Daniel Vettori
The BLACKCAPS captain talks about the Napier pitch, team selection and the confidence within the team.
On the pitch…
“I don’t think there are any surprises when you come to Napier. You know it’s going to be a high scoring game and I suppose in the end it’s the bowlers that turn up and bowl the best and actually execute, particularly in the later stages and the powerplay overs.”
On the bowlers that will play…
“I will have to discuss it with Mark. It’s a difficult ground at time for spin bowlers, so sort of that balance with Nathan and the extra seamer, That will be the main talking point.”
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On the batting line up…
“It will be the same top six as last time that we played in the One-Day International. Neil did reasonably well in the last series. I want to keep giving him opportunities and the same with James Franklin, so they have got a chance to stamp their authority of this series and I suppose it’s a bit of, still whilst we are trying to win this series, there is still places to grab for the world Twenty20 squad and I don’t see why One-Day performances cant add to that.”
On the team’s confidence…
“Obviously the guys who performed in the last game, McCullum, Southee, Hopkins who is not here, will be riding a high, but there is still a lot of improvements needed from the rest of us. It’s a case of those guys maintaining their standards and hopefully the rest of us lifting ours.”
On the changes between Australian Twenty20 and ODI team…
“I think that they are bringing in some quality players and they are bringing in a team that has dominated their One-Day Series back home so we have got to get up to speed with a lot of them. There is a few guys there we haven’t played against before but they are obviously bringing in one of the best batsmen of all time - Ricky Ponting - so he is a guy that we are going to have to really prepare for. I think him and Hussey have amazing records against us so for us to stop them we are going to have to do well against those two in particular.”
On the form of Jacob Oram…
“He is alright. Cricket is such a relative thing, a few games ago against Bangladesh everyone was saying he was back, he got 80 off 40 balls so it is all about one performance and if Oram gets it in this game or the next game he will be feeling fine. He is picked more in this team as a bowler and he has done a very good job as a One-Day bowler and I suppose we are just wanting him to get back into form a bit more with the bat and we are hoping that batting a little bit down the order will enable him to do that.”
On the Twenty20 win…
“There is a real feel good factor to it, but my own personal captaincy paranoia that means we might not be on top of our game so I try to address that and make sure that guys are actually taking the good things out of the last game but realizing that there is a number of things we can get better at and if we want to compete and beat Australia. We have to do those things. So I am really happy that the guys are feeling confident but just want to tick off with each of them individually that each of them understand what they need to do tomorrow.”
Neil Broom
Middle order batsman Neil Broom talks about his place in the team The BLACKCAPS, the oppostion and on last years close series.
On approaching this series…
“I am really looking forward to it. I watched the last couple of games on TV and the atmosphere and the buzz around the ground and the game is awesome. I played against them last year in the Chappell/Hadlee over there and it was awesome to play in so I’m looking forward to it immensely.”
On establishing a permanent place within the BLACKCAPS side…
“That’s what I have been trying to do for the last year really, put some consistent performances on the board but they haven’t really come but I am looking to do that this series and if you score runs against these guys they are pretty good runs.”
On the opposition…
“I have studied a few of their bowlers. Most of them that played the other couple of nights are not playing these five games but I have played against most of them, the likes of Harris and Johnson and their spinners and guys like Hussey. I have faced most of them so I have done a little bit of stuff looking at facing the guys.”
On his optimum position within a One-Day side…
“I bat three for Otago but my optimum position I think is five or six but those spots are taken at the moment. I will be batting six or seven in this team which is good, I will bat anywhere, you have got to score runs to push your place and try and get up the order a bit.”
On last years series in Australia…
“We should have won that series. We were on our way to winning it in that last game and going up 2-0 we were pretty confident of finishing it off but at the end of the day we didn’t win the series and to win the series at home would be awesome.“
