Sri Lanka v New Zealand, World Cup 2011, 1st semi-final, Colombo

Ross Taylor targets another upset

Sidharth Monga in Colombo

March 27, 2011

South Africa didn't play a bunch of dummies who had to just turn up in Dhaka and watch Graeme Smith's men crumble from a vantage point.

One of the undesirable fallouts of South Africa's exit from the World Cup, depressing as it was to their fans, is the focus on South Africa's choke. The talk all around the cricketing world has been how South Africa lived up to their record of not having won a single knockout game in World Cups, of their mental brittleness in big events, of what future holds for them, and the other team that won the match has been all but forgotten.

Ross Taylor

New Zealand played a game too, you know. Jesse Ryder showed a glimpse of how good a batsman he is before a charged-up New Zealand side, yelling, hollering, sledging, intimidating, pulled off the best fielding performance of the World Cup. They were a team possessed. They didn't want to go home, they wanted to settle a score with a ground that consigned them to their lowest low. They were not a bunch of dummies.

Quietly they have slipped into Sri Lanka, "warmer than Dhaka, not as hot as Mumbai", facing a far tougher task than the one they accomplished in Dhaka, that of beating a team much more naturally talented, much more varied, playing in home conditions, used to conditions warmer than Dhaka but not as hot as Mumbai.

And it's staying under the radar that they are hanging on to. "Most of the time New Zealand play we are underdogs," Ross Taylor, who has captained New Zealand in some of the games this World Cup, said two days before their sixth semi-final in 10 World Cups. "It's something we almost enjoy, and we expect when we play. I know a lot of teams expect to beat us, and we enjoy the underdog tag, and we expect to beat them as well.

"I don't think too many other people gave us a chance, which probably made other teams take us a bit lighter than they normally would, which played into our hands, but you know it's going to be a tough game on Tuesday, one that we are looking forward to."

New Zealand have played Sri Lanka before in this tournament, and the result was not too encouraging, a defeat by 112 runs at a ground these teams will be fighting for the right to play at. Taylor sees having played Sri Lanka as an advantage, as an opportunity to have made the mistakes in a game not so big. "It's a new game," he said. "We are taking a lot of confidence from our last game against South Africa. We have got an advantage that we have played against Sri Lanka in the pool matches, and we did a few things wrong. Hopefully we can rectify that in the match on Tuesday."

New Zealand, in a way a team not too dissimilar to England who were demolished by Sri Lanka in the quarter-final, seek to learn from the way England played. "Watching parts of the game and analysing the way England played and where they went wrong and where Sri Lanka went wrong, but we have got a lot of momentum in our camp. We were happy with the way we fielded, and hopefully we can continue with that and put Sri Lanka under pressure."

Taylor said the side was desperate to translate the record of having made six semi-finals into something more significant. "We are proud of our history of making semi-finals, but looking at this team we want to make history and go one step further and make the final," he said. "We genuinely believe we can do that, and we want to show that on Tuesday."

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Canada v New Zealand, World Cup 2011, Group A, Mumbai

New Zealand ease to 97-run victory

Ashish Bagai and Jimmy Hansra

New Zealand walked to an easy 97-run win over Canada in Mumbai and sealed their place in the quarter-finals. They romped unchallenged to 358 for 6 and then held Canada to 261 for 9 in reply. Brendon McCullum's century, and a brutal late assault from Ross Taylor and the lower middle order, put the score well out of Canada's reach. Ashish Bagai's 84 and an unbeaten 70 from Jimmy Hansra ensured Canada at least reached their highest total of the tournament, but there was never even a hint that they would mount a challenge against New Zealand's effort.

Canada won the toss and Bagai chose to bowl, hoping to take advantage of any early-morning moisture on a pitch that had a typically reddish tinge to it. But after a reasonably disciplined start the bowlers' lines started to waver and Brendon McCullum, in particular, took a heavy toll. He repeatedly rifled cuts and drives through or over the off side, and had entered the 30s at better than a-run-a-ball when New Zealand's fifty came up in the ninth over.

Canada struck through some dogged medium pace from Harvir Baidwan and a stellar piece of wicketkeeping from Bagai, who has greatly enhanced his reputation behind the stumps in the course of this tournament. He held onto a thick edge, standing up, to get rid of Martin Guptill.

