Ronchi toils away to cement his spot
Rain may ruin another match
Luke Ronchi lives in the now but as the new year dawns in idyllic Queenstown it is hard to escape how significant January is for his international cricketing future.
Maintain his high standards with the wicketkeeping gloves and bludgeon some quickfire, even match- winning runs for New Zealand in eight one- day internationals against West Indies and India, and the 2015 World Cup gig is essentially his. Not that Ronchi’s crystal ball extends anywhere near Christchurch’s Hagley Oval on February 14, 2015, and the tournament opener against Sri Lanka.
‘‘ I haven’t played enough international cricket [ 15 one- day games and five Twenty20s] to think if I look a year in advance, where I could be.
‘‘ I just make the most of every opportunity and hopefully perform when I need to perform and continue on from that.
‘‘ If I think too far ahead, it’s all going to go horrendously wrong,’’ he said, as the hosts packed up from a rain- drenched McLean Park in Napier and travelled to Queenstown 1- 0 down with three to play against West Indies.
Coach Mike Hesson’s declaration that captain Brendon McCullum would not don the gloves again, due to his back injury, handed Ronchi the job to lose. But it came with a qualifier from selector Bruce Edgar, that test gloveman BJ Watling was pushing hard for a return to one- day colours. Ronchi shades the hardworking Watling on glovework and has him covered on batting strike rate. It would require a significant slump from Ronchi and a Watling transformation from run- a- ball accumulator into boundary- clearer to change the selectors’ thinking.
Still, Ronchi needs runs in black, now ensconced in his preferred role at seven after those opening woes in England. He scored 49 and 23 in two one- day innings in Sri Lanka, then on his home debut in Auckland on Boxing Day he scored seven before picking out the boundary rider in a poor dismissal. Not that he was alone there.
It is Ronchi’s much- trumpeted strike rate – which reaped him a 22- ball one- day half- century for Australia against West Indies in 2008 – that could be the making or breaking of him.
‘‘ Domestically [ for Wellington] I’m feeling good; I’m not making big scores but only had five opportunities to bat, and in different situations. I’ve just got to rein myself in when I get going. I’ve been scoring at a pretty quick rate so if I can pull that back a little bit more, big scores could be on cards.
‘‘ The way I’m batting at the moment I’m just trying to play straight and whatever comes of short stuff or width just happens. ‘‘ That feels really good.’’ Ronchi said discussions with Hesson in Sri Lanka eased his mind and boosted his confidence; that he simply needed to relax and play his natural game and not go crazy.
The 32- year- old from Dannevirke, by way of Perth where he honed his game alongside the gifted Adam Gilchrist, could be forgiven for being slightly edgy, along with his team- mates, on arrival in the holiday hub for tomorrow’s third oneday game. All they wanted was to expunge the memory of their Auckland collapse for 157 but the chance to repair their confidence on a McLean Park belter was foiled by rain and a slow- drying outfield.
Now, with fast bowler Tim Southee boosting the squad to 14, they need to win all three in Queenstown, Nelson on Saturday and Hamilton on January 8 to clinch the series, while the rejuvenated West Indies remain high on confidence under one- day skipper Dwayne Bravo. Frustratingly, the weather may not have had its final say.
Rain fell in Queenstown yesterday, more is forecast for today, and tomorrow’s forecast is for showers. Venus Williams said she got just what she needed out of her firstround match at the Auckland WTA tournament last night – an opponent who pushed her.
And Andrea Hlavackova from the Czech Republic certainly did that.
It took the seven- time grand slam winner and currently world No 47 more than an hour and a half to defeat the world No 134 – 6- 3 7- 6 – and her opponent even got herself into a position to serve for the second set, when up 5- 3.
But while this was not Williams at her best, the 33- year- old had enough experience and flashes of brilliance to take out the match and advance to the second round, where she will play Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger ( ranked No 49) tomorrow.
‘‘ With the first match you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, you have to fight and try hard and that’s what I did today,’’ Williams said afterwards. ‘‘ I’m looking forward to putting better points together with each game.
‘‘ But think it was a great first match, to be able to play so many balls and be able to play a tough opponent.’’
It would have been a disaster for the tournament if Williams failed to make it beyond the first round.
Drawcard world No 16 and second seed Ana Ivanovic too must run the first- round gauntlet in her match against world No 57 Alison Riske, of the United States, today, the second match on centre court.
Having fought back from being 5- 3 down in the second set, Williams stormed through the tiebreak, winning it 7- 1 and it was there where she said she played her best tennis.
‘‘ Once we got to the tiebreak, I was like: I’m going to go for it,’’ she said. ‘‘ So that’s how I played it, to take control and that was the most control I’d been in, in the match.
‘‘ Because the whole time she was trying to control the points.’’
This is the first time Williams has played a tournament before the Australian Open since 2002, when she won on the Gold Coast.
Williams has not been victorious at the Australian Open in any of her
I17 attempts to win the opening grand slam of the year and she feels the work she does in Auckland will help her when she across the Tasman.
‘‘ I was counting the other day how
makes
the
trip many tournaments before Australia and been only five or six.
‘‘ I think this means a lot; I definitely need to play. I’ve been off a few months and I need the matches.
‘‘ It blows my mind back in the day how I would just play a major and not have matches. But, then again, I was playing a lot more at that time.
‘‘ I haven’t played as many matches in these last few years as most of my competitors, so I in particular need matches.’’
Of the other clashes played on the opening day of the Classic, the biggest upset came on court four when seventh seed Mona Barthel lost to Meusburger 6- 4 6- 3.
The only other seed in action was the fifth, Jamie Hampton, who overcame a shaky start to beat Tamira Paszek 0- 6 6- 1 6- 3.
The day session finished with Ivanovic making her first appearance on court and she won a thrilling doubles match, with her Belgian partner Kirsten Flipkens. Against Irina Falconi and Eva Hrdinova, they saved three match points to win 4- 6 6- 3 11- 9. I’ve played it’s probably