Hyderabad: There, then. That’s it. A month-and-a-half of cricket boils down to this thriller. It’s New Zealand locking horns with Australia for the silverware, and I doubt if it could get better than this. Both biggies, both predicted to win the World Cup. Both razor sharp. I’m excited.
So, here’s how it goes. The Australians look like they have an upper hand. But, honestly, they don’t. Neither do the Kiwis, for that matter. And this is exactly what makes this contest one to look forward to.
Both the sides have their own advantages. For Australia, Maxwell, Smith and Watson are their batting trump cards, while Mitchell Starc, Maxwell, again and Pat Cummins would take care of the bowling.
However, the biggest change since the last match would be the fact that they now have a new batting hero. When the Indians came right back during the last 15 overs of the Aussie batting campaign, there was only one man who fought back and fought back hard – Mitchell Johnson. For the Kiwis, the man poses a lethal problem – both with the bat and with the ball.
If we talk in terms of weaknesses, the one chink in the Oz armour has been its opening. If that gets fixed, the batting line up looks solid on paper and can be a threat any day.
The Kiwis on the other hand have made graceful progress so far. Solid, absolutely solid. Their batting, their bowling, impeccable.
The only glitch for them is the fact that this is their first final appearance in a World Cup and the fact that they’re up against Australia doesn’t make it one bit easy for them. While many would feel that the Kiwis aren’t exactly there, I would strongly disagree.
The Aussies are far too familiar with this – a final match. Even though the Kiwis make a debut of sorts tomorrow, they’re no less, in any way. My heart’s thumping already.