McCullum passed fifty and soon tired of accumulation when the field was set back, reverse-sweeping John Davison for the first boundary in six overs and then jumping down the track to swat legspinner Balaji Rao high over long-off. Jesse Ryder, who had tempered his usual aggression to reach 38 from 55 balls, looked to follow suit against Davison soon after but sliced across a flighted offspinner to present Henry Osinde with an easy catch at long-on.

Taylor flicked Osinde twice to the leg-side boundary to kick-start his innings and partnered Brendon McCullum to his third ODI hundred in the 36th over. With New Zealand's two most devastating batsmen at the crease, the batting Powerplay was called for immediately afterwards, but Brendon McCullum was its first victim when he slapped Baidwan straight to Ruvindu Gunasekara at extra cover.

Though Rao picked up two wickets in the remaining overs, including that of Taylor for a 44-ball 74 that included four mighty sixes in the space of a single over, Canada completely unravelled in the field as the score went stratospheric. A whopping 74 runs came from the batting Powerplay, and 122 from the last 10 overs, including 31 from the final over of the innings during which Rizwan Cheema was removed from the attack for his second beamer of the innings.

The signs were ominous for Canada when Ruvindu Gunasekara slashed at the first ball of Kyle Mills' second over and Taylor timed his leap to perfection at first slip to pluck the ball out of the air one handed. The boundary had still not been reached when, two overs later, Zubin Surkari hung his bat out limply at another Mills outswinger to offer Taylor his second catch.

Canada were 4 for 2 and sinking fast, but Bagai and Hiral Patel wasted no time in launching a spirited fightback. Their effort was no doubt helped by a premature end to Mills' spell when he pulled up lame one ball after he had dismissed Surkari, clutching at his left knee in some pain and leaving the field straightaway.

High scores, collapses, and the lack of threes

Despite some batting collapses from the lesser teams, this could be the first World Cup with an overall run-rate of more than five runs per over

Ross Taylor

The 2011 World Cup is well on its way towards becoming the most productive one for batsmen. That was always likely to be the case, considering the fact that the majority of the matches - 29 out of 47 - were to be played in India, where conditions are more batsman-friendly than in the two other countries hosting the tournament: in the two years leading up to the World Cup, the run-rate in ODIs in India was 5.87, easily superior to the rates in Sri Lanka (5.08) and Bangladesh (4.58). (Click here for the full list.)

In the World Cup so far, though, the run-rate stats are quite different - in fact, it's in reverse order, with the four games in Bangladesh having an average run-rate of 5.11, the seven in Sri Lanka managing 5.05, and the 11 in India only touching 5.03. The overall run-rate, thus, is 5.04, which is the highest among the ten World Cups so far. That's despite some abject collapses by the lesser teams over the last three weeks. In the 26 games so far, there have been two instances of teams being bowled out for less than 100, while nine times teams have finished with a score of less than 150. That, though, has been offset by the number of times teams have topped 300 - it's already happened 11 times in this World Cup, with 23 games still to come. In the 2007 edition teams topped 300 sixteen times in 51 matches, which means in the last two World Cups it's happened 27 times, which is the exactly the number of times a 300-plus score had been posted in all eight previous World Cups put together. (Click here for all 54 totals of 300 or more in World Cup matches.)

The average runs per wicket, though, hasn't changed much at all in the last four tournaments - it's been hovering around in the late 20s. The only two occasions when it exceeded 30 was when the tournaments were hosted in the subcontinent.

Averages and run-rates in each World Cup

Year	Matches	Average	Run-rate
1975	15	29.62	3.91
1979	14	25.58	3.54
1983	27	29.52	4.08
1987	27	32.52	4.87
1992	39	29.39	4.42
1996	36	32.12	4.67
1999	42	28.41	4.47
2003	52	27.84	4.76
2007	51	29.42	4.95
2011	25	28.43	5.04

The group stage of this tournament, though, has been littered with one of the top sides playing one of the lesser teams. Some of those games have been unexpectedly competitive, but many have also been one-sided. Out of 26 games so far, 19 have involved at least one of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada or Kenya, and in 13 of those games the margins of victory have been greater than 75 runs, or greater than five wickets with 50-plus deliveries to spare. Three matches have been decided by more than 170 runs, and three more have finished with the team batting second chasing down their target in less than 30 overs.

