The Hindu : Adams helps Kiwis take wing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 14, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

Adams helps Kiwis take wing

By G. Viswanath

The West Indies batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan after being bowled by Daniel Vettori, who celebrates with McCullum in the match against New Zealand at St. George's Park, South Africa, on Thursday. — Photo: V.V.Krishnan

Port Elizabeth Feb. 13. The West Indies crashed with Brian Lara's dismissal and the Kiwis won their first one-day international in the ICC World Cup at the St. George's Park and more importantly stayed in the race for the Super 6 stage.

Such was the impact of Lara's dismissal that the West Indies suffered a number of setbacks immediately.

The lower order carried out the repair work through Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ridley Jacobs that only avoided the West Indies embarrassment, but did not take it to victory.

The Kiwis beat the West Indies by 20 runs, but the writing on the wall was there for all to see soon after Lara fell in the last ball of the 10th over of the West Indies innings.

An intelligent and dramatic piece of fielding that culminated with a direct hit on the stumps involving two Kiwis led to the departure of Lara from the middle after he had, what can be described, played a beautiful shot to deep midwicket.

But brilliant fielding by Lou Vincent and Chris Cairns saw an action-packed event and afterwards the dismissal of Lara.

Lara deftly placed Andre Adams between Vincent and Cairns and with the well-timed shot taking the ball as far as the deep midwicket fence, Lara turned back for the third run, but a relay sequence saw Vincent making a sliding stop, taking control of the ball and throwing it to Cairns who in turn hit the stumps.

This was another crucial match for New Zealand and the West Indies was expected to take control and make its position secure. The probabilities of New Zealand handing a devastating punch on its rival looked unlikely because of the awful record Stephen Fleming had in South Africa.

Eleven defeats in 13 outings in South African pitches did not make Fleming's side a hot favourite which the West Indies could have claimed after its sensational three - run win against South Africa in the opener at Newlands.

Glorious uncertainty

But the glorious uncertainties of the game came to the fore in the afternoon session. Having been asked to bat first, New Zealand posted a modest total of 241 in 50 overs in which the rousing stand of 53 runs for the unconquered eighth wicket between Andre Adams and Brendon McCullum was more crucial than the chief run-maker Nathan Astle's.

The New Zealand captain Fleming first made the surprise move. He chose left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori as his partner (with an average of 11.29 from 66 one-day international innings) with the unmistakable intention of protecting some of the specialist batsmen from the West Indies' pace attack and thereby giving an opportunity for the lower order to take full advantage of the rival's spinners in Carl Hooper and Chris Gayle.

After the 47-run defeat against Sri Lanka at Bloemfontein, Fleming admitted that he had blundered in not picking Vettori and that he would make amends in the next match against the West Indies.

The fact that he spent seven minutes short of an hour in which he faced 25 balls to make 13 clearly pointed to Fleming's plan of making his team's batting depth more purposeful.

The West Indies skipper made a strange decision of opting to bowl first, even though his team had outwitted South Africa after posting an imposing score of 278. Vettori rotated the strike whenever possible.

Fleming struck the first blow that seemed to have completely worked against his counterpart's bold decision to field first.

The flurry of shots that were clearly intended to wrest the initiative from the rival camp were also the first sign that promised much would follow.

There is such a huge gap between promise and potential, and in a limited over match the possibilities of things going out of one's control by each passing minute are strong.

Even then Fleming's 25 off 25 balls was an entertaining cameo that gave the initial upper hand to New Zealand. Nixon McLean, who replaced left-arm seamer Pedro Collins, clocked 140 plus had problems with line and length.

But it was Fleming's assault on Mervyn Dillon that made the sparks fly. First he whipped a 4 to the square leg boundary when Dillon erred in line.

In first three overs Dillon conceded only five runs, but in his fourth over Fleming played some superb shots, the second of which sailed over long leg and into the stands. But Dillon had the last laugh in the same over when he had the Kiwi captain turning square and pushing the ball back for him to take the catch with two hands.

Scott Styris struck an elegant four off Vasbert Drakes, but while trying to repeat the shot was defeated by the bounce and Ricardo Powell easily took the catch at backward point.

Wavell Hinds who had bowled as many as 19 overs in his previous 65 one-day internationals turned out to be handy medium pacer. He removed Vettori and two more batsmen in Cairns and Vincent to finish with career best figures of 10-0-35-3.

Astle and Cairns struck mighty blows in their fourth wicket stand of 64, but the Kiwis lost their way before an inspired rearguard action by Andre Adams and McCullum took their side close to 250.

Hooper and Gayle conceded 79 runs in 12 overs and Fleming's tactical move to open with Vettori proved right.

Two straight sixes by Adams off Gayle gave the much-needed thrust in the end.

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND

S. Fleming c & b Dillon 25

(25b, 4x4, 1x6)

D. Vettori b Drakes 13

(25b, 2x4)

N. Astle c Jacobs
b Hinds
46

(70b, 6x4)

S. Styris c Powell
b Drakes
5

(15b, 1x4)

C. Cairns c Dillon
b Hinds
37

(44b, 2x4, 1x6)

L. Vincent c Hooper
b Hinds
9

(11b, 1x4)

C. Harris b Gayle 19

(35b, 1x4)

B. McCullum (not out) 36

(53b, 1x4)

A. Adams (not out) 35

(24b, 1x4, 2x6)

Extras (lb-10, w-4, nb-2,) 16

— —

Total (for seven wickets in 50 overs) 241

— —

Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Fleming), 2-58 (Vettori), 3-66 (Styris), 4-130 (Astle), 5-141 (Cairns), 6-147 (Vincent), 7-188 (Harris).

WEST INDIES BOWLING

O M R W

Dillon 10 1 30 1

McLean 6 0 38 0

Drakes 10 1 49 2

Hinds 10 0 35 3

Hooper 9 0 42 0

Gayle 5 0 37 1

WEST INDIES

C. Gayle c Fleming
b Adams
22

(29b, 5x4)

W. Hinds c Styris
b Adams
14

(31b, 2x4)

B. Lara (run out) 2

(4b)

S. Chanderpaul lbw
b Oram
2

(7b)

C. Hooper c Bond
b Adams
3

(11b)

R. Sarwan b Vettori 75

(99b, 7x4)

R. Powell b Oram 14

(14b, 1x4, 1x6)

R. Jacobs c Oram
b Styris
50

(73b, 3x4, 1x6)

V. Drakes (not out) 16

(18b, 1x4)

N. McLean (run out) 5

(7b)

M. Dillon b Adams 8

(6b)

Extras (1b-3, b-1, nb-1, w-5) 10

— —

Total (in 49.4 overs) 221

— —

Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Gayle), 2-36 (Lara), 3-42 (Hinds), 4-46 (Hooper), 5-46 (Chanderpaul), 6-86 (Powell), 7-178(Sarwan), 8-191 (Jacobs), 9-200 (McLean).