Black Caps Black Book .../Diary - How You Feeling On Thursday?
It's Thursday and I've just seen South Africa dominate Sri Lanka. Some people seemed disappointed? It was a fabulous display of cricketing ruthlessness from the South Africans and one that should inspire the Black Caps.
We are in the midst of a World Cup, not an exhibition of cricket to get fans on board. That's why it was borderline disgusting when fans let out those groans when the Black Caps bowled first against weaker opposition in pool play. This isn't kids cricket where we share the spoils, get over yourselves.
Hopefully the Black Caps watched that performance from South Africa and I'm sure they did. There's no better way to rid yourself of the choker tag by showing up and emphatically dismantling your opposition. With the West Indies not exactly filling the cricketing world with confidence that they can upset the kiwis, the goal for the Black Caps has to be optimum ruthlessness.
Interestingly, the key bowlers who did the most damage for South Africa were Imran Tahir and JP Duminy. Two spinners who you would expect the Sri Lankan masters of batting to not only handle, but to enjoy some success against. Tahir picked up four wickets while Duminy chipped in with three as they ran through Sri Lanka's middle order.
And then we had Quinton de Kock, who hadn't scored more than 26 runs in any of his six innings leading up to the quarter final. He ensured that Sri Lanka's 133 wouldn't be a banana skin total by putting South Africa on his back with 78 not out.
How can we apply that to the Black Caps? It's clear that the only thing the Black Caps care about is winning and they've sprinkled their performances in pool play with ruthlessness, but you can't prepare for exactly how that is going to pan out.
If you said that Tahir and de Kock would lead South Africa to a massive victory yesterday, many would have been bamboozled by your opinion.
It might be Trent Boult who swings the Black Caps to a ruthless win and B-Mac might blaze 50 off 10 balls or something crazy. But the opportunity could also fall to Corey Anderson or Adam Milne and that's where we'll see how ruthless these Black Caps are. Can they pick up four or five wickets each, stepping up in the clutch after not really needing to in pool play?
Or it could be Marty Guppy, Ross Taylor and Grant Elliot who are presented with an opportunity to showcase our ruthless attitude with the bat.
We've got our star players who epitomise ruthlessness, but I'm pretty confident in all the other guys as well. If they need to, they can step up and not allow the West Indies the slightest sniff of a semi final. This the the best Black Caps ODI side of my lifetime because each member is not only highly skilled, but they've got that killer instinct. Kapow.