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It’s no secret that the New Zealand cricket team likes to play a hard but fair brand of cricket.
By letting Australia score 556 runs in the first innings it’s fair enough to say that New Zealand made it pretty hard for themselves.
Such was the Kiwis’ hospitality toward their hosts that it wouldn’t be surprising if Brenden McCullum is presented with another Spirit Of Cricket Award.
The entire match was an ode to the virtues espoused in McCullum’s Daily Mail article on September 7 this year.
Watching Australia pile on the runs and then watching the New Zealanders graciously gift away their wickets, it was hard not to admit that the New Zealanders truly are the nicest team in world cricket.
The only thing that may stand in the way of this performance going down in history as the fairest and hardest game of all time was Kane Williamson.
Contrary to the example set by his teammates Williamson turned in what can only be describe as a very immature batting display.
I’m sure when McCullum pens his next column for the Daily Mail he will have some sage advice for his wayward number three, something along the lines of:
“It’s probably too early in Williamson’s career to appreciate this but one day he’ll look back at the way he batted during that Test and realise he missed a great opportunity to strike a blow for the spirit of cricket.”
And I’m sure McCullum will also have some sterner words for his counterpart, Australian Captain Steve Smith, about the way the New Zealander was dismissed on the last day.
The Australians had the opportunity to re-call McCullum after he was incorrectly given out and left unable to review the decision due to his teammates having wasted all the reviews on plumb LBW decisions.
The Australian team should have taken a leaf out of the Kiwis play book and tried to get more in tune with the Spirit Of Cricket
Because, as McCullum pointed out in the article mentioned before, when it comes to appealing for wickets:
“I reckon none of us would have appealed in the first place.”
One can only imagine how entertaining cricket would be if the appeal, something far removed from the Spirit of Cricket, was finally done away with.
And even though McCullum would never “set us up as being holier-than-thou,” I think it’s safe to say there was something undeniably divine about the way they lost that cricket match.
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