In three matches so far the BLACKCAPS middle order have only had one innings thanks to Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill sealing 10 wicket victories over Kenya and Zimbabwe.
You might think that the lack of time in the middle would make them feel uneasy but Daniel Vettori sees it as a positive and knows the batsmen will be even hungrier when their chance comes.
“The fact that we’ve had two ten wicket wins you want to embellish how well the two openers have done and when those middle order guys get their opportunity they will be ready to go.
“They have trained pretty hard and are desperate to do well and sometimes that can produce the best performance so that’s what we’re hoping for and we know we’ve got quality players there and if they get the chance I know they will do the job.
The New Zealand captain has labelled the match up against Pakistan as the most important of the tournament.
“If we win this we could secure a spot in the quarter finals and it will give us a chance to be higher up the rankings and arguably have an easier quarter final than if we lose this game,” Vettori said.
One bonus is the fact that the opposition are familiar and despite the series loss at home earlier this is a team the BLACKCAPS know they can beat but to come out on top their top order needs to counter their quality bowling line up.
“I think the areas we struggled a little bit against them is that six, seven, eight – Akmal, Afridi, Razzaq and how they can take the game away from us so we’ve got to be ready for them and also the nature of how good their bowling attack is.
“They have arguably got one of the best bowling attacks in world cricket and for us to succeed our top six has to stand up.
“We came out on top last time we played them and hope the confidence we took from the last game can be taken into this one as well,” Vettori concluded.
