Ready to scrap it out, Latham and his men set out to avenge the All Blacks

After four wins on the trot to start, New Zealand’s campaign has hit a minor hiccup. In the womb of the Dhauladhar mountain range in Dharamshala, the ambience was as close to home as possible for the Blackcaps. Naturally, the stakes were laid in their favour in their games against India and Australia. However, confronted with two ODI greats, Virat Kohli and David Warner, New Zealand ended up on the wrong side of the results in both fixtures.  

While against India, the game was over by the 48th over mark, against Australia, the Kiwis were one hit away from crossing the line. Even after a very un-New Zealand-like performance that saw their new-ball bowlers missing their channel and a couple of regulation drops in the outfield. 

But, the team expert in playing percentage cricket, New Zealand had plenty of positives from the two losses. So far, they have been the team that have made India fight the hardest for a win. And against Australia, even after losing their middle-over enforcer Lockie Ferguson with seven overs remaining from his quota, they managed to pull things back thanks to a superb spell by Glenn Phillips. If not for a bad day in the field and a rare off-day for Matt Henry, New Zealand would have been chasing at least thirty runs fewer. 

“Obviously, disappointing to come out on the wrong side of it. But I think if you look at the game as a whole, we did a lot of good things really well. We were obviously put under pressure, or a lot of pressure at the start, the way Australia came out to bat, but I think the way we're able to pull ourselves back into the game. They probably got a little bit more than what we wanted towards the back end, but I think we obviously put ourselves in a position towards the end of the game to win the game, which is, I guess, what you want in these World Cup games,” said Tom Latham ahead of their seventh game of the World Cup against South Africa in Pune.

When it was their turn to bat chasing 389, New Zealand were always in the game and kept up with the asking rate. Aided by a superlative century by Rachin Ravindra and a cameo by James Neesham, they almost crossed the line.

“From a batting point of view, I thought we did a fantastic job. We were one shot away from being on the other side. A lot of positives. We obviously reflected from a bowling point of view as well, and hopefully, we can put those learnings into practice tomorrow”.

In New Zealand and South Africa, the cricket World Cup took a back seat until recently. In both nations, the World Cup meant the recently concluded Rugby World Cup by default. Ahead of the India game, Latham admitted to being awake late in the night to catch the All Blacks avenge their 2019 loss to England in the semi-final. Post the defeat against Australia, it would have been another long night for Latham and his side on Sunday, October 29. The result, however, was a heartbreaking defeat to the Springboks, who collected back-to-back World Cup titles. 

As fate would have it, New Zealand’s next opponent in the cricket World Cup are South Africa, who, unlike their Rugby team, are not used to winning world titles. The game, however, is much more important for the Kiwis not only to gain back momentum but to avoid any opening for the bottom six sides for a semi-final spot. But being the professional they are, New Zealand have done their homework against a team that is scoring 350+ for fun. And Latham laid bare the preparation his team has done to counter them.

“I think it's just recognising situations as best you can and trying to be proactive as much as we can as well from a bowling point of view and, I guess, from a field placement point of view as well. Like every team, we do our scouting, trying to find weaknesses from a batting point of view from South Africa”

“I think whatever game you play, not just against South Africa, I think it's important. You know, wickets are really important. That's the way to stem the run rate as best you can by taking wickets, and that's not just at the top, that's through the middle as well. And as you said, we've seen South Africa, they're running really hot at the moment. And they've got a lot of power throughout the whole line-up. Certainly, wickets are going to be important. And I guess it's just trying to understand the match-ups as best you can.”

For stand-in skipper Latham and his men, the going has not been easy so far. Both Tim Southee and the regular skipper Kane Williamson have been rendered illegible for selection due to thumb fractures. And there is an injury clout over Ferguson. In his absence, Latham had to resort to Neesham bowling at the death against Australia.

Learning from the All Blacks, however, New Zealand are used to facing adversity while staying in the game for as long as possible.

“I think you look at the final, and I guess a Kiwi way is we look to scrap the whole way, obviously faced with a little bit of adversity in terms of being down to 14 men, but I guess it's something we talk about in our team as well, is we scrap right to the end regardless of the situation.”

New Zealand might not be out of the World Cup if they lose to South Africa, but the league stage might be all but over if Latham and his men are able to scrap it out and avenge the All Blacks.