New Zealand play with fire and come out unscathed

As the World Cup got off to a lukewarm start to empty stands in hot and dry Ahmedabad, a picture from the 1996 edition started doing the rounds on social media. It looked like a blast from the past, as events from 27 years ago should. It was the first match of that World Cup, played between the same two teams at the same ground although it was called something else back then. The stands were full in that picture taken in the morning. Not a seat was unclaimed.

Not entirely by design, New Zealand played this World Cup opener like it was 1996 all over again. That was an era in ODI cricket when part-time bowlers bowled in the middle overs to batters who didn't challenge them. In fact, that World Cup was won by Sri Lanka on the back of their part-time spinners. Now, though, with two new balls and an extra fielder inside the circle, no batter lets part-time bowlers operate.

With Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson injured, you would have thought New Zealand would go for an attacking spinner in Ish Sodhi but they left themselves with three frontline bowlers and four part-timers to squeeze 20 overs between them. It is recipe for disaster against any team in today's ODI cricket, but to do so against England is another level of risk. They have been the best in the middle overs since the start of 2022. England have averaged 40.66 and gone at 6.15 an over in the second powerplay in that period.

Whatever they might have spoken in the meetings, you doubt they would have said let's play it like it is 1996, but once they make the choice to trust Kane Williamson and Southee to be back soon enough, it is what it is. Not to reinforce a worn-out cliché, but if there is a side to give it a red-hot go in such situations, it is New Zealand.

Matt Henry's lovely control of length and the early seam movement, which has given ODI cricket a new dimension of late, gave New Zealand a foot in the door, but at 51 for 1 in 10 overs, with the long England batting line-up, with Trent Boult negotiated, things didn't look pretty for New Zealand.

Mitchell Santner, who has silently withstood the wristspin storm in limited-overs cricket, provided another wicket after he gnawed away at the batters with his nagging length and changes of pace. Now New Zealand rolled the dice. A fascinating period of play ensued.

It was clear England were not going to let any version of dibbly-dobblies settle down. Harry Brook hit James Neesham for four first ball, and took two fours and a six from Rachin Ravindra's first five. The next ball should have gone for a six but held up a little, and the ball was in England's court again. Did they still fancy a go?

Not only did they fancy a go, they promoted Moeen Ali to make sure Ravindra didn't get cheap overs in to two right-hand batters. New Zealand raised them Glenn Phillips, and Moeen misread the length early on. Just to stretch the 1996 thing to a ridiculous extreme, it was almost like Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva taking wickets for fun. Little did we know then that Ravindra would go on to score runs at Jaysuriya's pace, but even New Zealand must realise that 20 overs of part-time bowling can't be much more than a makeshift arrangement.

Forced to rethink their approach, England rebuilt for only four overs before Jos Buttler began to go after Ravindra and Neesham. Never mind the result, England were doing what has brought them success. They had to take risks. They couldn't have idled through the middle overs.

Tom Latham knew when to leave the table. He went back to his strike bowlers. Some might say he actually raised the stakes even higher because now he was going to bowl part-time bowlers at the death.

Everything - from execution to little slices of good fortune - had to go their way for New Zealand to get out of this one. Ravindra, quick to point out that he would like to be considered a proper allrounder, was honest enough to acknowledge the role of luck.

"Probably didn't come out as well as I would've wanted today, but look, that's the beauty of cricket," Ravindra said. "I think some days you have great days, some days you don't, so we'll sort of look at it and review it and hopefully go back again next game."

When asked if his mindset changes when he knows there are 20 part-timer overs behind him, Henry said they didn't exactly look like part-timers. You can't argue against it on the day, but there must have been a reason they went for just fingerspinners when you need to keep taking wickets through the innings.

That the ball gripped for their spinners didn't come as a surprise to Henry. "I suppose the research that we had in the analysis was that bowling into the wicket's gonna be quite important, so just trusting that prep and, and going for it," he said.

That is perhaps why Ravindra kept bowling into the wicket after the first six. It might be a bit of a gag to talk about the part-timers, but the three frontline bowlers went for just 133 runs in the 30 overs between them. Not just that, they do make sure they work with the allrounders so that they can be ready when called upon to do a job.

"I work very closely with Sant and Ish," Ravindra said. "Being able to lean on those guys is pretty cool. Santner is a world-class spin bowler and obviously Ish is a very, very close mate of mine, so we're able to talk a lot of cricket. Any sort of information or experience I can take from those boys who've played international cricket for a very long time is pretty cool."

New Zealand have now started 18 out of the 21 World Cups with a win. South Africa with 10 winning starts in 16 are the only ones that come close. Perhaps it is time we don't get surprised that New Zealand started off well again. Then again, you can't help it when they take one of the unlikeliest routes to that start.