It has been a pain to watch the Kiwis play the way they have.This actually sums up the reason why they have never been able to shed the tag of being the "Dark Horses" of international cricket. When kiwis start their innings,its better to set the scorecard to /3 as this is more or less the position from where they consolidate.Hardly have we ever witnessed a decent opening stand from them.The abrupt end of Astle and McMillan have only compounded their problems. Moving on to their bowling,the less said,the better.Except for Vettori,the rest of the so called bowlers just make up the numbers.Lots of all-rounders in the team who neither bat nor bowl. Exit of the ever injury prone Bond from the series has all but clipped the small wings of the Kiwis. The Proteas on the other hand seem to be heading in the right direction and I am not merely referring to the present series when i say this.Pak series has been the turning point for them and who could have triggered the fire in them other than Mr. Perfect- Kallis!!!! The dormant batsman in Smith seems to have woken up and Gibbs is only getting better with age giving them a decent opening pair. Boucher as his usual self, has been good all around the wickets. Ntini and Nell have been doing their jobs with very lil fuss and to add spice to that, Steyn is back to his aggressive best.Also,there is this rare commodity in this side- 'A spinner"- Harris!!!! All in all, we have a series btwn 2 sides moving in opposite directions.
RE:Melting Kiwis vs Blooming Proteas
by Pooja on Nov 13, 2007 11:35 AM
Great thoughts Vijesh..Hope Kiwis see this and take the right steps to be in power with the "Blooming Proteas"...
