Tuesday, 30th January 2007 at 11:17 pm

Reverse psychology

New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram has hit what South Africans still term (with fond, sepia-toned nostalgia) a ‘Klusener patch’. Playing in the triangular series in Australia, his last three innings have seen him make 86 off 89 balls (two sixes) against England, 101 not out off 72 balls against Australia (six sixes), and 54 not out of 33 balls (four sixes).

The innings against Australia obviously stands out (runs against England are starting to fall into the same category as runs against the Zanu-PF Youth League XI that now plays out of Harare), and not just for a savagery that Adam Gilchrist has compared admiringly to Andrew Symonds. No, it’s Oram’s motivation that has caught the eye - and in the process, illustrated the power of the press.

An article in The Australian (a large print, monosyllabic publication with lots of pictures) dubbed Oram “the poor man’s Chris Cairns”, which apparently really got to the Kiwi, who has since focused his wrath on every bowling attack to cross his path. The results are undeniable, which suggests that The Australian has inadvertently hit upon something - and so, in that vein, Feverpitcher would like to suggest that Ntini is the poor man’s Donald, Smith the poor man’s (Barry) Richards, Boucher the poor man’s Richardson, and Kallis the poor man’s (Graeme) Pollock. Here’s hoping all four read this, get extremely upset, and take it out on their World Cup opponents in the Caribbean…