Aaron Finch expects Brendon McCullum will symbolically target the MCG boundaries, even the ones vastly longer than those he is accustomed to in New Zealand, to show his Black Caps teammates they should not be intimidated by anything in Sunday's World Cup final against Australia.
India captain MS Dhoni said after his team's semi-final elimination on Thursday that the Black Caps' batsmen would have be to wary of not clearing the boundary with their aerial shots.
"One of the biggest things that the New Zealand team will have to deal with is the size of the field. In New Zealand, you can get away with quite a few mistimed shots," Dhoni said.
McCullum's tally of 17 sixes in eight matches, including three from Australian bowlers in New Zealand's win in Auckland a month ago, has the Kiwis captain ranked behind only Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers for the most in the tournament.
Australia opener Finch predicted the Black Caps' shift from their smaller home venues to one conspicuously large, not just by Australian but also world standards, would not daunt McCullum.
"I think he's going to try," Finch said. "He's a player who takes the game on and tries to set the tone for his team. Whether he comes off or he doesn't, I think he does set the tone for them and gives them belief."
McCullum has twice played at the MCG, in 2007 and 2009. The latter was an innings unrecognisable from his bludgeoning reputation: 43 from 75 balls against an Australia attack featuring Mitch Johnson.
The batsman who has played more white-ball cricket at the MCG than any other, Brad Hodge, says its expansive boundaries alone will not nullify McCullum. But he is adamant Mitch Starc is capable of thwarting the inspirational 33-year-old.
Hodge has played 84 one-day and Twenty20 matches at the venue over the past 22 seasons. The 40-year-old's recent experience playing for Wellington in New Zealand's Twenty20 competition has left him well placed to compare the change in approach needed from New Zealand.
He said the Black Caps' expected unchanged line-up, of which four have never played at the MCG, should remember that while the venue features expansive square boundaries, its straight boundaries are not vastly different to some of their home venues.
"It's not a big hit straight. You always think you can get it into the stand," Hodge said. "If [as a bowler] you're keeping it up and under at the MCG you have to nail every one of them.
"The one area Australia might have it over New Zealand is if they bowl short. You saw at Eden Park that if you just hit it straight up in the air it can go 20 metres over the rope. Here, there are times you'll go 'Wow, that's an amazing shot' and it goes 72 metres. That's caught 10 metres' in on the [square] boundary on the MCG."
Tim Southee, New Zealand's only seamer to have played at the MCG, downplayed the implications of it being a much bigger ground to what has preceded them in the tournament, with all eight matches at home.
"It's another cricket ground ... a big cricket ground," he said on Friday. "We've got guys that have played a lot of cricket around the world [on] various-sized grounds: big grounds, small grounds. We've got enough experience on big grounds."
Hodge said when Australia bowled they would be desperate to primarily have Starc bowling to McCullum with the new ball, fearing the outcome if Josh Hazlewood bowled regularly to the Black Caps captain.
"I think Starc is in really, really good form and good enough to knock him over at the moment," he said. "But I'd be nervous for Josh Hazlewood at the other end, because if I know 'Baz' [McCullum], he'll be the one that he targets.
He'll just step away and try and carve him over point, and if he does it a couple of times Hazlewood will be under the pump," he said, arguing even that scything strategy would not require a big change in approach because of the deeper boundaries.
"At the MCG there's so much space that if you top-edge it, it's really unlucky if it does fly to third man, or if you've got one guy out at deep square-leg, [because] it still has to land within 10 metres of him."
Even though Hodge raised the prospect of McCullum savaging Hazlewood, he did not favour Mitch Johnson being given the new ball instead, as a chance for payback for the punishment inflicted by McCullum in Auckland. He said Hazlewood should retain the new ball to avoid being too preoccupied with the threat posed by McCullum.
"You've got to remember there's a guy at the other end as well, Martin Guptill, that you've got to get out, and he got 237 not out not long ago. You can't plan for just one of them, you've got to plan for the two of them. He's a front-foot player, Guptill, so Hazlewood is the right match for him, just to pin him back, pin him back, pin him back," Hodge said.
Despite McCullum's huge hitting potential, Hodge said he rated Kane Williamson, and his Australian No. 3 counterpart Steve Smith, as the most important scalps for the bowling teams in Sunday's day-nighter, arguing both were the "rocks" at three in the one-day format. He said if Australia could remove both McCullum and Williamson with the new ball it would be pivotal.
"If you get Baz out early, Williamson has just got the ability to steer the ship. If you get Baz early you've got to make sure you get Williamson. That's when you're really rocking the camp," Hodge said.
"You get [Ross] Taylor in early against the swinging new ball or the 150km/h pace, he's vulnerable. You just don't want him to be able to walk in at 2-100 and find himself 15 off 18 [and ready to launch]. You want him under pressure to score."
With Andrew Wu
