Chance for NZ to have the last laugh

A peculiar experience lies in store for New Zealand when they play their final Chappell-Hadlee Trophy ODI at the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground tomorrow night.

Had they got to 1-1 with all the marbles to play for, there could have been 40,000 or more to watch the decider. Now, think half that, at best.

New Zealand arrived for the series with high hopes of retaining the trophy. They were poor in two of the three disciplines in Sydney and got burned, if not quite as badly as a quick glance at the scores might suggest.

Australia then inflicted capital punishment in Canberra — boom, boom — taking advantage of a major blue at the toss by New Zealand and smearing the bowling attack about Manuka Oval to the tune of 378 for five. Only Afghanistan have conceded more against Australia in this country in an ODI. That’s how bad it was.

New Zealand’s bowling fell apart in the final 15 overs, leaking 176 runs. When Trent Boult dismissed Matt Wade in the 49th over, he immediately spun on his heels and marched back to the end of his runup. No brief gathering for a pat on the back or high five. They just wanted the carnage to end.

They are a decent ODI side, ranked third in the world, but playing ordinary cricket against a top-ranked side. There’s no excuse for the amount of pies served up in Canberra.

David Warner and Steve Smith are champion batsmen, with more ODI runs this year —1232 and 1154 respectively — than any other player. But New Zealand stands guilty of not having made it harder for the pair to take charge. The bowlers are better than this, so too the fielders, who have been collectively ordinary.

They have one last chance to show it, even if it’s far too late to matter.

There’s one sound worse for a visiting player than hearing your fielding mistakes being cheered and that’s having them laughed at. It happened a few times in Canberra.