Black Caps surpass all expectations

At the start of the 2016 World T20, if anyone had picked their four semi-finalists, New Zealand would have amassed fewer votes in comparison with India and Australia, maybe even Pakistan, the other teams in their Super Ten group.

Yet the Black Caps have surpassed all expectations to become the first team in the competition to qualify for the semi-finals with comprehensive wins in three successive games. It becomes even more impressive considering the conditions are alien to a majority of this bunch of players.
“The wickets here are obviously a little bit slower than what we have played on back home. So it was important to get over here and adapt to the conditions, and realize what different skills need to be used here,”said Martin Guptill, man-of-the-match for his 80 off 48 balls against Pakistan in Mohali.
The Kiwis caused a sensation in their opening game, beating India by 47 runs in Nagpur, and then they got past arch rivals Australia by 8runs in Dharamsala, before sealing their last-four berth against Pakistan. They have now played on three different surfaces in this tournament, surely a test for any ex sub-continental team, but they have passed every time with flying colours.

Understanding the match-day conditions early has been key totheir success so far. Against India, they left out Tim Southee and Trent Boult,realizing the value of playing three spinners, even as the hosts played only two. Against Australia, a near-similar wicket like their first game but with atouch more bounce, they realized the bonus of bowling a slightly shorter length.
“I walked over to Timmy (Southee) and (Trent) Boulty and Nathan (McCullum), and kind of picked their brain. We basically, early,probably three overs into the game, realized it was not a yorker wicket. It was really hard to time bowling to back of a length, and cutters and change-ups. That assessment was made pretty early,” said Mitchell McClanaghan, man-of-the-match against Australia for his 3 for 17 in a tight run-chase.
New Zealand had defended two low-totals against big-hitting teams in their first two matches. In their third outing then, on a truer wicket for shot-making, they needed to get the batting clicking for once, if only to round off all the bases en-route to the semis.
“It was important from the team’s point of view to get agood start and then have one of the top order batsmen go on and set the base for a good total. We needed someone to bat a longer time and set up the innings towards that 180-mark. We were lucky that I got going and stayed at the wicket,and we were able to have two good partnerships,” said Guptill after the Mohali win.
Incidentally then, his words also throw light on the batting strategy New Zealand have got going for this World T20. “Kane (Williamson) and I like to play some aggressive shots in the first six overs,” he had let slip.It is in keeping with the manner Colin Munro comes out and goes bang-bang fromthe first delivery he faces, never mind the loss of wickets, leaving the middle order to deal with any early damage.
Corey Anderson, Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi have managed to live up to that expectation at different stages in these three matches, rounding up New Zealand’s performances in this early stage. As aforementioned then, they are the first team through to the last-four, with perhaps the added label of ‘favourites’ now.

“We are not looking ahead to the semi-finals just yet. We might have something different in Kolkata to the first three matches, so we will take it one game at a time and assess things on game day. That’s what we have done so far, properly assess what sort of conditions we are playing in,” Guptill signed off, playing down that unwanted tag.