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Cricket PlayersIndia vs New Zealand, semi-final World Cup 2019: Bowlers pack a punch in powerplay
New Zealand finished the first Powerplay at 27/1, the lowest score in the first 10 overs of this World Cup, also equalling New Zealand’s lowest score at this stage of the innings since 2014.
Proof of India’s growing bowling superiority lies in how a team struggles for 17 deliveries to get off the mark in a World Cup semi-final. But was that New Zealand’s plan all along? With Kane Williamson as captain, one can never be too sure. Cut from the same cloth as MS Dhoni, Williamson believes in taking the game deep, playing out the entire quota of 300 balls and treating every delivery on its merit before it’s time to throw caution in the air. It paid massive dividends in the Birmingham thriller against South Africa. Against a team on song like India however, it’s tougher to pull off.
New Zealand’s opening partnership has been poor throughout the World Cup, so electing to bat against the best bowling attack on a fresh pitch, and in gloomy conditions therefore is a decision that could not have been taken lightly. Given Martin Guptill’s repeated failures at the top, it’s incomprehensible that Williamson didn’t foresee himself as a virtual No 2. That’s what happened. The opening two overs were maidens. The third over, Guptill was gone with one run on the board for New Zealand. Williamson arrived at the crease. And then went into a shell.
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New Zealand finished the first Powerplay at 27/1, the lowest score in the first 10 overs of this World Cup, also equalling New Zealand’s lowest score at this stage of the innings since 2014. This was also the first time since the last World Cup at home that New Zealand were forced to start with two maidens, courtesy Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. That first spell of Bumrah read 4-1-10-1, his most economical bowling ever in the first Powerplay. According to CricViz, 50% of India’s bowling in the first 10 overs was on a good length, the highest in any first Powerplay of this World Cup. In response, New Zealand played around 10% attacking strokes. The last time they were more defensive than this was in November 2013.
It was obvious New Zealand had come out with a plan. But India made it harder to execute despite losing their review trying to dismiss Guptill off the first delivery of the innings. Kumar was getting early shape but Bumrah was plain unplayable, especially when he bowled against the left-handed Henry Nicholls, cramping him on the up, forcing him to play away from the body and inside the line of the delivery. Guptill actually looked in better control, trying to get behind every ball even though it threw up mixed—and not very pretty—results. Persistent and in the same area—this could have easily been mistaken for the morning session of a Test, with red ball bowling corridors probed while two slips and a wide slip lay in wait. Guptill’s patience lasted 13 balls, as he tried to feel for the next Bumrah delivery that was leaving him after pitching on a tight fourth-stump line.
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The next ball whizzed past Williamson, climbing with dizzying pace. That was the first indication of how difficult it would be to just stay put at the crease and not concede that edge. Survival strategies like these don’t even work in Tests too often, but Williamson was ready to give it time till he could play out this opening spell. This was a battle of attrition. Kumar’s third over gave some relief in the form of five runs, but Bumrah was difficult to do away with. He was in another zone, working away that outside-the off-stump line with claustrophobic precision. With the third man plugged, Williamson wasn’t allowed that easy route he normally relies on at the start.
The first intention to come out of the shell was shown by Nicholls. With the score reading 8/1 in the eighth over and after surviving an edge that didn’t carry to the slip cordon, he leaned into a cover drive off a slightly fuller Bumrah delivery. That was New Zealand’s first boundary. The second came next over when Williamson drove Kumar through the on-side. But even that wasn’t a bad delivery. Two boundaries, 44 dot balls, nine singles and four twos came in those first 10 overs, a time when batsmen normally take heavy toll on bowlers due to fielding restrictions. In short, India were all over New Zealand. But Williamson perhaps didn’t mind too much. He had survived. His team had not lost wickets. They could try and build from here.
