Semi final would be par - there's been hype about us before, notably after we beat Aust in the Chappell Hadlee series 3 times.
For all the talk about the last home World Cup, we were rubbish before it, the low slow wickets helped, and Martin Crowe's batting and he and Lees' innovation were important
This team is much better - we bat well, bowl well and field well - only Australia and RSA can say the same going into this world cup - but the likes of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan can still surprise - they all can bat brilliantly, and batting first if they put up 300+ scores, anything can happen - while we won easily last night, they were in a position to score 300, just they needed 360, so that pressure is difficulty to deal with, Aust, RSA, and us will all find chasing big scores hard...
FWIW, we were very very good for a very long period of time leading into the 1991/92 season. That said though, 89/90 was Sir Richard Hadlee's last season, and the likes of Ewen Chatfield, Martin Snedden, John Bracewell, and a few years before Lance Cairns had all retired... if memory serves Jeff Crowe had retired as well. We hadn't lost a home test series for something like 12 years leading into 91/92, and our batting line up was still decent enough with the world class Martin Crowe, gutsy Andrew Jones, veteran John Wright, but the bowling attack was certainly not the same. England of course came to our shores in 91/92 leading into the World Cup, pwned us 3-0 in the ODIs and 2-0 in the test series, Phil Tufnell destroyed us in Christchurch but having said that we should have held on for a draw ... 4 more needed to ensure England batted again (and there wouldn't have been time for the change of innings), Crowe in on 46 from memory, or bat another 8 odd minutes and the test is drawn, Crowe decided to try and take Tufnell on who I think had 6-40 odd at that point, he tried to put him back over mid-on to ensure the test was saved but he didn't quite get it and holed out. Desperately unlucky. Auckland, we lost that test on one of the worst pitches I've ever seen, we bowled England out on day 2 for 200 or so, but that was like 450 on that pitch.
My biggest question mark now over New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup is their bowling attack. Its still quite loose and has a high economy rate. I also think Tim Southee is not as good a limited overs bowler as he is a test bowler, and at times the New Zealand media sweep that under the carpet a bit. I'm not sure NZ has the fire power to restrict or bowl South Africa or Australia out in the semis. Batting wise, Kane Williamson is also a tournament winner in his own right with his form. Wouldn't swap him for anyone. And I think they have a quality finishing set up with Luke Ronchi, Corey Anderson and Grant Elliott, and the blokes below are all decent bats too.
Surprise packet this summer, Grant Elliott. Full credit to the guy. He's doing a champion job. Again, it begs the question, why did he not succeed in test cricket. He has a pretty balanced technique, seems to be quite composed in the ODI game, but in test cricket he seemed to be completely overawed. If Elliott could bat at 5 in test cricket like he does in ODI cricket, and McCullum opened the innings, it would help resolve a number of issues. I wonder if its worth taking a punt on Elliott and booking him on the tour to England as a test bat.
