D'Arcy Waldegrave: The Black Caps need to hit the ground running

Afghanistan, West Indies, Uganda, Papua New Guinea.   On the face of it, New Zealand's journey toward the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup doesn’t appear to be onerous.    New Zealand starts their campaign late, nearly a week after the comp got up and running. They enter the fray with no warmup games under their belt. Some of the team didn't arrive until Sunday. After time in the ICL (Indian Cash League) some of them needed time at home with family before heading to the World Cup. A fractured lead in, you could say.    So, are they underdone? That’s the question. On the face of it, yes, they are, but in such an abrupt format, does that even matter? Frankly, no.   Plainly they need to hit the ground sprinting and hammer the Afghan side. One win in their first 2 matches should be enough to qualify, providing they lay waste to the minnows to finish the round-robin. Seems straightforward enough until the tyranny above rears its ugly head and drops its payload. Rain. The arch enemy of cricket.    The format itself is prone to upset results through the brevity of the exchanges. Add truncated or abandoned fixtures into the mix, highly likely in the Caribbean currently, the need to take competition points with healthy net run rates is essential. Sunshine and hay making if you will.   Win and win well while you can. The vagaries of West Indian weather may well have a bigger say in proceedings than would be welcome.    To start the comp with a heavy defeat through rust could indeed leave the Black Caps in a tenuous position from the get-go.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.