Black Tour for the Black Caps

So Daniel Vettori is planning a vacation and the destination is ….  definitely not the Indian subcontinent. In the last couple of months, NZ skipper along with his Black Caps have played 10 One Day Internationals, or ODIs, distributed evenly between India and Bangladesh. Never would they have imagined the outcome of all those 10 ODIs. NZ managed to lose each of them and while the 5-0 result in this series shouldn’t be surprising, India did offer them a chance by resting all their key players.

So what’s wrong with the Kiwis. They started out well in the test series against India after a 5-0 humiliation against Bangladesh, and convincingly drew the first two games. Surely the pitches weren’t helpful either and Harbahajan Singh’s comment that “ The pitch curator should get a contract to build national highways” sums it up appropriately. In the third test though, India were back and shut out NZ in an expected manner. A 1-0 series loss didn’t look to bad for the Black caps though.

The ODIs again showed the inability of the kiwi batsman to adapt in foreign conditions like the subcontinent. A 5-0 loss to Bangladesh was purely as a result of the lack of experience of playing against top spinners. Shakib Al-Hasas and Abdur Razzaq have been bowling well for Bangladesh and NZ hardly got runs against them. Similarly in the first three games against India, their batsman hardly challenged India with a total and when they finally did in the fourth ODI, Yusuf Pathan had other ideas. India were definitely playing a second string side but were still expected to win all after Bangladesh’s 5-0 win. The fifth game just summed up one of New Zealand’s most disappointing seasons in recent years. All out in 27 overs and India had won even before a regular innings break! Well, they’ll soon be playing another Asian side in Pakistan and while I don’t expect them to lose all again, Pakistan could prove to be dangerous opponents.

And just when they’d had enough of the Asian opponents, Vettori and his team will back in two months time for the biggest tournament of all; World Cup 2011. Again they’ll be playing on Asian pitches, and again they’ll be facing a strong, vociferous and partisan home crowd. The good thing for NZ is that nothing can get worse from now on. The other good thing is that they now have enough experience of these conditions and should be better players when they arrive back for World Cup. At least I hope to see them start winning some games and do a bit better in the World Cup.

 I am not sure of the statistics, but I think this could be the first time ever that INDIA was unbeaten at home!! It has been a great year for Indian cricket and its surely time for India to win a series in SA while continuing their great form in 2010 !!!