Rain Kings looking forward to five days of cricket

Chris Cairns

November 29, 2001

We have informally dubbed ourselves the Rain Kings so far on this tour of Australia.

I have never been on a tour where I have experienced as much rain as we have, and that includes England in May!

Normally this tour is played under great conditions but the rain has been both frustrating and a blessing for us.

Frustrating because with rain it is always hard to get into the rythym of a match as interruptions causing you to be on and off the field, the ball getting wet and making it harder to bowl with and then with batting rain can freshen the wicket up for the bowlers.

The blessing comes in the form of allowing us to escape from Hobart with a draw and still be in contention to win the series with the Test match in Perth left to go.

Now I don't think I would be fooling anybody if I said that in the last Test Australia outplayed us especially in their first innings at bat.

In the last two Tests it has been brought home to us how attacking this Aussie outfit is.

While this approach is hard to contain at times, there will be situations where it will also cause their demise.

They just figure it won't be that often if they play positive attacking cricket all the time.

Our statistics reveal that both teams' bowling lines and lengths have been similar, but there are some distinct differences which account for the rate of run scoring for both teams.

Firstly, the average pace that the Aussies bowl at is higher so our batsmen have to be very exact in their decision-making as being caught in two minds at this pace will bring about your demise.

Secondly, when we bowl the Aussie batters are very adept at square-of-the-wicket shots which gives you a very small margin of error because over-pitching full, then adjusting slightly shorter, gives them the opportunity to pull the ball also.

As a series evolves opposition players become more familiar and you get used to what style people are playing.

We will have to be very exact in our method, tenacious in our performance at the crease, and field like how we know we can in this next Test.

While this is a very good cricket side we are up against, this has now come down to a one-off Test and an opportunity for some CLEAR Black Caps to raise their hands and perform on a stage that if they are successful will be one that they will carry with them forever.

The rain delays in Hobart gave us plenty of time to discuss the goings on in the aftermath of the Mike Denness debacle.

It was sad to see political ramifications being touted against another country's trading partner because of over-appealing by a little known Indian cricketer.

The phrase "it's only a game" has now truly been scrapped because of the determination of a few to rise higher than the game and go against the governing body.

If there was justification for these people to hang on to their beliefs that they were hard done by I would be the first to support them.

But there is not.

They should, in this scenario, back down for everyone's sake so that common sense can prevail and cricket after a tumultuous two years can keep on the journey to get its credibility back.

© Cricinfo

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Players/Umpires

Chris Cairns

Series/Tournaments

New Zealand tour of Australia

Teams

New Zealand