BackKiwis have momentum in clash with co-hosts Australia
The Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will be awarded to the winner at Eden Park on Saturday night
Premium(Reuters)
Auckland: Four days before the engrossing Pool A clash between New Zealand and Australia at Auckland in the World Cup came a simple announcement. The Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will be awarded to the winner at Eden Park on Saturday night.
This trophy was first constituted in 2004-05 and has been up for grabs in this Trans-Tasman rivalry ever since, whenever the two sides play ODIs. New Zealand have won it just once, in 2006-07, while Australia have won it four times, the last occasion a one-off match in the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent when the two met in Nagpur.
Indeed, it adds more spice to this already much-anticipated encounter. Though, like four years ago, it is a surprising decision. The question to ask here is this: does a World Cup encounter of this magnitude need more riding on it?
Here is the fine print. New Zealand have won three matches on the bounce in Pool A, two of them, against Sri Lanka and England, comprehensive victories. They sit at the top of the group with six points. Australia haven’t played a ball since the opening day of the tournament when they beat England by a comfortable margin. Afterwards, their match against Bangladesh in Brisbane was washed away by cyclone Marcia. They now have three points from two games, sitting at third spot in the group (after Sri Lanka’s 92-run win over Bangladesh on Thursday).
It is an odd spot for the co-hosts to be in. Australia started as favourites for their fifth World Cup title. New Zealand were the second favourites, perhaps even third after South Africa. They were surely everyone’s dark horses for the title. England’s decimation at their hands in Wellington brought a tectonic shift in that thinking. They are now the team to beat in this competition.
“To be brutally honest, New Zealand are probably going in as slight favourites into this game," former Australian skipper Steve Waugh said this past week. “We’ve got a fantastic team capable of beating anyone but New Zealand have really got some tremendous momentum. They’ve really got their confidence up and Eden Park is a very hard place to play. It’s just a different kind of ground."
The Melbourne Cricket Ground can probably fit two Eden Parks, it is often said, when describing this age-old rivalry and its fiercely competitive nature. Irrespective of the size of the ground though, home advantage in a World Cup is not easily negated. As many as 85,000 Australians can create a ruckus, like they did against England at the MCG. Surely 50,000 Kiwis will match that on Saturday.
“I know Saturday is going to be hostile from the times I’ve played here before," said Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. “I certainly know we’re not favourites. That’s the exciting thing about going out here. We know we’re not very welcome."
Even so, ground size and an unfriendly welcome are least of Australia’s concerns. Even the two weeks they have spent without a match might not bother them much. But there are concerns over team composition and the form of a couple players going into this highly explosive clash. To begin with, this match will mark the return of Michael Clarke to their fold as skipper. He has been absent since the second week of December when he suffered a major hamstring injury against India in the Adelaide Test.
He has fought hard to be fit for this tournament at home. It is expected to be his ODI swansong given the number of injuries he has notched up. It is also understood that had this World Cup not been played Down Under, Cricket Australia would have made the more pragmatic choice of dropping him altogether and have George Bailey lead the side throughout. The stand-in skipper had made it clear before the England match that, given his poor form, he didn’t expect to be picked in the eleven on Clarke’s return.
Then Bailey went and scored a vital half-century against England when his side were three down for 70-odd. The rain in Brisbane complicated matters further since the Bangladesh game was the original comeback platform for Clarke. It denied them the chance to test their strategy in this uncomfortable situation, particularly as Watson is woefully out of form. In any other situation he would have been a surety for the drop. But on a small ground where the best bowlers get hit easily, will the Australian team management risk dropping an out-of-form all-rounder who can still bowl decisive spells?
Once they are done thinking about all these points, Australia will have to consider the opposition too, of course. New Zealand’s opening bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee are in the form of their lives, swinging the ball as if it were on string, hunting as a pair like any legendary attack. Plus, they are a brilliant fielding side; all their players are in form, riding a wave of confidence. They are well rested too, for nearly a week will have passed since the England match when they play on Saturday.
And then there is Brendon McCullum to contend with. The Kiwi skipper has been in red-hot form, putting all sorts of bowling attacks to the sword, be it India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or England. He will desperately want to add Australia to his list of victims.
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