Black Caps away form will be put to the test in India
A third ODI series win on foreign soil in six months has the New Zealanders flying high, but they wave goodbye to two top performers as they leave Pakistan in the World Cup build-up.
At the start of July last year, the Black Caps hadn’t won an away one-day international series since 2015. But after beating Pakistan by two wickets with 11 balls remaining in the third and final match of their series at Karachi National Stadium yesterday (NZ time), they’ve now won three in the space of six months.
Glenn Phillips was the hero in the decider, coming to the crease with 100 needed off 87 and blasting an unbeaten 63 off 42 at the end of a night where he spent time off the field ill and vomiting. The 2-1 victory in Pakistan follows a 2-1 win in the West Indies last August and a 3-0 triumph in Ireland last July, with a 3-0 loss in Australia in September the only recent blemish as the Black Caps look to build towards the Cricket World Cup in India in October and November.
India is where they are off to next, for a three-match series starting on Wednesday and continuing on Saturday and Tuesday, against a team that have won their last six ODI series at home and 17 of the 19 they have hosted in the past decade.
There’s a reason why India will be favourites to lift the World Cup on home soil later this year, and this month’s visit will be even more daunting for the Black Caps, as they will be without captain Kane Williamson and seamer Tim Southee, as they are returning home to rest ahead of England’s visit for two tests next month.
Those departures will leave New Zealand without their leading runscorer and leading wicket taker from the Pakistan series, with Williamson scoring 164 runs at an average of 54.66 and Southee taking six wickets at an average of 24 while conceding 5.95 runs per over.
In addition to Phillips, after his illness-defying effort in match three, batter Devon Conway and off-spinning allrounder Michael Bracewell were the two others to stand out in Karachi.
Conway claimed the player-of-the-series award after following up a golden duck with innings of 101 and 52 in the Black Caps’ two wins, while Bracewell claimed four wickets, the secondmost behind Southee, and conceded just 3.9 runs per over.
In making 281 to win the decisive third match, the Black Caps completed their fifth chase of 280 more since the start of July last year. Only five of the 17 instances before that had come on foreign soil, but there have since been four more – in Dublin against Ireland, in Edinburgh against Scotland, in Bridgetown against the West Indies and now in Karachi against Pakistan.
Passing the pressure test of pulling off large run chases away from home can only be a good sign for the Black Caps as they
move closer and closer to the World Cup, though they did fail twice in pursuit of lesser totals on their horror tour of Australia.
The flying visit to India promises to be their toughest test since then, with the hosts first looking to complete a 3-0 sweep of Sri Lanka tonight.
Without Southee and with Trent Boult unavailable and Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Adam Milne all absent injured, the Black Caps’ seam-bowling depth will be tested. Williamson’s departure will also leave a hole in their batting lineup, with opener Finn Allen and middle-order batters Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham failing to make a notable contribution across the three matches in Pakistan.
While they won the only completed match in their rain-hit threematch series against India at home in November, wins against the cricketing giant on their own turf have been rare for the Black Caps. They’ve managed just eight in 35 attempts since 1987.
But as Phillips showed with his spectacular late rally, after a mid-innings collapse that appeared to have put Pakistan in the box seat, remarkable things can happen.
The Black Caps had won just one series of any description in Pakistan a week ago – a test series back in 1969. Now they’ve won two.