Sibling rivalry: The need to trip up big brother to emerge from the shadows

A dream final looms large on the last day of the World Cup. Sunday would see a new world champion. In the fight of the cousins of the southern world, the rest of the cricket world favours New Zealand because they’re underdogs — and also because they’re pleasant, self-effacing and endearing.

These qualities shone through the gentle words that New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum — the ferocious batsman — spoke on the eve of the match today. He wore a serene, placid smile and spoke soft, gentle words. But he’s also a man of flint, renowned for his physical toughness and powerful strokes. He is determined that New Zealand should win the first World Cup final they’ve reached; he wants to thwart Australia in their bid for their fifth World Cup crown.

The final has been invested with greater import as this will be the last ODI played by Michael Clarke, the Australian captain. Clarke and Australia lost to New Zealand once during the tournament, in a match played in New Zealand. But on their own turf, Australia seem unstoppable. Their One-day record at home is quite intimidating — they’ve won 24 of the last 26 completed ODIs at home. They’ve won all their games on home turf comfortably, including the knockout matches against Pakistan and India.

Tough Kiwi

New Zealand have been even more impressive, with mostly comfortable wins in the group stage. They’ve got the best balanced team in the tournament: Dangerous hitters of the ball; two excellent fast bowlers, a left-hander and a right-hander; and a world-class left-arm spinner.

The man leading the team is possibly the toughest cricketer alive. McCullum is aggressive with the bat — he blasts the ball right from the first delivery. He’s an aggressive, wicket-taking captain —he often provides his bowlers four slips, a point and a gully. He goes for the jugular at all times. New Zealand have had great players over the years, but they could often be accused of diffidence in the field of play. No one can possibly accuse McCullum of diffidence. Richard Hadlee, the former allrounder, says that McCullum is the leader they’ve never had — a man who goes for the opposition hard, with both bat and ball and as a leader.

Big Brother

“New Zealand have been the form team of the competition,” Clarke said today. “New Zealand have beaten us once in this tournament, but I’m confident if we play our best, we can beat them tomorrow.”

Australia can play their best tomorrow — they’ve got men in form, especially the bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Johnson. They have the batsmen to take on the excellent New Zealand bowlers, prime among whom are Steven Smith, David Warner and Glenn Maxwell.

McCullum has made the team in his own image. In this World Cup, Martin Guptill has struck two hundreds; McCullum himself has made 328 runs at a strike rate of over 191. Corey Anderson, Grant Elliott and Kane Williamson made over 200 runs each. Three of their bowlers have taken 15 wickets or more, and a fourth has scalped 14. New Zealand have been the team of the tournament.

Grounds for excellence

There can be only one possible doubt over New Zealand — they played all their games on their home stadia. They are generally smaller in size, and the boundaries are easier to collect — thus McCullum has struck 17 sixers, Guptill has hit 15. In all, New Zealand have hit 53 sixers — in bigger grounds of Australia, the Australians have hit 46 sixers. The Australian media has emphasised these two points — the New Zealanders are not quite happy with this. They believe that this is intimidation of their team.

But McCullum is fearless. He said that this was the final he would have wanted when the tournament began. This he said without a sense of bravado — he said this unhesitatingly, with deep confidence.

Rare respect

Australians believe in verbal warfare before a game as important as this. But, amazingly, Clarke was gentle and extremely respectful towards the New Zealanders in his pre-match briefing today. Clarke has mellowed — he’s been hurt terribly by the death of his “little brother” Phil Hughes. He also is sensitive to the situation of New Zealand cricket, with iconic batsman Martin Crowe being terminally ill with cancer.

“The main message from both of us (McCullum) was we wish each other all the best,” Clarke said. “I have a great relationship with Brendon. I’ll always be grateful for the way he and his team respected the Hughes tragedy and respected Phillip’s family, so that’s probably brought us closer together.”

McCullum also spoke heart-touching about Crowe. The two captains, much like their nations, are siblings brought closer by adversity. That won’t hold them back from trying to knock each other’s head off tomorrow at the MCG. It would be fun.