These 19 matches have produced uneven scores, but the high scores have compensated for the extremely low ones, such that the overall run-rate in these matches is 4.99 - not a big deviation from the tournament average of 5.04 - while the average runs per wicket in these matches is 27.69, again only a small deviation from to overall average of 28.43.

However, the contribution (or the lack of it) of the weaker teams has made a significant difference to the overall numbers of the tournament. So much, in fact, that if only the batting performances of the top eight teams are taken into account, the run-rate for the tournament so far rises to 5.66, and the average runs per wicket goes up to almost 40. Add Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to the mix, and the run-rate drops marginally to 5.44, and the average more appreciably to 34.11 (with Bangladesh's 58 all out being biggest factor for the drop). The big fall in scoring rate and averages happen when the stats for the bottom six teams is considered.

Stats break-up by top teams and minnows in the World Cup

	Runs	Wickets	Average	Run rate
Top eight teams (Ind, SL, RSA, Aus, Eng, Pak, NZ, WI)	6993	177	39.50	5.66
Top ten teams (top eight + Zim, B'desh)	8358	245	34.11	5.44
The bottom six (Zim, B'desh, Can, N'lands,Ken, Ire)	3898	206	18.92	4.22
The four Associates (Can, N'lands, Ken, Ire)	2533	138	18.35	4.06

The manner in which teams have gone about scoring their runs in this tournament presents an interesting contrast. There are some teams which prefer to deal in boundaries; there are others who prefer less flamboyance; and then there are some who have managed to do both fairly successfully.

West Indies have scored the highest percentage of runs in boundaries - in fact they are the only ones for whom the boundary percentage exceeds 50. India come close too, which shows the firepower in the batting line-ups of those two teams. What's perhaps more surprising in the fact that India's dot-ball percentage is among the lowest too - 46.89, which means only two teams, England and Sri Lanka, have done better. That combination also explains why their run-rate is the highest of all teams in the tournament so far. Of course, their case is also helped by the fact that they've already played against the weaker teams in their group.

On the other hand, South Africa and Pakistan have extremely low boundary percentages. Pakistan's case is partly explained by the fact that they've played in Sri Lanka, where the outfields are bigger than those in India. In fact, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the only sides which have run more than ten threes in this World Cup so far - Pakistan have 13 and Sri Lanka 12. The numbers for South Africa and England demonstrate their favoured method of scoring: England's boundary percentage is 38.16, and their dot-ball percentage is the lowest of all teams. West Indies' method is the complete opposite - rely on fours and sixes, and go easy on the singles, twos and threes. West Indies have run only one three in the tournament, which is the lowest; India have managed two.

New Zealand have been similarly sloppy in terms of dot balls - their percentage is 54.76, which is the highest among the top eight teams. They also have the second-highest number of sixes - 19, next only to India's 20 - which is largely due to Ross Taylor's incredible blitz against Pakistan, but they'll need to get better with the basics to continue their tendency to exceed expectations in World Cups.

How each team has scored their runs in this World Cup

Team	Matches	Average	Run rate	Dot ball %	4s/ 6s	% runs in 4s/6s
India	4	46.20	6.08	46.89	107/ 20	49.41
Sri Lanka	5	46.80	6.03	46.40	129/ 5	44.86
England	4	37.73	5.82	44.60	90/ 12	38.16
Australia	3	52.11	5.58	50.40	40/ 4	39.23
West Indies	3	32.15	5.56	53.72	56/ 14	50.41
New Zealand	4	43.88	5.45	54.76	62/ 19	48.53
South Africa	3	41.05	5.25	48.99	51/ 10	35.72
Pakistan	4	28.52	5.25	53.43	79/ 7	36.91
Ireland	3	26.44	5.03	57.34	62/ 11	43.98
Bangladesh	3	18.82	4.62	55.29	43/ 3	34.80
Zimbabwe	4	21.00	4.51	56.47	67/ 5	36.39
Netherlands	4	19.88	4.39	60.22	65/ 9	43.85
Canada	4	16.62	3.47	70.42	50/ 8	42.61
Kenya	4	13.02	3.45	68.03	38/ 5	34.93

All stats updated till the match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Pallekele.

