New Zealand vs Australia: Fans believe Black Caps can deliver the dream

New Zealand are free from a fear of failure in the World Cup final

(Getty Images)

We’ve done well to get this far. No one can seriously expect New Zealand to match the Aussies at home. We haven’t played at the MCG in ages. For a team like ours – outside the major powers and with no experience in World Cup deciders – just being here is a bit of a thrill.

Hey, if the Aussies are in a good mood, maybe one of them will even sign Brendon McCullum’s bat for him.

All of the above is true – possibly even the bat bit – but as New Zealand go into tomorrow’s Cricket World Cup final in Melbourne, the fans back home are believing the dream.

It’s possibly the rarest feeling in sport: an absolute certainty that your team can deliver, combined with the stress-relieving chill of having some pretty decent grounds for failure. The bookies will quite reasonably have Michael Clarke’s men as favourites.

On the rare occasions that the All Blacks make a Rugby World Cup final, this small, batty nation pretty much shuts down, consumed by angst, fear of failure and a pending sense of grief around the corner. Domestic abuse help lines bring in extra staff.

Cricket is different. A bit of fun in the summer months at which we’ve never really excelled. Something to listen to on the radio while the barbecue warms up. Historically, we’ve settled for occasionally bloodying the nose of our bigger sibling across the Tasman.

But today, we are excelling. Simply bloodying their nose won’t be enough.

The Black Caps are a side free from the fear of failure. Their captain, McCullum, is standing – right now – about 10ft tall. He’s seeing the ball like it’s made out of soft foam and in Tuesday’s semi-final at Eden Park he took Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel apart.

Fans have responded. We’re normally a sedate mob at sports events, but the semi-final was a raucous affair, complete with strangers hugging and men crying. The fans are walking light in the feet but with mighty big heads.

Yes, the Aussies will be tough. And yes, the MCG – as Matthew Hayden pointed out this week – is bigger than any cricket ground we have in New Zealand. The Aussie opener would have you believe the North Island could fight inside the space between the MCG’s long-on boundary and third man.

Steve Smith is good. Mitchell Starc, too. The others we can handle. The only batsman in the tournament that the New Zealanders simply could not get out was AB de Villiers and, with a little help from Messrs Duckworth and Lewis along with a delirious Eden Park crowd, we got past him.

But 10ft-tall McCullum has the eyes and instinct of a killer. He has led a campaign of relentless confidence, capturing the nation’s heart with his aggressive cricket.

Heroics have abounded. Kane Williamson hit a six to win our pool match against Australia – as you do. Grant Elliott did the same to South Africa. McCullum and fellow opener Martin Guptill have struck the ball over the boundary with rude urgency for a whole summer.

When the country’s biggest newspaper compiled a list of the New Zealanders’ top XI “match-turning moments”, Tim Southee’s blistering seven wickets for 33 against England (remember that one?) in pool play only just skidded in at No 10.

Few days in life are as wonderful as the one on which you can first knock down your bigger sibling. For us, that day is here.

Winston Aldworth writes for the New Zealand Herald.