McCullum has pithy advice for his team: Be true to yourselves
Brendon McCullum pondered the question a moment, then gave an answer which sums up the way he and his New Zealand team have approached this World Cup.
He was asked for the final words he’ll tell his team just before facing South Africa at Eden Park in the World Cup semifinal today.
“We talk a lot about this being the greatest time of our lives,” McCullum said of the past six weeks. “The trip we’ve been on so far is one we’ll always remember. The game is meant to be fun, go out there, express yourself, enjoy the occasion, put your best foot forward and we’ll see where the cards fall after that.”
And there it is, in a nutshell. It’s more complicated than that, of course. The amount of detailed planning that has gone into New Zealand’s campaign exceeds any previous operation.
But McCullum boiled it down succinctly. One of these teams will tonight have advanced to their first World Cup final; the other will be left to poke through the ashes.
Which one will be which? It’s too close to call.
New Zealand are seven-from-seven and, setting aside the odd little wobble, rolling along pretty comfortably. South Africa have overcome group defeats to India and Pakistan and look sharp.
Martin Guptill added the wow factor with his unbeaten double century in the quarter-final against the West Indies; other batsmen are playing their parts.
Trent Boult needs two wickets to overtake Geoff Allott’s 1999 record of 20 in a campaign. Add in Tim Southee’s skills and Dan Vettori’s ability to stifle the opposition run rates and New Zealand have not needed much else from their bowling group.
They will expect more will be needed today, should South Africa’s batting muscle find its bearings on the oddly shaped arena.
Food for thought for the skippers: teams batting first have won 27, and lost 39, of 66 ODIs on Eden Park to produce a victory. And don’t get fooled that the ground, with a 45m boundary at one end, will automatically translate to a runfest.
Australia and New Zealand managed 303 between them, and 19 wickets, in a fabulous, frenzied group game last month. Assume 300-plus is a shoo-in at your peril, partly because the respective bowling attacks, and fielding groups, are among the best in the business and partly because the numbers don’t bear it out.
South Africa’s only dilemma appears to be Vernon Philander or Kyle Abbott as the third seamer. Abbott is good; Philander is top class, and a better batsman.
AB de Villiers sidestepped whether this was the biggest game of his life. Quite reasonably, he pointed out there’s been a few.
But in terms of directly relating to finally winning the Cup, a subject which does draw an emotional response, it has to be up there.
He insisted there’s no revenge in his mind for the events at Dhaka four years ago when New Zealand won a fractious quarter-final.
“The most important day is tomorrow,” he said.
Both skippers veered away from any repeats of the Dhaka argybargy today and McCullum called the overused choker term used to describe South Africa’s Cup record as “quite inappropriate”.
“We had a bit of a stoush but both have grown up immensely in that time. Verbals is not how we want to play the game. We’re not good enough to have that as our focus.”
Both teams will be determined to win the key battles — the South African quicks against New Zealand’s top order, and vice versa; how the batting groups will tackle Imran Tahir and Vettori. Both have 15 cheap wickets with distinctly different, but equally effective methods.
“The team that handles the crunch situations the best will come out on top,” McCullum said.
De Villiers, however, is adamant he knows the outcome, provided his players are on their game.
“I believe if we play to our full potential no one is going to stop us in this tournament.”
McCullum just wants his team to be true to themselves and the ways which have got them, thrillingly, this far.
“We have been playing a pretty exciting brand of cricket. Just because it’s a pressure game shouldn’t change that. It’s our greatest chance of success. For us to win crunch games we need to remain true to that.”
Bottom line, for both teams today is about one thing: Carpe diem. Seize the day.