Nearly not good enough, now Black Caps need some wins

CRICKET

IN KANDY NEARLY, but not quite.

That’s New Zealand at this Twenty20 World Cup. Nearly quite a good team, nearly doing things that make sense and nearly on the verge of being knocked out of the tournament.

Irrespective of how tight Thursday night’s match with Sri Lanka was and how well the Black Caps fought back to take it to a super over, the reality is they’ve played three matches so far and lost two of them.

Tonight’s opponent at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, England, presents New Zealand with their best chance of a win since they met Bangladesh a week ago.

England, despite being defending champions, genuinely aren’t very good. The average age of the team is 25, most have enjoyed success only at domestic Twenty20 level and Eoin Morgan is the only player the Black Caps need to be fearful of.

New Zealand beat them well.

Sri Lanka, courtesy of their five-run super over win over New Zealand, now look assured of progressing through to the semifinals.

They meet the West Indies, following tonight’s New Zealand-England curtainraiser, and you would expect the home side to win that.

That would put them through and leave the other three teams in a bun fight.

should

beat them

and The Black Caps are the best, all round, outfit of the trio, but the Windies have Chris Gayle and anything’s possible if he hits the ball like he did in his side’s 15-run win over England on Thursday.

New Zealand meet Gayle and company on Monday and could still be alive in the tournament, even if they lose to England tonight. However, Black Caps captain Ross Taylor doesn’t want to let things get that tight.

“It’s an easy equation – we just need to win the next two games to make it through to the semifinal,’’ Taylor said after the narrow defeat to Sri Lanka.

And they can, provided they maintain the good things they’re doing and eliminate some of the silly ones.

Rob Nicol and Martin Guptill look a useful opening combination. Guptill has yet to hit full stride and it would be helpful if he could, but at least Nicol is helping to get New Zealand safely under way.

Brendon McCullum looks on the verge of another substantial innings and he’ll want one, given the perception that he tends to get most of his big scores against minnows.

Taylor is hitting the ball well and it was pleasing to see him back at No 4 against Sri Lanka.

From there on, issues still exist about the batting. James Franklin needs to bat five. He’s the best striker of the ball in the team and also has the ability to feed the strike to his partner.

He’s batted behind Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori and Nathan McCullum at various times and none has looked as capable as he has.

Overall, the bowling has been good. Pallekele is not a huge ground and the pitch is a belter, so containing opposition batsmen isn’t easy. Nathan McCullum hasn’t been quite as effective as you’d hope, but Vettori is as economical as ever and Tim Southee is establishing himself as apremier death bowler.

The most encouraging thing is that contributions, with bat and ball, are coming from a variety of players, and that’s why New Zealand should find the solutions to Taylor’s equations and make the semifinals.