When Black Caps came very close

K Shriniwas Rao takes a peek at what made the ’92 side the best ever

It isn’t all that difficult to reel back to 1992 if you’re looking for New Zealand’s best stint in World Cup.

When Mark Greatbatch was nonchalantly hitting those sixes, Martin Crowe’s captaincy was proving to be as lethal as Greatbatch’s lashing, Chris Harris’ presence in the middle was as comforting as Crowe’s captaincy and Chris Cairns showing as much skill in understanding the situation as Harris himself—the players were complimenting each other like never before.

New Zealand were looking unstoppable until a sleeping giant called Inzamam rocked them. Pakistan, riding on Imran Khan’s captaincy and a battery of exceptional individual talents walked over Crowe’s team in the semi-final to eventually win the title.

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The 1992 edition saw the introduction of field restrictions. And it turned out to be a platform for Greatbatch to redefine ODI batting, the maverick aggregated 313 runs from 7 innings at a blistering pace. Complementing him was skipper Crowe who emerged top scorer with 456 runs. Along with all-rounders like Cairns, Harris and Patel in the team, New Zealand found the batting line-up go as far as number eight. The bowling department had the talent of Deepak Patel, William Watson and Gavin Larson among others who could restrict any attack.

New Zealand’s greatest ability had always been to stick well on slow and difficult wickets. Although the Black Caps have made it to the semis four times, but none came as close as the side of 92.