World Cup final here we come

What a brilliant reward making the World Cup final is for an outstanding campaign by New Zealand's cricketers.

But the challenge now is not to just savour their achievement in reaching the final but going on to win it.

There can be no argument that the last five weeks have represented a stellar feat of teamwork in the grand New Zealand manner.

Any sporting success achieved by New Zealanders, generally against the weight of population, monetary and technology advantages enjoyed by the opposition, has teamwork at its core. How else could such a small population base succeed on the world stage?

Yachting, rowing, golf, athletics, rugby, football, softball and a host of other sports have a legacy of teamwork examples as the basis of their success.

But Brendon McCullum's men have a superb chance to add cricket to that list.

No matter which way you look at it, the semi-final victory over South Africa was not an accident.

It may have been achieved with a ball to spare, it may have been as the result of some luck.

Good teams make their own luck, and to be in position to take advantage of it is central to success.

Consider the examples the team has already provided.

Last night it was Grant Elliott with an innings of elegant composure and a penultimate ball six off one of the finest bowlers the game has known.

But it might just as well have been Kane Williamson's six to manage a one-wicket win over Australia.

Or Tim Southee sorting out England with a New Zealand-best bowling effort in ODIs of 7-33 for 15 wickets at 4.23 economy rate.

Or Trent Boult achieving New Zealand's best haul of wickets in a World Cup series, outstanding considering six months ago he wasn't even considered a certainty for inclusion. He heads the tournament list with 21 wickets at an economy rate of 4.41.

Or Daniel Vettori's bowling mastery at crucial stages of the tournament. He has 15 wickets at an economy rate of 3.98.

That's not to forget Martin Guptill's magnificent highest score in World Cups in Wellington with his 237 not out. He sits second on the run scoring list with 532, nine behind Kumar Sangakkara.

Or the electric starts Brendon McCullum has given the side with his blazing bat, for 328 runs at a strike rate of 191.81, and that isn't forgetting his leadership.

And while they haven't taken the bowling apart Ross Taylor and Corey Anderson have featured with some key innings to stabilise the batting just when it was necessary. Anderson has thrown in 14 wickets.

What about Adam Milne picking up wickets at key moments with his exciting fast bowling, or taking catches in the outfield?

All of which highlights the teamwork which is the best asset of the New Zealand side.

Auckland rewarded their effort in magnificent fashion, paying due homage to a side which went one step further than Martin Crowe's men of 1992 and which supplemented the earlier work of teams led by Glenn Turner (1975), Mark Burgess (1979), Geoff Howarth (1983), Stephen Fleming (1999-2007) and Daniel Vettori (2011).

Tuesday's victory was a significant moment in New Zealand's cricket history but McCullum's men have done enough in this World Cup to suggest they can go all the way.

They will have a significant challenge in getting used to the vast acreage of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The boundaries are much longer, the ground to be covered in the field much further and the methods of run accumulation much different.

But as the teamwork has shown during this tournament, if ever there was a team of winning the World Cup it is Brendon McCullum's side.

McCullum has chance to blaze another trail

Brendan McCullum's success in overcoming all the exterior stress in leading his side to one of the more definite New Zealand Test cricket successes in Sharjah on Sunday may not be the end of his rewards this year.

 

It was New Zealand's 78^th Test victory, and its eighth Test win over Pakistan.

Completing the fourth double century of his career en route to 202, McCullum moved closer in second place behind Stephen Fleming on the all-time New Zealand Test run scoring list with 5653 runs, 1519 runs behind while he also gained a share of the New Zealand second wicket partnership record  of 297 runs with Kane Williamson thus supplanting John Wright and Andrew Jones 241 against England in 1991-92.

However, McCullum broke one of the longer standing New Zealand batting records during his innings.

McCullum lifted his total of runs scoring in the calendar year to 969, the most by a New Zealander.

John R Reid lost the grip he had held on that statistic since 1965 when McCullum reached 872 runs, as he posted his 105^th run during his innings.

That was a significant achievement and leaves McCullum with the chance, in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Christchurch starting on Boxing Day, to become the first New Zealander to achieve 1000 Test runs in a calendar year.

Reid's was a significant record to break given he played in an era of reduced Test match opportunities, and the occasion was helped in 1965 by New Zealand playing a home series against Pakistan before setting out to tour India, Pakistan and England, one of the busiest years in their Test history to that point.

However, the mark has been under an assault in recent times with Ross Taylor, who got within six runs of beating the record last year having four of the greatest annual accumulation of runs among the top seven occasions.

Martin Crowe also got close with 820 runs during his great year of 1985, part of which included New Zealand's innings victory over Australia in Brisbane.

It should be noted that Kane Williamson ended the Test on 844 runs and he too has the chance to finish the year not only passing Reid's mark, but also scoring 1000 runs.

McCullum's appetite for runs has been central to the team doing so well and finally starting its move up the ICC Test rankings while the support of Williamson and Taylor, and the emerging value of Tom Latham has given New Zealand the sort of batting stability that is vital to its continuing climb to Test match competitiveness.

To have completed such an outstanding victory in foreign conditions by out-spinning the home team speaks volumes for McCullum's side.

It should not be forgotten that it has long been an adage of the New Zealand game that if a bowler can take 10 wickets in a match, that is a significant step along the way to achieving a Test match victory.

Mark Craig's 10 for 203 was the 25^th occasion a New Zealand bowler had taken 10 wickets, and he was the 15^th bowler to achieve the feat.

Most runs by a New Zealander in a calendar year:

B McCullum		969	64.6	2014
J R Reid		871	36.39	1965
R Taylor		866	72.17	2013
M Crowe		820	51.25	1985
R Taylor		819	54.6	2012
R Taylor		818	38.95	2008
R Taylor		782	55.86	2009
B Sutcliffe		774	51.6	1954
N Astle		769	45.24	1999
B McCullum		758	75.8	2010
M Crowe		751	62.58	1987
S Fleming		737	46.06	2004
J Wright		705	78.33	1990
G Turner		676	96	1972
M Richardson		663	60.27	2001
B Congdon		641	27.87	1969
S Fleming		631	70.11	2003
S Thomson		631	39.44	1994
B Young		623	44.5	1997
M Crowe		598	46	1992
C McMillan		587	39.13	2000
K Rutherford		571	43.92	1993
S Fleming		570	47.5	2006
J Wright		566	40.43	1984
M Burgess		565	35.31	1976
G Howarth		560	56	1978
L Vincent		541	49.18	2005
A Jones		513	102.6	1991