da bet7k： Russel Arnold Our first match is against New Zealand and I have to say that I don’t envythem
da winzada777： Russel Arnold16-Jul-2001Russel ArnoldOur first match is against New Zealand and I have to say that I don’t envythem. They flew to Sri Lanka on the weekend, straight out of what’s reputedto have been one of their coldest winters for 30 years, and three days laterthey will play their first game in the wet heat of Colombo.It’s going to be a tough ask and acclimatization is not their only problem.No matter the quality of the indoor training facilities there is nosubstitute to match practice – the indoor environment is completelydifferent. Moreover, pitch conditions in Sri Lanka are clearly different tothose that they are used to and they will play a big part. They may needtime to adapt, but there is precious little of that remaining.They are not grumbling though. I read Vettori’s CricInfo column and heappears to have the right attitude, claiming that it comes with the job ofan international cricketer nowadays, when we play so much internationalcricket. Such an attitude is fairly typical of the Kiwi’s, who seem adetermined and hard working bunch.We have played them quite a lot recently in one-day cricket. We had afive-match series in New Zealand before the England tour, which we woneasily, and then won one game apiece in the ARY Gold Cup back in April.They will be stronger now that they have the services of Stephen Fleming,Nathan Astle, Dion Nash, and Daniel Vettori again. In fact, when you look atthe side, you notice that they have plenty of match winners even withoutChris Cairns. We need to be careful, even in our own backyard.The batting looks the strongest part of their game, though they are usuallyexcellent fielders too. Fleming and McMillan are the two players who can batthroughout the innings and they are real danger men, especially McMillan,who can really turn it on.We also have a lot of respect for Matthew Sinclair, whilst Nathan Astle is aplayer who can turn around a game at any moment, because of the speed withwhich he scores. With Dion Nash and the industrious Chris Harris coming indown the order it’s an impressive line-up.Their bowling attack, however, is steady without being frightening. DanielVettori is the major threat, even if he is just returning from injury. Anintelligent bowler, who works on his angles and varies his pace, he is veryaccurate and makes life difficult for the batsmen. He does the basics welland we will have to be on guard against him.Chris Harris can be a nagging bowler and we underestimate him at our peril,especially in Sri Lankan conditions, which should suit his gentle cutters.Dion Nash is back, but I believe that he is only operating at 80% at themoment. We will have to wait and see how he goes.There has been much talk about the wickets for this Coca Cola Cup. It istrue that we are trying to quicken up the wickets in Sri Lanka, which willbe good for our cricket, but realistically it is going to take time. Youcannot create a faster surface and maintain a balance between bat and ballovernight. Sure, you can leave some extra grass on, but that will just leadto the ball jagging around.Although we have been practicing on greener wickets, much to the delight ofthe seamers who have seen the ball darting all over the place, I don’texpect that pitches to play too differently. Essentially, the pitches shouldfavour the spinners and at the Sinhalese Sports Club the faster bowlers canlook forward to a bit of life in the first hour.I thought it was interesting to read the comments of the New Zealand coachabout the pitches for this tournament. They have heard that slower pitchesmay be prepared for our New Zealand games and he has cried foul. I’m notsure whether that’s the case, but even if is, I don’t think the Kiwis cancomplain.When we played in New Zealand in February the pitches were real green tops.Some had so much grass that even Murali struggled to spin the ball. I verymuch doubt that Australia’s trio of fast bowlers would have been given halfthat amount of grass!Whatever the surface you have to play well and it’s strange that in our lasttwo encounters, we were more successful in New Zealand than we were inSharjah, where conditions should really have favoured us. We are thereforetaking nothing for granted.
