28.5 overs of cricket was played at Eden Park yesterday, which given the unique situation that world cricket is in at the moment was just enough to learn what we needed to learn.

Had this not been a part of a 7 match series ahead of a World Cup, I would have definitely been clutching at straws to pen a diary entry. Instead we got a wee looksie at the Black Caps top order, but were left stranded as the game teetered on the edge. 

It was interesting to hear that the great man, Martin Crowe had been working with his favourite sons Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor. I heard that before the game which was perfect because we then saw Guppy go well with the bat and King Rossco continue to struggle, I thought Crowe was going to be a wizard and get them both over their humps in form but I'll settle with Guppy getting back in the runs.

For some reason Guppy has taken the position of Jesse Ryder, or Brendon McCullum as the most polarizing cricketer in Aotearoa. Poor Guppy was probably too good for his own good early on in his Black Caps career and then hit a slump, heaven forbid a cricketer hits a slump. But in all honesty, Guppy is one of our most talented batsmen and should always be in a Black Caps ODI side but we're seeing him in a completely different role now. 

Batting alongside B-Mac, Guppy is by default the anchor. Well the anchor in relative terms as B-Mac has a tendency of late to go to boomtown, leaving Guptill to do as he pleases. I've stated before that I'd love to see Tom Latham open to push B-Mac down the order but the flipside of that besides having B-Mac go to boomtowm early on is that B-Mac can release a whole lot of pressure off of Guptill and in turn fill him with confidence (or at least share some confidence) . 

Guptill, unless he finds a gold mine of form, won't score runs every game. Neither will he smack it to all parts at more than a run a ball as we seem to expect. All I want Guptill to do is bat out the first 10 overs, see out the new ball, score when possible and set a platform because B-Mac will be hit or miss, we just need a solid opener to do an opener's job.

The only other thing to really explore is the line ups we've been seeing, mainly Danny V at 5 .. or 6. To play two spinners in any meaningful World Cup game, a pace bowler has to miss out ... unless Vettori continues to play very much as an all rounder. He hasn't been in great form with the bat and this is kind of a salute to his efforts in the past, but with both Vettori and Nathan McCullum able to bat pretty well it's just another option. However, if Vettori doesn't put runs on the board then we have a situation. I'll cross that bridge if we get to it.

Sidenote - It would have been awesome to see Vettori and Nate-dog try to defend a total at Eden Park, which is pretty much the ultimate test for an ODI spinner.

I think I'm going to make a habit of being the Grinch and bringing a sense of reality because much of the media in Aotearoa continue to build the Black Caps up as a viable World Cup contender. They may be, but there's other fucking good cricket teams in the world. Luckily, we're seeing first hand that Sri Lanka are pretty good (and that Test cricket doesn't really relate to an ODI World Cup) as well as having a buffet of ODI cricket to chow down on. 

It is with this message that I stop clutching at straws and I plead - watch Australia take on India, watch England, watch South Africa play the West Indies and if you can't watch it just at least know that these teams exist. Otherwise you'll be stuck in the Black Caps bubble, thinking they're the greatest group of crickets in existence which we've already seen in two and a bit ODI's, isn't the case.