It's going to be tough for the Kiwi's
Russel Arnold - 16 July 2001
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Russel Arnold
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Our first match is against New Zealand and I have to say that I don't envy
them. They flew to Sri Lanka on the weekend, straight out of what's reputed
to have been one of their coldest winters for 30 years, and three days later
they will play their first game in the wet heat of Colombo.
It's going to be a tough ask and acclimatization is not their only problem.
No matter the quality of the indoor training facilities there is no
substitute to match practice - the indoor environment is completely
different. Moreover, pitch conditions in Sri Lanka are clearly different to
those that they are used to and they will play a big part. They may need
time to adapt, but there is precious little of that remaining.
They are not grumbling though. I read Vettori's CricInfo column and he
appears to have the right attitude, claiming that it comes with the job of
an international cricketer nowadays, when we play so much international
cricket. Such an attitude is fairly typical of the Kiwi's, who seem a
determined and hard working bunch.
We have played them quite a lot recently in one-day cricket. We had a
five-match series in New Zealand before the England tour, which we won
easily, and then won one game apiece in the ARY Gold Cup back in April.
They will be stronger now that they have the services of Stephen Fleming,
Nathan Astle, Dion Nash, and Daniel Vettori again. In fact, when you look at
the side, you notice that they have plenty of match winners even without
Chris Cairns. We need to be careful, even in our own backyard.
The batting looks the strongest part of their game, though they are usually
excellent fielders too. Fleming and McMillan are the two players who can bat
throughout the innings and they are real danger men, especially McMillan,
who can really turn it on.
We also have a lot of respect for Matthew Sinclair, whilst Nathan Astle is a
player who can turn around a game at any moment, because of the speed with
which he scores. With Dion Nash and the industrious Chris Harris coming in
down the order it's an impressive line-up.
Their bowling attack, however, is steady without being frightening. Daniel
Vettori is the major threat, even if he is just returning from injury. An
intelligent bowler, who works on his angles and varies his pace, he is very
accurate and makes life difficult for the batsmen. He does the basics well
and we will have to be on guard against him.
Chris Harris can be a nagging bowler and we underestimate him at our peril,
especially in Sri Lankan conditions, which should suit his gentle cutters.
Dion Nash is back, but I believe that he is only operating at 80% at the
moment. We will have to wait and see how he goes.
There has been much talk about the wickets for this Coca Cola Cup. It is
true that we are trying to quicken up the wickets in Sri Lanka, which will
be good for our cricket, but realistically it is going to take time. You
cannot create a faster surface and maintain a balance between bat and ball
overnight. Sure, you can leave some extra grass on, but that will just lead
to the ball jagging around.
Although we have been practicing on greener wickets, much to the delight of
the seamers who have seen the ball darting all over the place, I don't
expect that pitches to play too differently. Essentially, the pitches should
favour the spinners and at the Sinhalese Sports Club the faster bowlers can
look forward to a bit of life in the first hour.
I thought it was interesting to read the comments of the New Zealand coach
about the pitches for this tournament. They have heard that slower pitches
may be prepared for our New Zealand games and he has cried foul. I'm not
sure whether that's the case, but even if is, I don't think the Kiwis can
complain.
When we played in New Zealand in February the pitches were real green tops.
Some had so much grass that even Murali struggled to spin the ball. I very
much doubt that Australia's trio of fast bowlers would have been given half
that amount of grass!
Whatever the surface you have to play well and it's strange that in our last
two encounters, we were more successful in New Zealand than we were in
Sharjah, where conditions should really have favoured us. We are therefore
taking nothing for granted.
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