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 | |  Saturday, 23 February, 2002, 12:07 GMT A game of chance  England leave the field a satisfied team England's win in Auckland provides further proof that one-day cricket is a lottery, says BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos. For a handful of heart-stopping overs when Chris Cairns and Andre Adams were defying the longest of odds it seemed that New Zealand might be about to deny England a deserved victory in Auckland. Had England failed to level the series, they would of course have been heartbroken. But, in the ever more unpredictable world of one-day cricket, they would not have been surprised. At Napier, earlier in the series, they had crumbled to the second-lowest total in their history - 86 - and were being written off as an embarrassment to their country. And yet, one week later, here they were celebrating like world champions - and none but the New Zealanders would have begrudged them their excitement. Solid outfit The sober truth, however, is that the one-day fortunes of England and New Zealand over the past couple of years have been unpredictable to say the least. New Zealand might have the appearance of a solid limited-overs outfit, having lifted the ICC Knockout Trophy in Nairobi in October 2000 and, more recently, made it to the final of the VB triangular series with Australia and South Africa. But in 41 one-day matches since the ICC Trophy their record is a decidedly modest P41 W16 L25. Twice they have been beaten five times in succession. England's record over the same period is no better - P27 W11 L16, including a record low of 11 successive defeats to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.
And yet other countries drool over the skills of Chris Cairns and Chris Harris, and increasingly England's opponents are respecting the bottomless spirit - if not quite the skill - of Nasser Hussain's men. The truth, of course, is that one-day cricket is little more than a lottery, always has been and always will be. In three out of seven World Cups, few would have predicted the eventual winners - India in 1983, Australia in 1988 and Sri Lanka in 1996. And by studying England's fortunes in Auckland it is not difficult to see why. The scorebook will show the deceptively one-sided margin of victory by 33 for England. Yet they were pushed all the way and, but for the Duckworth/Lewis method - imperfect but the fairest rule in rain-reduced matches so far - the difference would have been a mere four runs. Missed chances If that makes New Zealand sound a trifle hard-done by, they can count themselves lucky to have come as close as they did. Four times key batsmen skied balls that landed between converging fielders and Cairns, the only half-century-maker in their innings, was missed on one by Nick Knight at slip. Stephen Fleming should have been caught in the over before his dismissal when Nasser Hussain lost sight of a vertical drive in the powerful glare of the floodlights. And Craig McMillan was unable to capitalise on his good fortune when he glided to gully an over after mistiming a drive just beyond a sprawling Michael Vaughan at mid-off.
Such is the nature of one-day cricket, however, that these batsmen had no option but to take these risks. Despite Adams having already taken ten runs off Collingwood, Cairns felt that New Zealand needed more off the Durham allrounder's last over and was bowled hitting across the line. England's travelling support celebrated wildly as the New Zealand faction fell quiet in dismay. Moments earlier, the emotional barometer had been pointing in the opposite direction. It does not seem right that, in a supposed game of skill, fortunes can change so radically in such a short period of time. Well, it was Saturday night after all which could mean only one thing - the national lottery. | |
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