WELLINGTON // On the morning of this Cricket World Cup quarter-final, the inhabitants of New Zealand unquestionably had a collective attack of the jitters.
On talk back radio, listeners were voicing their worries. Things have been going too well till now in this home World Cup. Something is bound to go wrong.
The presenters were agreeing. We have seen it all before. We are never good at being the favourites. And the other three quarter-finals were all one so one-sided, there is bound to be an upset. It is guaranteed to be us.
By 5.42pm, the mood had changed somewhat. Inside the Cake Tin stadium in the nation’s capital, 30,268 New Zealanders were on their feet, chanting a frenzied rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” like a pack of wild, orange T-shirted orcs.
Bring it on world, what have you got?
By 8.12pm, supporters were even starting to stream out, and blocks of yellow seats were appearing in the stands. It had got a little cold and, anyway, the game was in the bag. Onwards to Auckland, for the serious business of a World Cup semi-final against South Africa.
The team should travel north in fine spirits. This was an annihilation of a West Indies side that had claimed in the lead up to the game they had a puncher’s chance of upsetting the host side.
It was New Zealand, though, who landed the knock out blows, with Martin Guptill throwing most of the telling king-hits.
Guptill does not mind the limelight. He and his showbiz wife are one of New Zealand’s It Couples, and were married last year at the mansion of the country’s richest man. He seemed happy to hog the show here, on the biggest stage, too.
At one point, as he imperceptibly moved from second-gear straight to seventh, it seemed as though the Auckland-born opener was setting a new record with every swish of his bat.
He was counting them off. First of all he became the first New Zealander to score back-to-back World Cup centuries, following on from his match winner against Bangladesh in the final group match.
Then he assumed the mantle of the highest individual score in a knock-out match at a World Cup.
Next he broke Glen Turner’s record for the highest by a New Zealand player in the history of this event. Turner had set that in the first World Cup, against East Africa in 1975, a competition the West Indies went on to win. How times change.
By the time he was done, he had also become the first New Zealander to notch an ODI double-century, and the highest score – 237 not out – in a World Cup match. Only Rohit Sharma, with his 264 against Sri Lanka, sits ahead of Guptill’s feat in this format of the game.
Thereafter, it was never really a contest. The 143 margin of defeat flatters the Caribbean side.
They were totally bossed, despite the best efforts of the self-styled “World Boss” Chris Gayle, who hit eight sixes in an innings of 61 which seemed to be a neat little warm up for his Indian Premier League commitments.
They may have been dealt a few surface scars by their opposition, whose batsmen went down swinging, but even then they had some cause to celebrate in the field, too.
Daniel Vettori, 36 years young and 18 years after his debut on the international stage, did a passable impersonation of Michael Jordan in his pomp to pouch arguably the catch of the tournament.
Trent Boult took four wickets, to jump back to the top of the list of leading wicket takers in this competition.
All of which added up to victory by a country mile. Which should allay those jitters for at least another day or two.
Star performer – Martin Guptill
OK, so he did have form, arriving here as he did after a century in the preceding win against Bangladesh at the end of the pool stage. But Guptill would not have been the most obvious New Zealander to have produced a show-stopper like this. Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, or Corey Anderson, maybe. Yet it was Guptill who was the record-breaker.
Under performer - Jason Holder
The 23-year-old captain has had a tough task rousing a side who have often looked like a rabble in the recent past, during this World Cup. At times he has looked up to it. This was not one of them. His field placements were naive during the slog overs. He was not able to redeem himself with his bowling, either, as he leaked 76 from just eight overs.
Key moment
On the third ball of the match, Guptill was already four not out. He then whipped a delivery from Jerome Taylor low and hard to Marlon Samuels at square leg. He should have caught it, but it dribbled to the floor. Around three and a half hours later, Samuels was precisely 233 runs in debt to his team.
New Zealand rating – 9/10
Perfection would be doing this in a final. That said, it is difficult to see how they could improve on a performance like this. With the bat, they wrote the textbook on how to craft a one-day international innings. They may have hemorrhaged a few runs at the top of the West Indies reply, but offsetting that with wickets was decisive.
West Indies rating – 4/10
So it turned out they were the one-man team they were purported to be, after all. Chris Gayle batted like the self-styled “world boss” he proclaims he is. That was until Adam Milne burst through his offensive, with a 150kph thunderbolt. The rest of the batting was as fitful as the bowling had been.
The National verdict
New Zealand have a quick turnaround before their semi-final against South Africa in Auckland on Tuesday, but they would probably be happy to play that game straight away, given the form they are in. They will be well aware that no prizes have been given out yet, but the home side are looking like a slick machine at present.
pradley@thenational.ae
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