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.

Now for Aussie, the next test for Brendon McCullum's men

Breath-taking. That can be the only description for New Zealand's demolition of England in the World Cup.

An eight wicket win achieved in 45.4 overs. That's 33.2 overs for England to post 123, losing their last seven wickets for 19 runs, and 12.2 overs for New Zealand to score 125.

Brendon McCullum's style is now thrown all over his team who were magnificent in the field, and responded to a brilliant demonstration of swing bowling by Tim Southee.

The Northland fast bowler doesn't always have the wickets fall in his favour, but he reaped a superb reward in Wellington in taking 7-33 from his nine overs, the best figures by a New Zealander in World Cup cricket and the third best in World Cup history.

McCullum increasingly chooses the bigger stages to demonstrate his batting wares and achieved the fastest 50 in World Cup history taking 18 balls en route to 77 off 25, with eight fours and 7 sixes.

England looked clueless from the outset and never recovered.

This is clearly a side with deep internal issues because there are too many quality players contained within it for it to be anything else.

As for New Zealand, they are stepping, perhaps even over-stepping, their older brothers from the 1992 campaign with a level of determination and skill that now only needs to overcome the threat Australia pose in Auckland next weekend to earn the right to a share of favouritism for the final prize.

These are heady heights for a country that rarely pokes its head above the cricket clouds. They are to be enjoyed while remembering that the path gets steeper now, and focus is vital.

New Zealand track cycling continues its brilliant rise

Absolutely brilliant news out of the World track cycling championships in Paris today.

If it wasn't already apparent, New Zealand track cycling is in the middle of an absolutely stunning era, the greatest in its history.

A gold medal over the British in the team pursuit is a stellar result which after yesterday's sprint triumph over the French, albeit rescinded to a silver medal for a technicality, will have the world buzzing.

New Zealand are no longer making up the numbers, they are setting the pace, and they will be featuring prominently in everyone's assessments ahead of the Olympic Games next year.

Add to that success the effort of Eddie Dawkins taking a silver medal in the men's keirin with team-mate Sam Webster in sixth place and it is clear this success is no fluke.

The men's pursuit team of Dylan Kennett, Pieter Bulling, Alex Frame and Marc Ryan qualified for the final by heading off Switzerland while Britain beat Canada.

Cycling has followed rowing in showing what can be done when intelligent resourcing, quality coaching, inspired vision and participant skill and strength are combined. It's an impressive mix and nowhere near fulfilment.

(Photo: Guy Swarbrick/Cycling New Zealand)

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

Fast man Bartlett has story to tell

New Zealand cricket does not have a reputation for producing fast bowlers capable of sustaining form or fitness for the long haul.

Perhaps it's something for the physiology professors to work out. Certainly, they would have plenty of case study material from those comets who have exploded across the lower atmosphere in New Zealand.

Meteor Over Marborough - The Gary Bartlett Story by John Alexander. Printed and available from Copy Press Books, Nelson, $49.95

It is a sad fact that those who have generated speed above the ordinary have burned out all too quickly.

In recent memory Shane Bond is the most obvious example, but before him there was Murray Webb, who terrorised batsmen in domestic cricket in the late-60s early 70s but never had the good fortune to get to bowl in a Test match on a bowling belter.

Fast bowler Gary Bartlett speaks with Lynn McConnell on Radio Live Weekend Sport

Richard and Dayle Hadlee each generated lively pace, Richard for a brief period before deciding endurance was more reasonable than express pace while Dayle was never able to shake a back injury suffered almost immediately after he was exposed to international play.

The fastest of them all may well have been Gary Bartlett who had the satisfaction of being a key contributor to three of New Zealand's first four Test victories, two overseas in South Africa in 1961-62 and at home against India in 1967-68.

Comparisons between eras are difficult, especially when timing devices were not as efficient as those on the modern scene.

However, those who have had the chance to see all the possible claimants in action rate Bartlett as the fastest of them all.

But he was to suffer injuries that negated the total impact he could have made.

His story is a fascinating one and has been finally committed to print by former Blenheim sports writer John Alexander.

'Meteor Over Marlborough'  is the end product and it is a fascinating look through cricket of Bartlett's era from a bowler's perspective and which hasn't been recognised as books about John Reid and Bert Sutcliffe are the only books of significance from the time and they concentrate more on those batsmen's feats.

Bartlett was always going to be a cricketer of some reputation. He lived the classic upbringing for sportsmen of his era and before. Living opposite the home of cricket in Blenheim, Horton Park, he was ever-present at the nets and at games in the manner of many boys before him including one young fellow named Bradman who lived opposite the Oval that now bears his name in Bowral.

Bartlett also had some wise men to watch over him, Fen and Arthur Cresswell, two long-standing names in Marlborough cricket. All the contacts who helped him along the way are part of his story.

It was some surprise to the New Zealand slips cordon that awaited the first ball from Bartlett when he made his international debut at the Basin Reserve in Wellington against an Australian Second XI in New Zealand. After seeing the speed unleashed they took several steps backwards before his second ball.

Visiting Australian captain Ian Craig didn't enjoy the experience as he became Bartlett's first international wicket and he picked him five times out of six during the series. Bartlett took 5-51 in the first innings of that first game.

No wonder John Reid moved heaven and earth to have him in his side to tour South Africa in 1961-62. After all the heavy fire New Zealand's batsmen took in South Africa on their 1953-54 tour, Bartlett represented prospective payback.

Not that he was at full strength during the tour, but his mere presence in the New Zealand attack was sufficient to give his side a significant weapon.

Then in 1968 in one of the great New Zealand Test victories he took six wickets in India's second innings at Lancaster Park to set up a win, having started his destructive spell with an old ball that was like a cloth.

It is an indictment of New Zealand's failure to utilise available technical information that cricket has seemed to be perpetually inventing the wheel. Egos have too often got in the way of common sense as coaches think they know best often failing to call on expertise that has been exposed to problems that all new international players experience at some stage or another.

Bartlett is but one example of a technician who had much to offer. Certainly the number of Central Districts cricketers who have sought him should be evidence enough of the value he could be.

His story, Meteor Over Marlborough, should be not only a faithful record of a player who made a difference but also a reminder that there is nothing new under the cricketing sun, and somewhere, someone else has experienced problems and could have information to help players out.

The intellectual property available in New Zealand comes from too small a pool for this realisation to be ignored and so far as Bartlett is concerned it is a case of what might have been had he been able to work with more young bowlers.