Feeling a bit more confident about our WC chances no after the 1st Chappell-Hadlee game, say what you like about the Australian's being under-par or Vincent being missed four times I beleive that the Black Caps put in a performance that deserves recognition and excitement from the New Zealand fans. In particular I have much more confidence in Lou Vincent, who has tightened up around his off-stump in the realisation that he doesn't have to score off every ball he faces. I feel this was particularly noticable in Australia, where he batted himself in and then was able to take advantage of his speed between the wickets later in the innings. Stephen Fleming also looks like he could be striking form, but equally he could score two golden ducks in the remaining games before the World Cup.
Losing Oram for the first few games is a major blow, and hopefully he will be okay to play later in the tournament, presuming ofcourse that we make it past the group stage. With Bond actually having played a few games without breaking down and Mark Gillespie impressing on a number of occasions I feel that we have a new-ball pair who can be genuinely threatening. With Tuffey, Franklin and Mason all providing their different strengths our pace bowling looks pretty good. Add to that Vettori, Patel and our other slow bowlers like McMillan and Styris then that part of our attack is solid through the middle overs.
Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor and Scott Styris will presumably bat at 3, 4 and 5 and I don't have too much of a problem with that. McMillan will slide in at 6 while Oram is injured and depending on how he goes, may replace Fulton when Oram returns. McCullum at 7 is still making handy contributions but doesn't look as good as he used to and I think moving him up the order has confused him a little bit. Still, I'm looking forward to staying up all night and hopefully seeing our boys triumph.
You got an avatar without knowing how? 
