Aussies on course for records

OPINION: As I watched Australia's David Warner flay the West Indies to, and mostly over, the rope from the comfort of my couch on Tuesday night my mind started to wander, writes Logan Savory in this week's Sav's Say.

As the balls cleared the rope of the Sydney Cricket Ground I started to have visions of the New Zealand grounds.

The likes of the Westpac Stadium in Wellington and AMI Stadium in Christchurch entered my thoughts.

The Aussies arrived in the country yesterday for a five-week showdown with New Zealand and I think we are about to witness some records broken.

The game of cricket has come on that far in the past 12 months that our grounds in New Zealand are just far too small to contain the modern-day batsman.

The most sixes in a twenty20 international is 23 between South Africa and England late last year but I think you'll find that will be eclipsed in the next week.

Chris Gayle is the only West Indian batsman to date to score a century in the twenty20 format at the international level, but I'd suggest someone could also go close to becoming the second soon.

My predictions of mass murder on the bowlers during the Aussie tour isn't a dig at New Zealand at all.

In fact, with Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond in our ranks we have probably more firepower than Pakistan and the West Indies have aimed at our trans-Tasman friends in the batting department.

But the fact of the matter is our grounds are too small for international twenty20 cricket now and some ridiculous scores are on the cards.

Miss hits will go for six in the New Zealand-Australia series as bowlers battle to restrict batsmen.

If there is any country where you would like to take on the Australian bowling attack, it is in New Zealand.

At 150kmh, the likes of Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes are daunting, but the faster the speed the faster it can get to the boundary.

In New Zealand the point from the bat to the boundary isn't that long.

History and recent form suggest a whitewash in favour of the Aussies during the next five weeks, but maybe it is time our leading cricketers can deliver.

One thing we do know is they'll need plenty of runs in the bank if they can sneak some upset wins.

» Logan Savory is a former Southland cricket representative who was named New Zealand junior sportswriter of the year at the 2007 TP McLean journalism awards. His main rounds are cricket and rugby.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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