Day 7: Black Caps rampant

IT was another forgettable day for England, and a great one for New Zealand.

England batted first in Wellington and made a miserable 123 all out. Only Joe Root provided any resistance, making 46.

Tim Southee bagged 7 for 33 in nine overs of awesome seam and swing bowling. He was basically unplayable.

In reply, Brendon McCullum showed that he too can bat like AB de Villiers and gracefully bludgeoned the hapless England seam attack to all parts of the ground.

It was embarrassing for England, it has to be said. New Zealand reached the score in the 12th over, with two wickets down.

McCullum recorded the fastest to 50 in any World Cup, off 18 balls. De Villiers has the world record, off 16 balls.

At one point, McCullum smashed Steven Finn for four sixes in an over.

Some experts, like Martin Crowe, feel the advancements in bat technology need to be restricted.

Maybe the answer is in preparing spicier pitches. But that’s what it looked like when England were batting.

And with James Anderson and Stuart Broad bowling, you’d think they could get a few to shape away.

It made no difference to McCullum. If it was up it disappeared over mid on and mid off.

If it was short, it flew over mid-wicket.

After that performance, New Zealand fans can feel justified in really starting to believe that the World Cup could be theirs this time around.

We’ll see…

Coming up:

Saturday, February 21 at 12am – Pakistan vs West Indies.

Sunday, February 22 at 5.30am – South Africa vs India.