Among the major teams, no team slipped so much as Daniel Vettori's New Zealand in recent times. They were not just defeated but whitewashed by Bangladesh and India and later by Pakistan in the recent one-day series. Some of the key players were under pressure for not assuming responsibility but they barely avoided the sack only because the World Cup was round the corner as too many changes just before the mega event would have only affected the team rather than doing any good. But the manner in which they crushed Kenya would have given their supporters plenty to rejoice about. Hamish Bennett is like a breath of fresh air for New Zealand cricket, he bowls quick, he has an orthodox open-chested action and showed what he can do when he is in his groove. Not just Bennett, the overall performance of the team, the batting efforts of Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum would have pleased the team management ahead of their February 25 clash with trans-tasman rivals Australia at Nagpur.
