Black Caps beat the odds

It has become a cliche that we are the little country that could and does, a country that punches above its weight. Overuse has slumped into familiarity, and familiarity has relaxed into relative apathy. But it’s moments like the Black Caps’ stunning semifinal victory over India that breathe life into such tired mantras.

The tiniest country at the Cricket World Cup – at 5 million people we are barely a quarter the size of the next largest nation, Sri

Lanka, at 22 million – now has the opportunity to stand astride its summit.

Whatever happens overnight tomorrow, we can all take a great deal of satisfaction from that realisation.

But there are good reasons to believe we can turn that opportunity into outcome.

Plenty of people dismissed the Black Caps’ chances in the semifinal, including the everconfident Indians.

And despite that incredible win, plenty are dismissing their chances against England.

Especially after the host nation dealt with Australia so comprehensively to book its own place in the final. But the Black Caps will be perfectly happy with that.

They will have the pleasure of a career-defining Lord’s appearance without the pressure of steep hometown expectation. England expects. All 56 million of them.

Also, we have something that England, Australia, India and many others don’t have: a clear lack of their riches in human resource that inspires the necessity for a different, possibly more cerebral approach.

Without that easy access to a conveyor belt of prodigious talent we must rely on a more canny application of fewer assets.

And a better understanding of how to exploit conditions in very different arenas.

Former Black Caps coach Mike Hesson has praised skipper Kane Williamson’s reading of a difficult pitch in the Old Trafford semifinal.

One wonders whether Williamson’s opposite, Indian captain Virat Kohli, felt the need to be as diligent, given the playing riches at his command.

That need to maximise what we have got also means a greater reliance on players with a broader range of skills, rather than specialists, and the understanding of how to harness those as part of a more collective campaign.

We are a champion team rather than a team of champions.

Our guys have got us to within one final step of cricket’s one-day summit.

In the words of another worldconquering Kiwi champion, we wish them good luck in knocking the bastard off.

If they succeed, we will be able to claim global supremacy in rugby and cricket, and maybe the Silver Ferns can add a third title in the netball world champs now under way.

Not bad for one of the smaller nations on the planet.