| Lock up your sun lounger and towel – the Black Caps are in the West Indies and ready to par-tay. Any student worth their beer bong knows you need to chop a few at home before you go into town, and so the Caps warmed up with a 7 run win against the Windies before the cup kicks off proper.
Even though it was a warm up game, most of the team didn’t bother warming up, and left the scoring runs and getting wickets and that to ‘Black To The Future’ duo Scott ‘The’ Styris and Jake ‘Snake’ Oram. |
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Oram and Styris light their farts in the general direction of the Australian team hotel |
| While getting one over your hosts is a good thing, acclimatising to local conditions is crucial also. When you step off the plane to find bodies in the sand, tropical drinks melting in your hand and steel drum bands after a month of eating Christchurch shopping mall food court lunches with the Crusaders, it’s easy to lose your head. The bars and beachs of the Caribbean have been a graveyard for touring teams over the years: |
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Fred ‘Andrew’ Flintoff prepares for a cruise on the HMS Ian Botham |
| The Caps go into this tournament in the now trademark role as Dark Horses™. It’s a fact that all cricket writers and TV analysts are contractually obliged to mention New Zealand as ‘possible semifinalists’, ‘dark horses’, capable of ‘suprising teams’, and ‘could go all the way’ in tournament previews, while laughing openly at previous semi final capitulations over port in the Hilton each night. |
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Black Beauty here is a Dark Horse™, black (like the caps) and about the size of NZ’s chances of winning the tournament. |
| Meanwhile, Jesse Ryder could be the Dark Horse™’s Dark Horse™ – how the man that can get into trouble in the Hutt Valley handles the West Indian Pina Colada jandal could be the difference between big Jesse filling the ‘Smithy’ role in sporting breakfast radio shows of the future, or becoming a cricketing folk hero. |
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A real folk hero – or Ryder after a night out down the Cool Runnings nightspot? |
| The tournament will be an interesting come down from the recent IPL, more Ewan Gilmor than Julian Clary, and will hopefuly be better run than the last West Indian World Cup, which lasted several years. Jesse, and backing up the captain and old pros’ form will be key for us. Go Caps. |
[...] Jesus fuck, you told us we were the dark horses! We were the dark horses, [...]
sport review · Black Caps T20 World Cup exit FAQ
12 May 10 at 10:35 am
[...] Jesus fuck, you told us we were the dark horses! We were the dark horses, [...]
sport review · Black Caps T20 World Cup exit FAQ
12 May 10 at 10:35 am