Cricket World Cup: New Zealand have set tournament alight but must add finishing touches

THE New Zealand story, which still has some agonising chapters to run, stretches beyond picket fences and into the hearts of fans who have known sporting heartache.

New Zealand's Martin Guptill attends a training session ahead of their 2015 Cricket World Cup semi final match against South Africa at Eden Park in Auckland on March 23, 2015.  AFP PHOTO / Michael Bradley

THE most read story on the New Zealand Herald’s website on Sunday was not what the Kiwis thought about their storming World Cup quarter-final win over West Indies.

It was what the rest of the world thought about it. What Australian and English journalists thought about the carnage that “sent shock waves around the cricket world”.

It was almost as if long-suffering Kiwi fans were just seeking that last little bit of 11th hour, offshore endorsement that their cricket team was as good as they thought it was.

Brendon McCullum will again be looking to Trent Boult for inspiration.

Almost as if they were saying “this time we are genuine red-hot title contenders ... we really are that good ... aren’t we? ... your thoughts?”

When you have played six World Cup semi-finals and lost the lot, you can only be so confident about the seventh.

This time against South Africa on Tuesday is what will be the clash of the Cup’s heartbreak kids.

But make no mistake about it, even if they don’t win, New Zealand have made this World Cup.

It’s not just the debonair way they have played.

It’s the sight of fans going crazy.

There is plenty of smiles in the Kiwi camp at the moment.

Of small venues embracing small matches.

Of the crafty swing of Trent Boult.

Of the derring do of Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill.

Of the lively commentary of former Test wicketkeeper Ian Smith whose nerves represent every cricket fan in a story which goes outside cricket.

They have given the tournament a pulse and a personality it is yet to gain in indifferent Australia.

The Kiwi story, which still has its most agonising chapters to run, is one which stretches beyond picket fences and into the hearts of fans who have known sporting heartache.

Can Martin Guptill repeat his quarter-final heroics against the Proteas?

No Kiwi fan who lived through them will ever forget the numbing disappointment that came with seeing their America’s Cup yacht leading 8-1 in 2013 against the United States and somehow getting pipped 9-8.

It was like crashing your car eight days in a row.

Then there was the agony of being hot favourites in six rugby World Cup tournaments in succession and being beaten until they cracked the curse on home soil last time.

New Zealand, in a sense, have achieved nothing until or unless they beat South Africa.

Otherwise it will just be another hollow semi-final loss, their seventh in a row.

The stats tell us that life will get harder against the Proteas.

Tim Southee has taken plan ty of wickets in the tournament thus far.

Guptill tore the West Indian attack apart but against South Africa he averages just 11 from as many games.

In 14 matches against Australia he averages just 22. In 25 matches against both nations he has just two 50s.

Against South Africa he has seven scores of seven or under.

They feel he is vulnerable against extreme pace and to the short pitched ball and have never rated him a great threat.

So which Guptill will turn out on Tuesday – the man who was hitting balls on to the stadium roof at Wellington on Saturday or the one who always seems so insecure when he faces the Proteas?

It could decide the fate of the entire tournament.