CAPTAIN’S TAKE
Kiwis used skill and nous to stump India
GRAEME SMITH 11.07.2019
Social media has already cast its opinion on whether Kane Williamson was right to bat first in the semifinal. I would have done the same if I were in that position, if that seemed the best chance of getting an advantage in the game. On the face of it, New Zealand’s choice to bat first before subsequently taking a cautious approach may seem hard to understand. They had to re-assess targets quickly after seeing how the pitch was playing, something that’s difficult to do mid-innings.
The surface took a lot of spin and managed to fox everyone with how slowly it played. The Indian bowlers responded well in those conditions just as we expected them to. Williamson will have thought that anything around 250-270 in a pressure game would always be competitive.
They banked on getting the key wickets they needed to then put the cat among the pigeons. As we saw, it wasn’t an easy pitch to score fluently on with India falling shy of New Zealand. I thought NZ were short in their first innings, but as I’ve been saying all through the competition — they are street smart. They used their skill and nous to outfox that gun Indian line-up and deserve their place in Sunday’s final.
Looking ahead to England’s semi-final, they’ll be happy to be playing Australia at Edgbaston. The hosts certainly had their struggles against the left-arm pace of Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff in the round robin stage, something I’m sure they’ll have worked on, but they’ve regained their momentum.
Australia, who slipped up against South Africa in their last game, will know that big runs up front will help their cause. Chasing under pressure has a week area for England at times in this tournament. TCM
Kiwis used skill and nous to stump India
GRAEME SMITH 11.07.2019
Social media has already cast its opinion on whether Kane Williamson was right to bat first in the semifinal. I would have done the same if I were in that position, if that seemed the best chance of getting an advantage in the game. On the face of it, New Zealand’s choice to bat first before subsequently taking a cautious approach may seem hard to understand. They had to re-assess targets quickly after seeing how the pitch was playing, something that’s difficult to do mid-innings.
The surface took a lot of spin and managed to fox everyone with how slowly it played. The Indian bowlers responded well in those conditions just as we expected them to. Williamson will have thought that anything around 250-270 in a pressure game would always be competitive.
They banked on getting the key wickets they needed to then put the cat among the pigeons. As we saw, it wasn’t an easy pitch to score fluently on with India falling shy of New Zealand. I thought NZ were short in their first innings, but as I’ve been saying all through the competition — they are street smart. They used their skill and nous to outfox that gun Indian line-up and deserve their place in Sunday’s final.
Looking ahead to England’s semi-final, they’ll be happy to be playing Australia at Edgbaston. The hosts certainly had their struggles against the left-arm pace of Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff in the round robin stage, something I’m sure they’ll have worked on, but they’ve regained their momentum.
Australia, who slipped up against South Africa in their last game, will know that big runs up front will help their cause. Chasing under pressure has a week area for England at times in this tournament. TCM
No comments:
Post a Comment