Terrific Taylor takes NZ top of group

Terrific Taylor takes NZ top of group

Ross Taylor

The people that travelled through the hills to watch the first one-day international in Pallekele witnessed a Pakistan team in shambles: they saw a glut of extras, three dropped catches, the worst possible display of end-over bowling, and a batting implosion from a shell-shocked team. They also saw a struggling New Zealand side take advantage of their opponent's extraordinary failings, slowly at first, before Ross Taylor launched an assault so brutal that Pakistan were gutted and rendered defenseless by the end of the innings.

A stronger opponent would have made Pakistan regret their shoddy performance -Kamran Akmal played the lead and Shoaib Akhtar a supporting role - sooner in the piece, but New Zealand's batsmen did not until the end. And then they did so without mercy. Martin Guptill was their solitary performer in the first half of the innings, and Taylor needed massive slices luck to get going. But in the last six overs Taylor broke free with unprecedented violence, taking 28 off a Shoaib over - the tournament's most expensive - before plundering 30 off one from Abdul Razzaq. It began to rain sixes and fours and Pakistan's helplessness was startling as New Zealand plundered 114 off the last six overs to reach 302.

Pakistan's batsmen were still swooning from Taylor's rope-a-dope when they began their chase and the inevitable collapse came to pass. Before the mandatory Powerplay was over, the contest had ended, and after the innings had been reduced to 23 for 4 and 66 for 6, Abdul Razzaq merely delayed the inevitable with a half-century. The only worry for New Zealand was the fitness of their captain, for Daniel Vettori hobbled painfully off the field after injuring his knee in the sixth over and did not return. Taylor, who took over the captaincy, however, had ensured that Vettori's bowling wasn't needed on the day.

New Zealand's formidable total didn't take shape until very late though. When Pakistan's spinners dismissed Guptill and James Franklin to reduce the innings from 112 for 2 to 113 for 4, New Zealand were slipping. When Scott Styris, who was dropped by Kamran Akmal, was trapped by an Umar Gul yorker in the first batting-Powerplay over they were only 175 for 5, in sight of a middling total. That changed in a blink.

In the 47th over, Shoaib bowled wide deliveries, length deliveries and full tosses that Taylor savaged through cover point and over the deep-midwicket boundary. That exhibition of how not to bowl at the death was outdone by Razzaq, whose medium-pace at poor length was meat and drink to a marauding Taylor. Fielders looked on helplessly, Shahid Afridi tore his hair out metaphorically and Taylor continued to batter a ragged Pakistan. He had added 35 in 3.5 overs with Nathan McCullum, who initiated the acceleration, and then 85 in 3.4 overs with Jacob Oram, who muscled 25 off 9 balls.

Before the massacre was The Comedy of Errors. The litany began off the first ball of the innings, when Shoaib overstepped and umpire Nigel Llong didn't spot it. Llong called Shoaib's next three foot-faults, though, and the New Zealand batsmen sent all those free-hits to the boundary. Brendon McCullum, however, missed an incutter soon after pulling the first free-hit for six and his dismissal brought in How, playing for the unwell Jesse Ryder.

