Winter has just ended in New Zealand, where their summer sport will be played for the first time in spring. There has never been an international cricket match in New Zealand in October. In fact, there have only been five days of international cricket ever in November, when Pakistan played a Test in Dunedin in 2009. Fittingly, New Zealand are going cold into this cooler beginning.
They haven’t played an international since the first week of July. They haven’t played an ODI since the last day of January. Now they have as many as 17 lined up going into the World Cup, starting with the first ODI against South Africa in Mount Maunganui, which will host the home team for the first time.
Their preparatory form has been anything but ideal. They scraped past Scotland by one run last week, and were denied any further match practice because of a washout against Ireland.
New Zealand may have been out of action for a while, but that hasn’t prevented their squad from being depleted by injuries. Ross Taylor and Adam Milne have been ruled out of the series, while Kane Williamson will miss the first match. Tim Southee has been passed fit, but he will also not figure on Tuesday.
The hosts’ top five will have little resemblance to the one that figured in their previous ODI, against India in Wellington. New Zealand had completed a 4-0 humbling of the defending World Cup champions in the capital, a rare run of dominance for them against top opposition, but will be confronted with a bigger challenge against the South Africans’ pace battery on early-season pitches.
New Zealand showed resilience by bouncing back from a mauling in the Tests to take the ODI series 2-1 on their South Africa tour last year. But the South Africans have an excellent record in New Zealand, having swept the hosts 3-0 on their previous trip in 2012. They have sorted out their World Cup combination barring the odd position, and are upbeat after beating Australia in the tri-series final in Zimbabwe last month.
While New Zealand have been forced to take a look at some of their back-ups in Tom Latham and Dean Brownlie, AB de Villiers has been confident enough about South Africa’s bowling and batting to point out improvement in fielding as a key goal from this series.
Form guide
New Zealand WWTWW (Completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa WWLWW
Watch out for
Daniel Vettori has been largely confined to playing and coaching franchise T20 cricket for a while now. He has played all of three ODIs since the 2011 World Cup and bowled ten overs in a game for the first time this year against Scotland last week. He returned 0 for 43 and made 12. He says at his age, he can never be sure about his body. Despite all this, New Zealand will be desperately hoping he can find some early form, for you cannot replace the experience of 275 ODIs going into a world tournament.
Faf du Plessis’ last nine international innings include three centuries, two nineties, and two fifties. He also had a couple of good scores for Chennai Super Kings in the Champions League T20 in India. It is a scorching run of form that has cut across continents, hemispheres and formats. Will it continue in New Zealand?
Team news
Martin Guptill will have a new opening partner in Jimmy Neesham, the allrounder providing the bowling option coach Mike Hesson is keen to have from his top three batsmen. Dean Brownlie and Tom Latham will slot in at No. 3 and No. 5, while McCullum will promote himself to No. 4 in Taylor’s absence. Vettori seems to be in line for his first international since the Champions Trophy in June 2013. With Southee ruled out, it could be either Trent Boult or Matt Henry who miss out.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Jimmy Neesham, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Dean Brownlie, 4 Brendon McCullum (capt), 5 Tom Latham, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Mitchell McClenaghan, 11 Trent Boult/Matt Henry
Vernon Philander could replace Wayne Parnell from the XI that won the tri-series final. Barring injury concerns, South Africa could have the full-strength Steyn-Morkel-Philander firepower.
South Africa (probable) 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 Ryan McLaren, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir
Stats & trivia
South Africa will reclaim the No 1 ranking from Australia for the first time since 2009 if they sweep the series 3-0
South Africa have won nine and lost 11 ODIs in New Zealand
Mitchell McClenaghan is two short of 50 ODI wickets. If he gets there on Tuesday, he will be the joint-second fastest to the landmark
Quotes
“I would feel very confident if I was in their team having Dan in the side. Huge amount of confidence, experience that comes into the side. He has done it before. He has got the world’s best batters out before.”
AB de Villiers on Daniel Vettori’s return
“We have got to build some depth in some areas just in case we are struck down with injury or loss of form or any other circumstance which will play out leading into the World Cup.”
Brendon McCullum wants to cover all bases
