Mission: restriction
New Zealand's chances revolve around their slow men. By Brydon Coverdale
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Only England have played more Twenty20 internationals than New Zealand's five - which resulted in two wins, two losses and a tie - and the concept has been embraced at domestic level. Each provincial team played two matches in 2005-06 and the program was expanded significantly last year. In addition to a full round-robin tournament, a Southland Twenty20 competition was held in Invercargill over a weekend in November.
Quality slow bowling has become an important weapon in Twenty20. Batsmen are then forced to create the pace and contrive shots. New Zealand have potentially the most difficult spin duo of any team: Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel will use every piece of guile they can muster to tie down and frustrate the opposition. Vettori is a proven match-winner in one-day internationals with his subtle variations in line, length, flight and turn, and Twenty20 should be no different. Patel has become an effective foil and bowling in tandem they race through overs in the middle of an innings. Patel's Twenty20 record - eight games, nine wickets at 16.77 and an economy rate of 6.20 - is excellent.
New Zealand have a great spearhead, and
they also have great depth and variety in their bowling, which is second only to Australia's
Ian Chappell |
It's just as well New Zealand are good at restricting their opponents, because posting a huge total themselves will be a challenge. Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram are all dangerous strikers, but they struggled to click as a unit at the World Cup and their only decent totals came against minnows. The batting lacks the depth of more fancied sides and the line-up remains far from settled.
Scott Styris Thanks to his time in county cricket, Styris is the most experienced Twenty20 player in the squad. He is in form - he was easily New Zealand's best batsman at the World Cup with 499 runs at 83.16 - and he could be the platform around which the likes of McMillan and McCullum launch their attacks. The only concern is that he returned from Durham with niggling back, knee, and calf problems, and losing him mid-tournament would be a major setback.
Gareth Hopkins It will be interesting to see how Hopkins, the back-up wicketkeeper, is used. New Zealand believe Hopkins and McCullum can play in the same side and after Hopkins made 514 first-class runs at 85.66 last summer, who can argue? He had a taste of ODI cricket three years ago, and at 30 he has enough experience to suggest he will not be overawed by the occasion. Hopkins will be desperate to pass this audition as he pushes for a batting spot in the one-day team.
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New Zealand are mainly a side of veterans who have been around in international cricket for a long time. The only unknown aspect about their cricket is the captaincy of Daniel Vettori, who takes over from long-term leader Stephen Fleming. How the left-armer adapts to the difficult role of being a bowler-captain is crucial to New Zealand's chances in the tournament.
Brydon Coverdale is an editorial assistant on Cricinfo