you might as well use that man somewhere else’,’’ he said.
‘‘The third man, at times it went down there but you had to just suck it up a little bit, knowing the fact that, even if he was back, the leading edge or top edge would probably still have gone for a six.’’
Williamson said the Black Caps were yet to settle on their XI and would do so as close as possible to the start of the match.
It is unlikely to change drastically from the side which lost by two runs to England. Openers Guptill and Colin Munro are in solid form and Santner, Sodhi, Trent Boult and Tim Southee should shoulder the bowling duties. — NZN