We’ve started the season with a narrow win against our most formidable opponent, and now we’ve absolutely massacred our least formidable.
It’s been a stimulating season so far.
Look out South Africa.
Sleigh Bells:
Wow! W-h-h-how! New Zealand’s most important cricket world cup victory to date?
I couldn’t manage to stay up for the game myself (fell asleep on the couch at about 11.30), but I knew something big had happened when I found this comment waiting in my moderation queue:
Hi there you stupid fucking Sheep Shaggers.
SA vs NZ
I can tell you something thats messy.
Players coming up to a new batsman mouthing off at him , getting in his face after his fellow team mate has been run out.Daniel Vettori you dont let your men do that and most of all dont do it yourself.
Cricket is supposed to be a gentlemans game not a game played by a country that would rather shag a sheep.THOSE EARTHQUAKES HAVE REALLY HAD AN EFFECT ON YOU???
You know you’re winning when someone calls you a sheep shagger.
Here’s the incident that ForeverProteas is talking about:
“You’ve just run out the World Cup.” Great to see the Black Caps showing some mongrel.
Chirpy music to go with my mood:
Had a go watching last night’s match against Pakistan on live internet stream. It was not a great experience – the video seemed to quite consistently cut out when the ball was mid-pitch. All the ads came through okay though. And one of the attractions of watching coverage from overseas is getting to see inside foreign cultures through watching their advertisements. I think I was watching some British coverage last night and one ad stood out. It was an ad for Cadbury Creme Eggs and it culminating in an egg rupturing and spraying its gooey filling all over the place in some bukkake frenzy. It’s almost enough to put you off Easter.
I gave up following the game after an hour or so, so it wasn’t until the morning that I discovered the mess that Ross Taylor had made of Pakistan. Taylor hadn’t scored a century for over two years and had become swollen and distended with all the runs backing up inside him. Last night, the pressure had built up too much and he burst and gooed all over Pakistan.
Taken by Trees:
After having my confidence in the Black Caps utterly shredded by a terrible season, particularly by the horror of a warm-up match against India, and then this fairly dramatic preview by Cricinfo (“a demoralised New Zealand are ripe for the picking”, “the team the minnows are targetting in this group”, I had been feeling rather anxious leading up the game against Kenya, in case the team who has already knocked over West Indies and Sri Lanka in World Cups were capable of another surprise.
My imagined worst case scenario was so very, very different from the actual result that I can’t really process it. A 10-wicket win, less than 24 overs required to bowl them out and only 8 overs required to chase the target down. It seems unreal.
If you are also incredulous and need it verified, check out these highlights:
1st innings
2nd innings
Marissa Nadler:
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Something else we’ve waited a long time for: back to back victories. 238 days since that last happened in any format.
Vampire Weekend:
What a nice way to start the home summer: something we haven’t seen for 138 days – a Black Caps’ victory!
Phoenix Foundation, Bleaching Sun (the Crucket themetune):
Walking my son to school yesterday, the sun was shining bright, the frost on the grass sparkled and the tuis were singing melodies in the trees. A surprisingly beautiful morning. Had something wonderful happened?
Had it ever: Black Caps crush India. It’s almost enough to get me blogging again.
The Kinks (courtesy of Darjeeling Limited):
I kinda got the feeling the Black Caps batsmen were playing silly buggers a bit in the win against Zimbabwe, keeping just above the D/L target rather than polishing things off.
So the big expectation on Zimbabwe after their wins in the warm ups came to nothing. And all the talk of Ireland beating up England, washed away. Any hopes of a continuation of the tradition of upsets by minnows now rest on Bangladesh or Afghanistan, playing overnight. Go the minnows!
The Naked and Famous:
Beating Sri Lanka should have booked us a place in the Super 8s. Yay. And no small achievement. A quick look at the records shows that Sri Lanka have been a real banana peel for us. Saturday’s win is our first over Sri Lanka in a grand tournament (World Cup, Champions’ Trophy or World T20) since 1992.
No such worries against Zimbabwe.
The Compton Cricket Club:
Very cool.
It isn’t new or anything, but I have just recently been directed to it, and I was most surprised to see what must be Daniel Vetorri in his beardy phase playing drums. Here he is, the original left-arm orthodox gangsta:
