Photo Credit: Jyoti Desale
There are things that need to be addressed first: The team who plays the better Cricket on the day wins the match, especially a contest that needs to have a winner and a loser. Both Australia and New Zealand have been in fine form in the ICC World Cup 2015. With the match being played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), four-time champions Australia will be fancying their chances. Both teams have had an emotional roller-coaster coming into the game and as Kane Williamson displayed in the group-stages in Auckland, it will come down to who keeps their nerve that will alter the shape of the contest. Also Read: Catch the Preview of the World Cup final here
1. A ‘New’ World Order in Cricket Winning goes in cycles. West Indies dominated the scene in the 1970s and the 80s and then came marauding Australians, with the foundation laid by Mark Taylor, sculpted by Steve Waugh and hoisted by Ricky Ponting. Since 2007, India, South Africa and England have taken turns to reach the summit of the ICC rankings. Having being amongst the first Test playing nations, the time has come for the Black Caps, the poor cousins of the colossal All Blacks Rugby team in New Zealand to get to the top. Also Read: Brendon McCullum, Steve Smith among 6 Key Players in the final
2. The game’s larger interest and having a new champion 2015 will be a red -etter year in the world of cricket. With all the backdoor accusations of hegemony, match-fixing allegations and prevalence of fickle Cricket fans, especially in India and Pakistan, New Zealand have come as a breath of fresh air in the world of cricket. The Associate Nations have performed with distinction and New Zealand have lived up to expectations, playing swashbuckling Cricket along the way. Cricket needs a new champion and regain the trust of people who have lost it since the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
3. Brendon McCullum, Mike Hesson and their pace attack Not long ago, the New Zealand side was in near shambles. The batting order unsettled, a certain Kane Williamson failing to register a single run on the board in his first two One-Day Internationals (ODs) and it eventually culminated in Ross Taylor’s ouster. In came Brendon McCullum and despite stumbling in the initial phase, the stoic man from Dunedin built the team, bit by bit. Williamson went through a phenomenal run of form, Taylor reinvented himself and McCullum found his groove after bidding adieu to ‘keeping gloves for good. Corey Anderson, despite his limitations as a bowler, developed into a fine all-rounder. The team had instilled a disciplined work ethic in the side too. Despite possessing oodles of talent, the door was shut on Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell after being found guilty of regularly flouting team protocol. Since 2014, as McCullum has often mentioned, “The greatest time of our lives” took shape with their pace attack blossoming into a lethal machine. Now, the team possess enough bowlers to be spread across three formats.
4. Ambassadors of Cricket After the world wept after Phillip Hughes’s tragic death, New Zealand took to the field in Sharjah against Pakistan with the initials, P.H stitched under the team emblem. The traditional Australia-New Zealand rivalry went out of the window and it was sensitivity to an event that shook the Cricket world that was witnessed. McCullum whipped a magnificent double-hundred and Kane Williamson came close to the score too. There was barely any celebrations throughout the match as the Kiwis went on crush an opponent who had regularly got the better of them. This world cup has seen McCullum championing the cause of fan integration in a higher octane. Before the semifinal against South Africa, McCullum sent out a war cry, asking all his fellow countrymen to come out in numbers to support the Black Caps. Now he has thanked and called upon a billion people in India to celebrate vicariously with New Zealand.
5. For Martin Crowe, one of ODI cricket’s revolutionaries With the advent of One-Day cricket, there was a pioneer and he went by the name of Martin Crowe. In the 1992 World Cup, with limited resources, he took the side to heights that his countryman could have never imagined. New Zealand, however, stumbled in the semifinals against Pakistan. Now Crowe is suffering from Cancer and recently quipped that the World Cup could be his last game. Here is a man who was a classy batsman, inexplicably missed a triple hundred, went into depression and came back as a phenomenal writer. His methods though, stood the test of time. Also Read: Black Caps should win it for Martin Crowe
