Black Caps Black Book .../Diary - Oh Sorry Pakistan, Didn't See You There
While you (definitely not me because I'm more important than you) were caught up in how awesome the Black Caps are, sitting back and toasting a few to an all round top shelf effort by the Black Caps against Sri Lanka, the players moved on pretty swiftly. The Sri Lanka series was kinda of like a much better version of a training camp, so there's only so much we can take note of. Now it's the turn of Pakistan.
Are there any loose ends the Black Caps need to tie up? Well obviously it would be nice if Martin Guptill scored a few runs. I've been a top supporter of Guppy, but he's even letting me down by not even putting a few on the board. Mate, just get in and let B-Mac, Kane the Prince and King Rossco do the work, you don't even need to really smack it around.
That's about it though. Consider the lack of runs up top a hangover from the Sri Lankan series and we need a sugary concoction to come to our aid.
Pakistan. Well, for me this will be a pretty exciting series. If you can call two games a series, but it will serve an equal purpose to the Sri Lankan series as Pakistan offer much more variety and shit that we haven't really seen lately.
For starters there's the 2 metre tall Mohammad Irfan. He'll test our batsmen with bounce and the type of deliveries that only he can deliver. While there's no one exactly like him that will be at the World Cup, the awkward bounce he'll offer can be seen in the likes of Mitchell Starc, Morne Morkel and Stuart Broad. No Sri Lankan bowler could say they troubled our batsmen with bounce, so she'll be good.
Leg spinners with a whole bunch of tricks? Tick, Shahid Afridi and Yasir Shah both bowl leggies but in completely different styles.
For me, if the Pakistan batsmen show up which they would hope that they do, but they might not, but if they do, they'll offer a great challenge to our bowlers. Unlike Sri Lanka, Pakistan have multiple weapons with the bat - Misbah ul Haq, Younis Khan, Ahmed Shezhad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Haris Sohail and Ahmed Sarfraz. They're all bloody good batsmen who will be keen to find some form but more importantly, they all love to attack.
I reckon that if Pakistan are feeling the vibe, they'll be hard to contain.
For the record, the Pakistani's played two games against a bunch of kiwi battlers which the kiwi battlers won. To read too much in to those games would be the dumbest thing anyone could do, so don't.
The Black Caps should be alright with the bat, but they'll have to slightly tinker their plans which is awesome as they're going to have to do that in the World Cup every damn game.
Obviously it would be nice if Guppy found some form.
Who's the main spinner? I think Daniel Vettori has the edge, but it's still kind of up in the air. Pakistan handle spinners with ease, so don't expect neither Vettori or Nathan McCullum to dominate ... unless they have zero respect and try smack them everywhere, but fail.
I'll be closely watching the Stable. The final bowling line up hasn't really been sealed and Pakistan will be very aggressive. This may work in the favour of the Black Caps as they could buy a few easy wickets, but it'll be interesting to see how our bowlers deal with the pressure being put on them. The new ball will be key as we have quality swing bowlers, but if it's not swinging then we'll see what the Stable's got.
ODI cricket, you beauty.