Related Links
Daniel Vettori is acutely aware of the situation his team faces, describing the remaining two matches in the Super 8 stage of the ICC World Twenty20 as ‘must win’.
“We are hoping for a quick turn around from some of the performances today and I suppose, the continuation of some guys who bowled really well,” said the New Zealand captain after the loss to South Africa. “It’s hard to know exactly what but I think guys adapt pretty quickly.”
The 13 run defeat to South Africa ended a five match winning streak that started back in Christchurch when the BLACKCAPS beat Australia in the thrilling ‘eliminator over’. They then recorded victories over Ireland and the West Indies in pre-tournament warm up matches before accounting for Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the group stage.
But in a short, sharp format with a tight schedule it counts for very little with one more loss likely to see them exit the tournament.
Reflecting on the loss, Vettori placed some blame of poor bowling at the death and highlighted it as an area they can improve on.
“Probably just the last five overs, we weren’t as good as we normally are and it is a very small ground and when you’ve got a destructive hitter like Albie Morkel it’s a bad combination if you miss,” he said. “I think if you reflect back on it, those last five overs put us in a bit of trouble but we fought pretty hard and if we could do anything again, it would be doing that a bit better.”
“That’s the nature of Twenty20, you can’t get it perfect every time but there are crucial situations within a game that you have to get right,” he concluded.
The BLACKCAPS next match is against Pakistan on Sunday 1:30am (NZ time).
