Magical Munro is the main man for fast starts
Rain may have ruined the second Twenty20 international between the Black Caps and the West Indies, but the punters still got to see a show.
Black Caps opener Colin Munro only needed 23 balls to get blood pumping and hearts racing, blazing his way to 66 before being caught in the deep.
It was what the crowd deserved, having ventured out into the drizzle at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Monday night.
Throw in Carlos Brathwaite’s stunner of a catch to dismiss Tom Bruce and you could almost say they got their money’s worth, even if the bad weather meant there was no result.
Munro has test and one-day ambitions, but T20 is where he shines, and he has quickly become the Black Caps’ most important player in the game’s shortest format. His 66 followed a 37-ball 53 in the first match of the series in Nelson, and he has also smashed two centuries in his last eight innings - 109 not out off 58 balls against India in Rajkot in October and 101 off 54 balls against Bangladesh at Bay Oval a year ago.
Since the beginning of 2017, he has averaged 43 at a strike rate of 179. The fast starts he can give the team massively increase the Black Caps’ chances of success, and he is now being asked to produce them in one-day cricket as well.
He has played six matches as an opener in that format - three against India and three against the West Indies. It is a small sample size, but he is averaging 36 runs at a strike rate of 110.
Munro has clearly grown plenty as a player in recent times, and said as much once Monday’s game was abandoned.
‘‘I’ve learnt a lot over the last year or two to hit through the off side a lot more as well.
‘‘Also tonight, it was a little bit of they missed and I went for it and it came off. I had a lot of bad bowling to hit but you’ve still got to put those bad balls away.
‘‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m still pretty happy with that performance.
‘‘Every time you can put yourself in a position to go on and score a hundred or a big hundred in Twenty20, those are more meaningful.’’
It’s a position he will be eager to find himself in again on Wednesday, in the final match of the series, but the West Indies will be just as eager to get him out early.
Munro has played nine T20 internationals since the start of last year and made 50 or more four times, but in his five other innings, he has had three ducks and a pair of sevens.
The Black Caps won two of those games where he failed - both against Bangladesh - but lost the other three - one against South Africa and two against India.
If you were being critical, you could say the left-hander tossed his wicket away on Monday, trying to hit Kesrick Williams for six off the fifth ball of an over where he’d already plundered 16.
He suggested afterwards that he might have been better off looking for a single or a two in that situation, but made it clear what his instincts were.
‘‘Hitting boundaries is my job and I thought I could capitalise on the last over of the power play.’’