Ricky Ponting
The Australian captain talks about the team preparation, the Twenty20 loss and Brendon McCullum's batting.
On his rest prior to this series…
“It’s only been a few days really, an extra couple of days at home and then got here when the guys were playing on Sunday so I got a chance to watch that game and given myself a chance to settle in over here. Generally when I have had a break I have come back and played pretty well. As I was saying at home, the break probably came at the wrong time for me at home because I was just starting to get into some really good touch again back at the end of the season in Australia.
“I had a good training session yesterday, the boys will train well again today and as I said the proof will be in the pudding as far as I play in the next couple of games.”
On New Zealand’s readiness for the One-Day series…
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“They will be. Both teams should be. The start of a five games series obviously and the last few series we have played against New Zealand have been good ones, so both teams will be up for it. Our boys have been on the road for a while and been playing a lot of cricket, our form of late has been terrific.
“As I have said to our guys right from the start of the summer, its about trying to find ways to make yourselves better players day in and day out and I think for the majority of the summer we were able to do that and our team performances probably got better and better as a result. We know that we have to give the Kiwis a lot of attention, they are a very good One-Day outfit and got some match winners in their side as we saw the other night so we have to start the series well.”
On the Twenty20 loss…
“It didn’t affect me because I wasn’t in the side. There is a few guys coming into this team who didn’t play the other night so what generally happens then is those guys usually bring in a different sort of attitude, probably a more energetic attitude as well considering they have had a week off so that’s what I will be hoping is carried over from these fresher guys coming in. I don’t think the Twenty20 team would have been disappointed with the game the other night. They did lots of things particularly well in their game. To chase that sort of total was a terrific effort and to be beaten in overtime was a terrific game. Both teams will take a little bit from the game and switching back to the 50 over game now, we would like to think our 50 over cricket has been probably our strength in the last couple of years so we want to continue that on in this series.”
On Brendon McCullum…
“There has been a bit of talk around the boys over the last couple of days as a result of Brendon’s Innings. I would be surprised if he plays that way, those sort of shots in a 50 over game. The way he played the other night was pretty much down to having to do that because of the format. He will probably feel a bit more responsibility because of going into a 50 over game as well being one of their more experienced players and probably their batter in the best form at the moment, I think he will put it on himself to try and bat for longer periods of time. As a result of some of the things that he did do the other night there has been some conversation around the group about the way we should bowl if he starts to play a few of those shots again though I think we have all learnt a bit from watching his innings the other day”
On another batsmen being added to the squad…
“We have spoken about that the last couple of days with Shaun not making the trip over, we have spoken about replacements. We feel at the moment we have got a replacement fast bowler and a spare batter for the start of the series anyway. If we feel that we need someone with Australia being so close it’s pretty easy to get someone over here pretty soon. So hopefully we will keep our fingers crossed and touch wood and do all those things. Hopefully we don’t need anybody else but that’s been the major thinking behind it, that if we happen to bring someone over we are bringing them out of Shield games that might be beneficial for them to play towards the end of the season.”
