New Zealand take on West Indies at Dunedin Tomorrow by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Event:

West Indies in New Zealand 2008/09

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DateLine: 10th December 2008

 

Two teams who are struggling to find their feat at test level off late will take on each other in the first of the two test series in Dunedin tomorrow. The team that wins the series will get ahead of the other and escape being at the bottom, ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Its a battle of equals and the team that shows the combined effort rather than individual brilliance should pull through.

New Zealand should have the upper hand considering the fact that they always tend to play as a group rather than a bunch of individuals. Under the Captaincy of Daniel Vettori this team is going through a transition phase and will be looking up to experienced players like Jacob Oram, who is coming back after a back injury, and Brendon Mc Cullum to help them sail through. The return of Left arm fast bowler James Franklin should give variety to the attack. But Youngsters like Ross Taylor and Jamie How will have to perform for New Zealand after there struggles in Australia.

West Indies on the other hand will rely a lot on their captain Chris Gayle along with the experience of Sarwan and Chanderpaul in the batting department. But their bowling lacks teeth in the absence of a genuine spinner. They were carted all over the park in the side game against Auckland though the wicket was a belter. They will looking towards the speed of Edwards and the accuracy of Powell in the first test.

With both teams having their strengths and weaknesses it will be interesting to see which team holds their nerve in crunch situations, because both of them have generally crumbled when the going is tough. So it will be interesting to see how they play against each other, considering the fact that they are languishing at the bottom of the ICC test rankings.