Tim Southee:"It was the sort of day you are dreaming of, we were thinking of 245 and then suddenly ... it was some of the cleanest hitting I have ever seen. The partnership at the end from Pakistan is slightly disappointing." New Zealand are now top of table on net run rate.Here's the latest points table. This match will be remembered for the surreal onslaught at the end of New Zealand's innings, and Kamran Akmal's disastrous effort behind the stumps. Pakistan lost it in the final six over of New Zealand's batting and the first seven of theirs. Post-match presentation: Shahid Afridi: "I have no excuse. We didn't bowl well, we didn't field well, you can win games based on fielding, but I am confident of my team and myself, we will not repeat this performance. We should learn from what we did in this game." Ross Taylor: "To have them six down after 20 overs was a credit for the bowlers. We didn't want to be complacent at the break. I had a bit of luck early on, even when I was at 30 or 40, but the way Nathan and Jake came out and hit it rubbed off. " No update on Vettori. Taylor says "we'll just have to find out over the next couple of days." George Binoy has the bulletin for this match here. On behalf of Abhishek Purohit and the rest of the team, this is Siddarth Ravindran signing out. Thanks for all the mails, see you tomorrow.
41.4	Styris to Shoaib Akhtar, OUT, game over, Shoaib lasted all of two balls, another short one from Styris, Shoaib flails at it and gets a top edge that flies towards mid-on, Nathan McCullum gets across and takes a smart catch, and New Zealand get their third win of the tournament
	Shoaib Akhtar c NL McCullum b Styris 0 (2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
41.3	Styris to Shoaib Akhtar, no run, Stryis may be a dibbly-dobbly bowler but he wants to send a message to Shoaib, a bouncer that sails high over Shoaib
41.2	Styris to Umar Gul, 1 run, Gul's on strike now, he swings a shortish ball towards deep square leg
Shoaib Akhtar is the last man in
41.1	Styris to Abdul Razzaq, OUT, Styris has struck, Razzaq was looking for the Hollywood hit over long-on, can't get hold of it and it balloons in the air towards Oram at long-on, Pakistan lose their ninth
	Abdul Razzaq c Oram b Styris 62 (74b 9x4 0x6) SR: 83.78
End of over 41 (4 runs) Pakistan 191/8 (112 runs required from 54 balls, RR: 4.65, RRR: 12.44) Umar Gul    33* (24b 3x4 1x6)      NL McCullum    6-0-28-2 Abdul Razzaq    62* (73b 9x4)      SB Styris    4-0-16-0
40.6	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, no run, Gul looking totally at ease here, one more ball on the pads, glanced to short fine
40.5	NL McCullum to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, Razzaq again wanted to go for the big hit, McCullum sends it short, Razzaq checks his shot and plays it past a diving McCullum
40.4	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, 1 run, off his pads and down to fine leg, the partnership grows to 65
40.3	NL McCullum to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, thumped past Taylor at midwicket, a misfield from the acting captain gives a single
40.2	NL McCullum to Abdul Razzaq, no run, defended back to the bowler
'One mistake will do, lads, one mistake will do,' says McCullum
40.1	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, 1 run, nudged towards deep midwicket for a single
End of over 40 (4 runs) Pakistan 187/8 (116 runs required from 60 balls, RR: 4.67, RRR: 11.60) Umar Gul    31* (21b 3x4 1x6)      SB Styris    4-0-16-0 Abdul Razzaq    60* (70b 9x4)      NL McCullum    5-0-24-2
39.6	Styris to Umar Gul, 1 run, elegantly done by Gul, driven towards wide long-on for a single
39.5	Styris to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, length ball this time, hammered over the bowler's head, long-on is very straight and Oram gets round to stop what looked like a boundary
39.4	Styris to Abdul Razzaq, no run, superb delivery from Styris, in the blockhole, Razzaq looking to pull the trigger every ball now, he can only block this
39.3	Styris to Umar Gul, 1 run, on the pads, Gul whips it towards short fine leg, where Southee makes a smart stop
39.2	Styris to Umar Gul, no run, short of length and outside off, defended to the off side, Razzaq wanted the single but Gul didn't
39.1	Styris to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, muscled down to long-off, it was an overpitched ball, Nathan McCullum attacks the ball in the deep to keep the batsmen to a single
Scott Styris returns. 120 needed from 11 overs
End of over 39 (8 runs) Pakistan 183/8 (120 runs required from 11 overs, RR: 4.69, RRR: 10.90) Abdul Razzaq    58* (67b 9x4)      NL McCullum    5-0-24-2 Umar Gul    29* (18b 3x4 1x6)      JDP Oram    10-1-47-1
38.6	NL McCullum to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, fuller ball is thumped towards cover
38.5	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, 1 run, a bit shorter and a touch wider, Gul carves it to deep backward point
38.4	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, no run, fullish ball on the pads, driven to mid-on
38.3	NL McCullum to Abdul Razzaq, 1 run, length ball outside off, Razzaq makes room and jabs the ball towards backward point
38.2	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, 1 run, length ball outside off, dabbed towards point and a quick single is pinched
38.1	NL McCullum to Umar Gul, FOUR, full and wide outside off, Gul caresses that one past a diving cover fielder, supremely timed by Gul for four
End of over 38 (10 runs) Pakistan 175/8 (128 runs required from 12 overs, RR: 4.60, RRR: 10.66) Umar Gul    23* (14b 2x4 1x6)      JDP Oram    10-1-47-1 Abdul Razzaq    56* (65b 9x4)      KD Mills    8-1-43-2
37.6	Oram to Umar Gul, 1 run, short of length ball, sliding into middle, worked behind square leg for a single that brings up the 50 partnership
37.5	Oram to Umar Gul, FOUR, the runs are flowing for Pakistan, finally, a bouncer down the leg side, helped along to fine leg