As Sunday’s T20 World Cup final, where take on hosts and pre-tournament favourites India, inevitably triggers all sorts of David vs Goliath comparisons, it may be worth remembering a defining day in Melbourne, 11 years ago.
They say Australian hearts only bleed for their cricket team when they are playing in white flannels. But go back and listen to the pop of the maximum-capacity MCG crowd when Mitchell Starc’s devilish yorker castled the stumps of Brendon McCullum in the first over of the 2015 World Cup final. It’s a moment that impacted the myth-making around both players involved.
McCullum, as captain and opening batter, had set the attacking template that made New Zealand a pleasing crowd favourite in their home tournament. The hype around them had been enormous, especially after they won a nerve-wracking semifinal over South Africa. But Starc’s ball, full and moving in, among the first big-stage moments in the career of the game’s greatest left-arm pacer since Wasim Akram – blunted the challenge immediately. McCullum walked out with intent; first ball he tried to drive but missed, the second ball he charged down only to hit air and in the third, Starc’s fifth, he was bowled.
From there, Australia cantered to victory in a low-scoring match, one of their six titles at the most prestigious tournament in the game. The oft-forgotten one.
McCullum’s imprint on that tournament would later become central to his image as a leader. It set a template of overachievement that New Zealand followed for a decade, and also marked the start of their poor run in finals. Recent history has rendered the ‘underdogs’ tag into a terrible cliche. New Zealand have had red-ball glory, winning the inaugural World Test Championship and becoming the first team to whitewash India in India in a three-match series. They also reached four finals of white-ball tournaments in 10 years. The flipside is they lost them all; a fifth one in on Sunday would certainly rankle.
Along the way, there has been dire misfortune. Being on the wrong side of 2019’s freak-of-nature World Cup final, where they lost to England on boundary count after tying the Super Over, is well-remembered. What has much less recall value was when they slipped on Dubai’s dew, losing an important toss and then routinely to Australia in the Covid-impacted 2021 T20 World Cup final. At last year’s Champions Trophy, they were once again outplayed, this time by India, who chased down their under-par score despite a wobble.
But Mitchell Santner’s team will have few reasons to be weighed down by the past. They are without their trusted veterans: the likes of , Tim Southee and . This isn’t a squad full of players who have suffered those setbacks. Instead, many of them have been bred in franchise leagues where they have developed big-match temperament and handy skills for this fickle format.
It may have been a surprise for the Kiwis to have made this final in the absence of many on-paper match-winners, but their team as a whole is adaptable and versatile. In a tournament full of varying conditions, their bowling lineup has been spin-dominated on some days and pace-dominated on others. Their muscular batting gives them aggressive starts, but what gives them the license to do so is a deep lineup full of all-rounders that can stabilise proceedings in the event of a collapse. As a leader, Santner is understated yet assured; he exudes a calm confidence within the side.
That will help when the pressure of expectations inevitably catches up to their opposition, who will be expected to complete the feat that passed them by two years ago. In that sense, if the ghosts of New Zealand’s past are to crop up in their consciousness on Sunday, the ghosts of Ahmedabad 2023 are just as likely to play on the Indian players’ minds.
So it’s still David vs Goliath. But with an additional layer of intrigue complicating matters. Nothing buries the ignominy of the past like the glory of success. Only one of these teams will have that luxury.
