DOG’S DAY OUT

Rohit Mahajan 

AT THE WORLD CUP

London, July 13 

It’s only in New Zealand that the captains are consistently top blokes —endearingly self-effacing and funny. Kane Williamson is currently the man doing the job of being the best player of the team and the nicest captain of the tournament.

So today, when asked about underdogs and top dogs, he had a bit of a gentle laugh, with canine references.

“Whatever dog we are, it’s just important that we focus on the cricket that we want to play and we have seen over the years that anybody can beat anybody,” he said. “Regardless of the breed of dog.”

He then got a compliment — a true one — that we know “how lovely you guys (New Zealanders) are as a people, but how would it feel tomorrow being the party-poopers at Lord’s?”.  The presumption here being that it’s England’s party tomorrow, at the place they call the Home of Cricket.

“Party-poopers?” joked Williamson. “You talking about dogs again, hey? Underdogs?”

Top dogs

Well, that’s how the story is panning out — Top Dogs England vs Underdogs New Zealand. Nice Guys Kiwis vs Tough Guys Englishmen led by an Irishman. England Blasters vs Kiwi Swingers. The last tagline is the best indicator of how the match would pan out to be.

England’s batsmen have fearsome power, and they’ve brutally demolished one bowling order after the other. Yet, they’re not invincible — they’ve suffered defeats to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. Each time they had been asked to bat first; each time they couldn’t handle the pressure; before the tournament began, they were seeing themselves as great chasers. But the three defeats put them under pressure — they had to win two games in a row in the round-robin stage to make the semifinals. Both times they batted first, scored over 300, and throttled the opposition teams, India and New Zealand.

Then came the semifinal against Australia — they were asked to chase. This time, they showed their bowling might — Jofra Archer knocking off the helmet of Alex Carey and drawing blood from his chin was a chilling sight.

England chased easily, powered by their mighty openers. Such are the batsmen that New Zealand must now try to rein in.

Kiwi bowling

New Zealand were very impressive in the early round-robin stage, with five wins and an abandoned match after six encounters. Yet, they lost three in a row — to Pakistan, Australia and England. Their spot in the semifinals was in danger. They just managed to scrape through, edging out Pakistan because they had better net run rate.

They faced what they thought was a mighty India in the semifinals; they batted first because they feared that if the Indians batted first, the weight of runs made by the Indian batsmen would break New Zealand’s back. But it was the Indian team’s back that was broken, that too in the chase of a modest 240 for victory. Matt Henry and Trent Boult were sensational; India were reduced to 5/3, and the first knockout match of the World Cup ended India’s Worlds.

So, the two teams that were on the verge of being knocked out are in the final. England are clearly the favourites — just as Australia were four years ago when, again, a modest man with an attacking mindset led the Kiwis. Williamson may not look or sound very fearsome, and much like a good underdog, his bite is likely to be much worse than his bark. 

Let the dogfight begin!

90 ODIs played between England and New Zealand. The Kiwis have won 43 while the Three Lions have won 41. Four matches ended with no result and two were tied

2 Most recent encounters between England and New Zealand at Lord’s  have been won by the Kiwis — by 51 runs in 2008 and by five wickets in 2013

17 Off the last 22 games (77%) in this World Cup have been won by teams batting first. At Lord’s, all the four matches have been won by the side batting first

3 Matches in the World Cup when England have lost after losing more than one wicket in Powerplay

1 ST Time in 23 years cricket will have a world champion other than India and Australia

13 Wickets for Trent Boult-Matt Henry pair, they are among the tournament’s most effective Powerplay 1 bowlers. No pair has more than their 13 wickets in that phase, though England’s Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer also have 13

7 Times Boult, Henry and Lockie Ferguson have played together in this World Cup and New Zealand have won six of those matches. Their overall ODI record is 11-2. Two times they didn’t play together (against Australia and England), New Zealand lost

5 Times Boult has got Roy and Bairstow in 14 innings with the former averaging 18 against him

30 Per cent runs coming off bat for New Zealand have been scored by Kane Williamson. Joe Root’s contribution is less than 20 per cent

5.01 New Zealand’s economy rate, and their average of 27.12, are the best in the tournament

6.43 England’s run rate in the World Cup is the best. Australia are next with 6.02. England’s average of 43.26 runs per wicket is second-best to India

7 Out of the previous 11 World Cup finals have been won by the team batting first. However, each of the last two has been won by the chasing team, India in Mumbai in 2011 and Australia at the MCG in 2015

4 World Cup finals played at Lord’s. All of them have been won by the team in the away dressing room. England will be in the home dressing room on Sunday 

I haven’t allowed myself to think about lifting the trophy. Cricket and sport, in particular, is very fickle. If you ever get ahead, it always seems to bite you in the backside, so for us to win it, I think around the country it would be awesome, great for the game Eoin Morgan, England captain

Whether having had experience in a final or not is a good thing, any final you get the opportunity to play in is a really positive thing. As we know, in this game nothing promises, so it does come down to putting a performance that gives us the best opportunity to win Kane Williamson, New Zealand captain

Eng vs NZ in World Cup

Matches: 8

England: 3

N Zealand won: 5

Form guide

England: WWWLL

New Zealand: WLLLW

(L=lost W=won; Last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pitch and conditions

There’s some live grass on the pitch, suggesting help to the seamers

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