After suffering an ignominious defeat in the first Test in Brisbane by 208 runs, Brendon McCullum and his team must learn something about winning Test matches, rather than sticking to their aggressive, one-day style of play.
Test cricket, especially in the last half a decade, has been dominated by teams who find ways to stay in the contest.
Several instances can be drawn from history to show what the faults in the Kiwis’ brand of cricket in the first Test.
In 2012, Alastair Cook’s England toured India for a four-Test encounter. After suffering a humiliating loss in Chennai, where Ravi Ashwin picked up six wickets, many felt it would be a whitewash.
The next encounter involved a rank turner, to England’s woes. However throughout the first day, where Cheteshwar Pujara scored a century, England simply kept the pressure through Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, before the pitch broke in the afternoon and India eventually were bowled out in the 300s.
England’s response was noteworthy – simply block and defend cricket – as Cook and Nick Compton took 32 overs off the old bowl and the pitch grew soft. That meant when Kevin Peitersen came to bat, he had the luxury of playing spin with a new ball and plundered a 233-ball 186.
India batted abysmally next innings, handing England the win.
The third Test at Eden Gardens had an ordinary spin, slow surface (not a rank turner) and England crafted their way into the series, eventually winning it 2-1.
So the Kiwis can still win this series. But they need to be mindful of five things.
1. Be methodical
Brendon McCullum’s captaincy was attacking throughout, and that has not been productive.
Sometimes, having specific plans in place and doing something out of the box can also prove decisive. The abject leakage of runs on the first day could have been avoided had the plan been better and the captaincy slightly defensive. The pitch is a batters’ paradise and the David Warner-Usman Khwaja show was coming.
McCullum needs to mix defence and attack, and wait for the right moments to get his team in the match.
2. Learn how to grind out games
After batting poorly in the first innings, which can happen in the first match of a series, the Kiwis played the same arrogant, offensive style, allowing Joe Burns and Warner to pile more misery upon them.
Though Tim Southee did not bowl, New Zealand definitely should have taken a cautious approach and utilised their spinners more.
3. The Gabba is an Aussie stronghold
The difference between the best Test teams and good Test teams is that the latter do not analyse the exact details of the situation; a South African (for they can really be termed ‘best’) team would not playing fiery cricket if they know the first game is at the Gabba, where Australia are unbeaten since the 1980s.
There is a methodology in the approach that the Kiwis lacked, and that hurt them. Now they face an uphill task of winning the next two Tests to win the series.
4. Salvaging a draw can be a worthwhile outcome
When a team is at 3-142 at the start of Day 5, knowing well that they do not have any chance of sealing the win, what is the use of playing with fire?
New Zealand had McCullum, Ross Taylor, Jimmy Nesham and the calm head of BJ Watling, who could have easily ground out a draw. Had they got away with one, the Aussies would’ve been kicking themselves for letting them off the hook.
5. Sort the batting order
This does not come in the way of methodical strategy, it is more about behaving cautiously when danger lies ahead.
If the situation demands a draw, drop Tom Latham down and promote McCullum to open. Bradley Watling deserves a higher batting number than Neesham, while experimenting with Mark Craig (who can be a handy batter) might throw the opposition off.
Australia did not dominate and outplay New Zealand, the Black Caps simply dug a hole for themselves.
Eski
Guest
Front row Taylor is a very good player but he is not averaging over 45 in test cricket , even with mccullum's recent success he still averages under 40 in test cricket and his lack of big scores against South Africa, Australia and England is a worry for NZ , boult and southee quality players but there is a large gap between their standard and the other bowlers in the team instead of mccullum I would be concentrating on Williamson, Latham , wattling look quality and will be test players for a long while Guptill looks to have really improved and could be an important player
Frontrow
Guest
"The strategies suggested seem to have merit to me. But the problem as I see it is that Australia have two world class batsmen to NZs one. " WHAT THE???? What the ..Ross Taylor may be out of form mate but he still has batting average over 45.00 and ranked in the top 20 players and has been in the top ten for a while but has hit a bit of a form slump as many if not ALL world class players do at some point in their career...so what the hell are you on about McCullum has scored two double tons and a tipple in very recent times and was on his way to another hundred until he was wrongly given out..and Watling is a proven better wicket keeper test batsmen than the new boy Aussie by the way as well Oh sorry i forgot - he is Australian so that automatically makes him better regardless of the fact that he has no test record to speak of and his playing his first series in the comfort of his own backyard You faced a Trent Boult who hasn't played any cricket for 3 months before coming to Australia as he was injured and boy it showed - so get real My god one test victory as the crowing and stupid talk begins - gee from memory didn't Australia also get thumped in their first away test in the Ashes? Funny that about touring side huh ? Must be because the only had one world class batsmen as well eh?
matth
Guest
If Chris Cairns played for the Aussies, I could suggest a 6th way
Bearfax
Guest
Certainly the Kiwis looked underdone and the loss of Southee hurt them badly. The strategies suggested seem to have merit to me. But the problem as I see it is that Australia have two world class batsmen to NZs one. They have two other good batsmen, Australia has three. But its in the bowling area though that NZ has real problems. Australia has three top line fast bowlers and a spin bowler who is better than competent plus an all rounder who seems to have a knack of picking up a wicket or two when needed. NZ has one top line fast bowler, who may not even be fit to play, a couple of good fast bowlers and some average spin bowlers. They dont seem to have the cattle and will be less endowered in the next test. Certainly NZ is well known for its fighting spirit but they look like ducks in the rifle sights to me. Could be wrong but I suspect another fairly easy Australian win.
JohnB
Guest
"Australia did not dominate and outplay New Zealand, the Black Caps simply dug a hole for themselves"? Australia and NZ each batted almost exactly the same number of overs in that game - about 170. Australia scored 200 more runs (more than one per over more) and took 12 more wickets in those same periods. Have to say, that has a sniff of domination about it. The Kiwis success in recent times has been based on aggression. While the best teams can dial that back where the situation demands it, I suspect that if this NZ side went back to an attritional approach, they'd have little more success than they did with that style before adopting their current high risk/high reward plan (not that I thought they were really all that attacking at the Gabba). They might as well be attacking.