Ross Taylor
The BLACKCAPS stand in captain talks about the getting handed the captaincy, the team effort and the Australians coming back hard.
On his captaincy role…
“I got the text from Dan at 10.45am saying ‘I’m a bit iffy, you might be captain”. I started getting ready a little bit then but I still thought he would be ok, not really knowing the extent his neck was playing up but I was pretty happy with the result.
“I was probably more nervous for the toss, saw all the cameras and the pieces of paper around, I was wondering what the hell was going on but it was good. The toss wasn’t too flash but we won the game that was the main thing.”
On a great finish…
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“Definitely, I think Styris batted outstandingly well and we got off to a good start as well with the bat. The way we came back with the ball I though was outstanding and even Bond’s contribution. It was just a good team performance; you cant just single out one good thing I think the whole team played pretty well.”
On how this will affect Australia…
“I guess we don’t want to get too confident, we know that the Australians will come back hard but saying that we have won the last two games and we have been playing some good cricket so hopefully we can take that momentum into the next game and continue the form that we are showing.”
On the bowling performance…
“On that wicket I think 300-310 is probably only a par score out there. I think the way both teams bowled was pretty good. It was probably a little bit slower than most traditional Napier wickets but it was still a good wicket.”
Scott Styris
The BLACKCAPS batting hero talks about his match winning performance and the tension out in the middle.
On his batting performance…
“I would have to say it rates pretty highly because any time you can be the guy that is there at the end and win a game you have obviously got to be happy. When you couple that with the fact that it’s Australia, number one team in the world, it’s even better.
“I have heard Vettori say that this series will define how New Zealand has been this summer, so to help be there and get the guys up and hopefully win the series is a great feeling.
On the sledging on the field…
“There was nothing more than normal, it was just the Australians play good competitive cricket and I like to think that we will match them in that competitiveness. There wasn’t anything untoward I didn’t think, out there. They were trying to win, we were trying to win and the way I view it it’s just as simple as that.
“It’s just a bit of friendly banter out there. He (Mitchell Johnson) was trying to get into my head to get me out and I was trying to win the battle over him so there was nothing that you don’t see in most other international games and Im sure he will be out, as all the rest of them, in the next game trying to do the same sorts of things and we will too.”
On his bowling performance…
“The Australians bat pretty deep and are good strikers of the ball so on that wicket, as Taylor has said, it’s a pretty good batting wicket, so to go for whatever it was it felt pretty good there was only one boundary of my bowling I think it was so I was pretty happy with my all round contribution.
