Black Caps move on from ‘freak show’
A bit like chocolate – that was the apt adage one touring English journalist offered in passing to describe the crazy scenes from Eden Park on Friday night. Delicious in moderate quantities, of course, but all just a bit too much after a while.
And after sitting back and watching the Black Caps and Australia demolish records left, right and centre in what New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan described as a ‘‘T20 freak show’’, England captain Eoin Morgan was basically of the same view.
While delighted the Aussies won the match, making history with the highest-ever successful T20 run chase of any kind (245-5 in 18.5 overs) as it gives his team hope of making the Tri-Series final with a win over the hosts in Hamilton tonight, Morgan felt the pelting of 32 sixes on the small ground might have been good for the game on the night, but not so much for the sport on the whole.
‘‘If every game was like that I don’t think T20 cricket would be where it’s at now,’’ he said. ‘‘I think it’s nice to have some games, or a long space in between, records being broken. I certainly think if games were like that all the time it wouldn’t be as entertaining.’’
While Morgan and his teammates enjoyed the view, with the TV on in the background of the team room while they ‘‘chipped golf balls around and talked crap’’, it was also a game where McMillan was able to sit proudly for the first half, then just had to take in what followed.
‘‘It was one of those games where you have to take your hat off to the batsmen – the power hitting for that consistent period of time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a T20 match like that before,’’ he said. ‘‘So certainly a hell of a game of cricket and unfortunately we were just on the wrong side of the ledger.’’
Now for the Black Caps it’s
about putting that one to the back of the mind and moving on quickly. And a game two days later helps.
‘‘It’s the nature of T20 cricket, sometimes you have to forget very quickly,’’ McMillan said.
‘‘There was a lot of disappointment, as you’d expect, in the shed last night, we talked about that, did what we need to do and we need to re-focus because we’ve got a big match against England.’’
It remains to be seen if the runs keep raining down at Seddon Park, on a ground which is hardly much bigger than Eden Park but which McMillan acknowledged would require some slight adjusting on.
It’s now all to play for to decide who meets Australia in next Wednesday’s final back at Eden, though the Black Caps could also sneak through on net run rate with a narrow loss. McMillan said coach Mike Hesson would be the one doing those sums, but that for him it was a simple equation – win, and it becomes irrelevant.
For Morgan, who has recovered from the groin injury which kept him out of the team’s last two games, the calculator would indeed be getting a working over, though.
‘‘You start looking at things that, definitely,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ll assess things as the game goes on tomorrow; we still have to play good cricket, which we haven’t done so far in this series, in order to earn the right to look at the net run rate.’’
The Black Caps, meanwhile, will be sweating on the fitness of Mitchell Santner, whose guile was sorely missed on Friday night due to a flare up in his right knee.
In his place Ben Wheeler had a night to forget, ending with the terrible figures of 0-61 off 3.1 and ordered out of the attack after two waist-high full-tosses. like