Cool Chapman ready for cauldron
He’s played a World Twenty20, nearly caused a riot in Chittagong and just made a winning Black Caps debut at Westpac Stadium but Mark Chapman is yet to grace his own ‘home’ cricket ground. Not as a player, anyway. For the Hong Kong-born, Auckland-schooled batsman, Friday night’s big tri-series T20 match against Australia will be the first time the 23-year-old marks his guard on Eden Park’s bouncy drop-in pitch. Australians David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and company have played there more than Chapman.
‘‘It’s my home ground but I’ve never played there, so it’ll be an interesting experience. We play on the No 2 [for Auckland Aces] and I’ve only ever watched games on the main ground.’’
New Zealand Cricket expects a big crowd for the trans-Tasman match and Chapman expects extra nerves playing in front of his parents, sister, aunt, uncle and thousands of others. But it’s not his first entry into a cricketing cauldron, putting aside his lively debut against England before a sparse Wellington crowd of 12,300 on Tuesday.
Just four years ago, Chapman and his Hong Kong team-mates were close to requiring helicopter evacuation from a heaving Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
In 2014 at the World T20 in Bangladesh, Chapman’s team toppled the host nation by two wickets, reaching their target of
109 with two deliveries to spare. A jam-packed home crowd wasn’t happy. But it could have been worse.
‘‘The biggest for me was playing Bangladesh, in Bangladesh, and managing to beat them in front of about 30,000 at Chittagong,’’ Chapman said.
‘‘We almost knocked them out. If we’d got the runs in about 13 overs their net run rate would have meant they were knocked out of their own tournament. Luckily we didn’t. Apparently there were going to be riots and we would have been helicoptered out of the ground.’’
After being presented with his first black cap, along with wicketkeeper Tim Seifert, Chapman looked the part against England in his 20th T20 international.
The left-hander, listed to bat No
4 after a prolific domestic season, was pushed down a spot by Colin de Grandhomme’s elevation. But his Aces team-mate holed out first ball to a brilliant Chris Jordan boundary catch, and Chapman joined his skipper Kane Williamson with six overs left.
‘‘I just wanted to get through the first ball and see what it was like. I saw the England fielders creeping in to stop the single and managed to get one away second ball so I was pretty happy when I got off the mark.
‘‘It was an amazing platform, we couldn’t have asked for a better start. It was just a matter of giving Kane the strike.’’
Williamson was in full flight, and next over blasted Mark Wood for successive sixes on the way to
72 off 46 balls. Chapman, with a T20 Super Smash strike rate of 172 this summer, got in on the act, too, by lofting David Willey and Wood into the crowd in a cameo innings of 20 off 13 as New Zealand made
196-5.
‘‘It was an amazing buzz sitting back and reflecting on what had happened,’’ Chapman said after they closed out a 12-run victory.
Now it’s Australia who fly to Auckland after three straight wins, a spot in next Wednesday’s final at Eden Park guaranteed and the Black Caps their likely opponents.
‘‘The pitch will be pretty good, reasonably flat and quite bouncy,’’ Chapman said.
‘‘I can imagine a few will be going through at shoulder height. I’ll be preparing for that and looking forward to the challenge that someone like Billy Stanlake brings.’’
Every cricketer needs a dose of luck. Even New Zealand’s best batsman.
So when Kane Williamson pushed one awkwardly to the right of England bowler Mark Wood first ball and took off, all he could do was close his eyes and hope, early in Tuesday night’s tri-series Twenty20 international in Wellington.
Wood took aim at all three stumps and missed, with Williamson well short. He completed the run, his first of a powerful 72 off 46 balls which earned him man of the match in New Zealand’s 12-run win. Williamson even added a brilliant run out of his own, when he got airborne and hit the stumps with James Vince short of his ground.
‘‘It just happens, doesn’t it? I thought it was going to roll a bit further and then it didn’t and I was like, oh no. That was nice, sometimes you get a bit of luck which is good in cricket,’’ Williamson said.
Not that Williamson wanted to leave his fate in someone else’s hands as his Black Caps arrived on a three-match losing streak, in which he’d posted single figure scores in all three. He’d also struggled with a back niggle in the leadup.
‘‘You try not to rely on luck. You train hard and practice your plans and you want to go out and perform every day. As we know that doesn’t happen, especially in T20 cricket where you’re expected to play that high risk game and you throw in some challenging surfaces as well at times. That’s all a factor. It’s about trying to keep a mindset to play for the team as best you can.’’
It was a bizarre day that ended in a cracking finish, as New Zealand’s 196-5 was enough to quell England who crashed to a threematch losing streak of their own.
Earlier Williamson and coach Mike Hesson gazed at the Westpac Stadium pitch with some trepidation with half of it bereft of grass and widespread concern about how it would play.
But the patchy surface and lack of grass - due to disease and Wellington’s scorching summer - was no problem and New Zealand equalled their own T20 international ground record of 196-5 against Pakistan two years ago.
‘‘It [pitch] didn’t look pretty but it played a lot better than that, which was a good thing. It’s one of those ones like Sydney which was a tough surface and it was tricky to know what a good score was,’’ Williamson said. ‘‘But it was a very good surface and you could see that after the first over or two.’’
Martin Guptill took to Adil Rashid’s legspin with the slog sweep and scored 65 off 40 balls and with a platform, debutants Mark Chapman (20 off 13) and Tim Seifert (13 not out off six) each cleared the rope twice in handy cameos fulfilling their job descriptions well.
‘‘They added a lot of energy which was great. Sometimes off a few losses that can add benefit and they came in with limited opportunity but the way they approached their innings and performed, they were outstanding to get us an above par total was brilliant to see.’’
England now need a miracle to make next Wednesday’s final, and even more than that if the Black Caps can back up and beat a redhot Australia at Auckland’s Eden Park on Friday.
After defeats in Hobart and Melbourne, England had a quick turnaround and their bowlers started
poorly as Williamson and Guptill got away.
Skipper Joe Buttler, standing in again for the injured Eoin Morgan (groin), rued that early missed chance against Williamson.
‘‘They’re such fine margins in a game of cricket and that’s always the way it goes. That bit of luck for Kane and he goes on to become man of the match. It’s be nice to have taken that chance but the game is defined by fine margins.’’
Alex Hales (47 off 24) and Dawid Malan (59 off 40) made it a tense race before the spin of Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner removed each.