Crowe's out of the box captaincy
In major ICC tournaments throughout the years, if any team has consistently been labelled as the dark horses, then it has to be New Zealand. Despite possessing good all-round talent, the Black Caps have never won a major ICC championship.
The year 1992 was no less. Comig on the back of a series defeat by England, the Black Caps desplayed grit and fighting spirit and put up a comendable performance, losing to Pakistan in the semi-finals. But their skipper Martin Crowe was undoubtedly one of the stars of the tournament, not only for his batting, but also for his innovative captaincy and astute cricketing brain. Crowe finished the tournament on a high with 456 runs at an average of 114 in 9 matches.
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New Zealand's opening encounter in the 1992 WC against Australia gave us a glimpse of Crowe's skills. Favourites Australia put the Black Caps on the mat at 13/2, when Crowe came on to bat. Crowe was essentially a batsman in the classical mould and had a vast repertoire of shots i his armoury. He also had the semblence of mind to play according to the conditions and nature of the pitch. Beginning slowly on the sluggish Auckland wicket, Crowe managed to stich important partnerships with Rod Latham and Ken Rutherford and took the score to 248/6. He himself made a composed century.
But Crowe wasn't finished yet. He brought out his thinking cap, and employed a master stroke by opening the bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel. The ploy worked wonders for him and it stiffled the opposition from scoring freely. New Zealand finally won the game by 37 runs.
In the next two matches he didn't contribute much but his frequent bowling changes during the tournament did not enable the opposition to settle down quickly and the team got rewarded by winning five matches on the trot.
After playing a gritty knock against England, Crowe showed his hiiting capabilities in the semis against Pakistan. A 83 ball 91 was not enough to get them a win, mainly due to Inzamam-ul-Haq's astounding knock, but it surely made the world stand up and take notice of Crowe's capabilities.
