*Adam Parore: * **In two minds **
New Zealand and Pakistan will take significantly different mindsets into the opening one-day international at Eden Park tomorrow - one buoyant and confident, the other with a degree of trepidation.
The events of the last few weeks will see to that.
It’s not just the crushing defeat Pakistan inflicted in the second test at the Basin Reserve. It’s also the fact that they cleaned out the Black Caps 5-0 in their ODI series in Pakistan last month that will be preying on New Zealand’s minds.
I know they were different conditions over there, but the fact is Pakistan have won six of the last seven games between the countries and also finished far stronger in the drawn first test in Hamilton.
They have outplayed New Zealand in every department, they will feel they have us well covered and will take huge momentum into the ODIs.
People will argue that the ODI series is a different ball game, that you can put behind the grim memories of Wellington and that series in Pakistan.
I don’t really go along with that. Sure, there are different faces in the squad. The injection of fresh players, who weren’t stung by the Basin Reserve hiding, will help, but remember they are largely the players who were done over in Pakistan.
I only have one query with the New Zealand selection, and that is Craig Cumming, who didn’t really fire in Pakistan. But coach John Bracewell probably reckons he needs to start somewhere - remembering this is his first ODI series at the helm - and he will want to see for himself what players are capable of.
The dropping of Lou Vincent and Chris Harris doesn’t surprise me.
Vincent looks a bit shattered. He took a pounding in the two tests and by the end was second guessing and missing straight balls. I’ve always felt that is a good indication a player needs to head for the beach for a couple of weeks and go back to the domestic competition to find his feet again.
As for Harry, the years are catching up on him. The game has changed and now batsmen have worked him out in a way they couldn’t 10 years ago. I can’t see a way back for him.
Watching Shoaib Akhtar slicing through the batting at the Basin Reserve on Monday brought back vivid memories. This is not the first time New Zealand have been undone by express Pakistani pace. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis murdered us at times through the 1990s.
Waqar’s ability to reverse swing the ball created havoc - set aside his test record, he took 79 wickets in just 37 ODIs against us. Five times he took five or more wickets against us.
Now Akhtar has cleaned us out at least four times and we don’t seem to have any idea how to handle him. If he’d done it once you could say, ‘Well bowled’ and carry on.
"But he’s done it repeatedly and we seem none the wiser.
To be fair, trying to handle a reverse swinging yorker coming down at 150 clicks an hour is about the hardest thing in the game. From personal experience I can vouch that it is a fearsome sight for the batsmen.
Part of New Zealand’s problem in Wellington was a lack of real experience in the middle order. I suspect that had Chris Cairns and Nathan Astle been fit they would have had the know-how to stem that rush of wickets.
Take Scott Styris, who’s a good player. He tried to drive his first ball from Akhtar and had his poles spreadeagled. You can’t do that, but you need the experience to teach you that.
The only way to counter extreme pace combined with late swing is simply to take a survivalist attitude. You know Akhtar, or in earlier years Waqar, would be coming at you for 30-40 minutes. You simply have to dig in and guts it out.
Our best player of that bowling is Mark Richardson. But he’s long been discarded from the one-day side and I don’t have a real problem with that. Over time his weakness in the field would become a real issue and his domestic one-day record is not so outstanding that he demands another chance.
After Richardson our most capable batsman against the really quick stuff is probably Stephen Fleming. I wouldn’t say he handles it extremely well but he’s our leading batsman and we are talking about the hardest thing for batsmen to do in the game.
There are moves to get Akram out here to school up our players in how to play reverse swing. That’s fine, up to a point. You won’t learn how to do it in the academy at Lincoln. There’s only one way to get to grips with it and that’s out in the middle when the heat’s on.
Who should partner Fleming at the top of the order in the ODIs? Presumably Cumming will get another chance first, otherwise there’s no point in him being in the 13. But I think the selectors will consider giving wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum another opportunity.
He struggled when tried as an opener in Australia a couple of seasons ago, but that was his initiation into the side and it was a tall order. He’s a better player now and I wonder if the selectors might try and emulate the Adam Gilchrist model from Australia.
The pitch at Eden Park should be good. It’s a new strip and traditionally the ball does a bit early on in Auckland, but on the other hand it can become slower and lower by mid-way through the second innings. Does a captain back his batsmen early on or take a punt on not having to face a big chase?
After the events of Wellington, the thought of Akhtar charging in from the start might lean Fleming towards bowling first.
Either way New Zealand will be up against it from the start.
NZ Herald
Thats funny but rather true… We should feel proud of this fact (but only on cricket field)