Blackcaps Unsung Heroes

 Forget Taylors magical ton and his season of runs, forget Williamsons consistency, forget McCullum finding some timely form, even forget Guptills handy knock.  Forget the great fielding, sharp catching and a team that seems to be thriving right now on success.  And that success especially in this match, which I will focus, on was brought about by two key moments.

The toss, yet another loss for New Zealand but a surprising call from India to bat first.  Surprising in that they have shown they can chase and have only missed out marginally in the previous games.  Yes we must remember they almost chased us down in previous games and did in the last one for the tie.  So Dhoni's call was a strange one but one that worked in our favour.  To get first use of a bit of juice was a bonus and helped with the end result.

But the real stars to me of this New Zealand effort were the two opening bowlers.  Mills and Southee were unbelievable in their opening overs, holding back the Indian batsmen intent on getting runs on the board and those early wickets were vital in the overall outcome.  Kohli's wicket was the winning of this game.  Had he scored 40+ it's fair to say the outcome could have been completely different.  But let's not also forget that Mills opened with two maidens, practically unheard of in the modern ODI game.  Sure the batsmen were the rock stars in this win and deserve praise, but for me those two bowlers were the winning of the game.

How do you give a pass mark to the Blackcaps.  With nothing to base it on in recent memory you do find it hard to bandy superlatives, and New Zealand cricket followers have been short on superlatives for so long.  Mine are this.  Hesson and selectors have been the most consistent in recent times and that consistency is flowing into team performances.  That and a lack of serious injuries to players is bearing fruit.  At the right time, the Blackcaps are showing great form and with a majority of this team likely to be playing in the CWC here and Aussie next year, the new Summer of Golden Cricket 2015 is bound to be a good one.

And I must finish with a huge kudos call.  Well done to New Zealand cricket's team, not only have you proved yourselves worthy of representing us, but you have done something not seen for a long time.  The Crowds are back!!  Yeah I know, 1/2 were local Indian supporters and another 1/4 were buying into Tui's 100K promo, but they are back.  Should be a great CWC next year given the increased positivity surrounding the game.