Conway strikes the right tempo
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If the T20 World Cup was being held anywhere else except Australia, New Zealand might have done enough over the past three games to earn their traditional and cherished dark horse tag.
The Black Caps backed into the past two ICC tournament white-ball finals by bowling brilliantly and batting just well enough when they needed to but that might not cut it in Australia where the pitches are likely, even at this time of year, to play fast and true.
My gut feeling is this tournament will be won by a team that presses the foot to the accelerator from ball one and doesn’t lift it off until ball number 120. Yes, that comes with the risk of completely blowing up, but, famous last words, I can’t see sub-170 winning too many games.
On that front, I’m still not sure what the Black Caps’ batting plan is, particularly when setting targets, but that can be a good thing - Sun Tzu’s “mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy” brought to life on the cricket field.