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Are we facing the greatest Black Caps side ever?

19th February, 2015
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Brendon McCullum was - is - a leader of men. (AFP PHOTO / MARTY MELVILLE)
Expert
19th February, 2015
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2045 Reads

Back in 1992, there wasn’t much pressure on co-hosts New Zealand to perform well at the cricket World Cup.

Australia were the reigning champs and being the other host nation, the pressure on them to succeed was immense.

History tells us it was a poor campaign for the Australians, who failed to make the semis.

New Zealand on the other hand were undefeated going into the final group match, having had the luxury of playing every game at home – much like this World Cup.

Pakistan beat them in that last match before the knockout phase, and then did it again in the semis. Pakistan by that stage were on a roll and went on to win the final easily.

That New Zealand side was experienced and led astutely by Martin Crowe, who also batted brilliantly – who can forget his century in the opening match against Australia? That victory made the rest of the tournament sit up and take notice, along with the decision to open the bowling with spinner Dipak Patel.

There was also the move to bring in attacking left-hander Mark Greatbatch to open the batting with Rod Latham, whose son is playing Test cricket now. Greatbatch became the first of the aggressive openers to give his team a flying start.

They also had batting all-rounder Chris Harris, the talented but inconsistent Chris Cairns, a couple of old stagers in the middle order in Ken Rutherford and Andrew Jones, and two reliable one-day bowling specialists in Willie Watson and Gavin Larsen.

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The current New Zealand batting line-up seems to be more explosive overall than 23 years ago, with Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Luke Ronchi and the improving batting all-rounder Corey Anderson, anchored by Brendon McCullum who is approaching if not exceeding Martin Crowe’s form.

In Trent Boult there’s firepower in the bowling ranks, and he, Kyle Mills and Tim Southee have become a formidable attack.

The current team has the ability to finally get New Zealand to their first World Cup final.

Like ’92, they play every game at home, with Australia the biggest danger in their pool. England would like to say something about that, but even this early in the tournament it’s clear England aren’t seem capable of going further than the quarter finals.

With the cyclone looming, there’s a very good chance that the Australian and Bangladesh match at the Gabba on the weekend will be a wash out. If the Black Caps are undefeated going into their match against Australia, and they will be favourites to do so, the top of group A will be decided in that contest.

Thus the team that loses that game will likely end up facing South Africa in the quarter-finals.

There are three clear-cut favourites to take the trophy, if there is such a thing, and New Zealand are right up to their ears in this World Cup.

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