Daniel Vettori
The BLACKCAPS captain talks the third ODI, the public support and what's happening on the injury front.
On the upcoming match…
“I think it is probably the most important game of the series. The team that can go 2–1 up obviously only needs to win one more to take out the series so we will try and put everything into this game. We enjoy playing here, it’s a great cricket ground so I think the guys are pretty excited about being here.”
On the injury situation in the team…
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“Taylor and Franklin both trained, but we are going to leave it until the last minute to make a decision on it and Stewart has come up as cover, hopefully they both can get through but I would say they are both 50/50 at this stage.
“Probably if Taylor could get through I think Franklin needs to bowl as well so we will probably be a bit more cautious with him. If Taylor is able to get out on the park we will be pretty grateful for that.”
On New Zealand getting behind the BLACKCAPS…
“I think it has been fantastic. You take the two Twenty/20 games and particularly the Christchurch one and these first two (ODIs). I think everyone in this room knows that New Zealanders want to see us win but as long as they are very good games people are happy and I think they have sat back and really enjoyed the last two One-Day games though whatever the result is I think New Zealanders are happy if it’s a great game. Obviously they want us to win but they are enjoying the series.”
On the Hamilton crowd…
“They are a good crowd, they get into it and I think when you have got small crowds that are close to the ground I think they all really enjoy it and its created something different at that game because we didn’t see any of that during the Bangladesh series and I think for the most part its been good for cricket.”
On Australia’s perception of the BLACKCAPS in this series…
“I think they always respect us, they have played better than us in a lot of games but the Chappell/Hadlee Series is pretty important to us and so therefore they understand that we get up for it and we really want to win this series and I think its not like they back off at all, I would just like to think that we have stepped up.”
On the Australian bowlers…
“We obviously know that Johnson is their strike bowler the way Ponting uses him to come in and try and take wickets, unfortunately we have probably given up too many wickets in the last two games. He is a guy, I suppose more than anyone, we look to make sure we play him on his merits. The other guys are pretty new to a lot of us. Bollinger and Harris who we haven’t played a lot against, Hauritz even, so there is a little bit of reconnaissance going on with them but we understand that Johnson is their strike weapon.”
