Daniel Vettori
The BLACKCAPS captain talks about the loss to Pakistan and looks forward to the must-win match against Sri Lanka.
BLACKCAPS interview and diaries »
On the ball tampering allegations…
“I think it’s important to note from the position we were in, when Gul came on in the 12th over we were well and truly behind the game and Pakistan were dominating and more than likely would continue onto win. I think the reverse swing we saw was new to us and so therefore we raised a couple of concerns with the on-field umpires and the match referee. They relayed back to us that they had no issues at all with the state of the ball and we accepted that and we move onto our important game against Sri Lanka.”
On being satisfied with the umpires decision…
“There was talk to the on-field umpires during the game and the match referee after the game and like I said, they were content with the result and therefore so were we. All the match referees are highly respected umpires and officials and they’re doing everything they can to make sure the games are played in the right way and we have complete faith in them.”
On how the team felt after the game…
“It was terrible, it was such an important game for us, we knew if we’d won that we were through to the semi finals, but we’ve got the same situation in this game too. If we stand up and be counted then we have a chance to get through to the semis. That was our initial goal in this tournament and luckily we have one more opportunity. I think it hurt a lot. Most New Zealand followers will accept a loss when its hard fought but when they see a performance of us getting bowled out for 99 it isn’t up to our usual standard. We want to bounce back from that quickly. We normally bounce back well but this is an important game against one of the in-form teams of the competition. There’s a chance we could knock Sri Lanka out of the tournament which would be unthinkable with the way they’ve played so far, but that’s an added incentive for us to go into that game thinking the winner takes it all.”
On if Twenty20 is fast becoming a bowlers’ game…
“I think if I had Muralitharan, Mendis and Malinga in my team I’d agree with that statement. I think its all relative to the bowling arsenal you have and those three are probably three of the best in the world so anytime they turn up to the crease you know you’re in for a battle. Our biggest test tomorrow is how we deal with those three bowlers and how we deal with the form of Jayasuriya and Dilshan because those are the five that have carried Sri Lanka into the position they’re in at the moment and for us to have any chance of winning we’re going to have to deal with them.”
On the team to watch…
“It’s difficult to say I think, apart from Sri Lanka and South Africa every team in this tournament has been inconsistent. There hasn’t been anyone who has stood up and said we’re a great team we’re going to take this tournament away. So you can’t really hang your hat on any team and say they’re going to win comprehensively because the game can shift so quickly. A couple of good overs here and there, or a great bowling spell, or something destructive with the bat… it’s hard to pinpoint failure. In this form of the game there are some simple things you try to implement that are in any form of the game. I suppose teams like India will look at those things and think maybe we could have been better at that, but if you look at the Indian side on face value its one of the strongest teams so they will be disappointed with their result just as I imagine every other team who gets knocked out will be.”
On current injuries…
“Unfortunately for us Brendon McCullum has a broken finger and a torn ligament in his right hand. He did that on the last ball of the Pakistan game. He’s going to have an injection today and we’ll see how he goes but its another injury we desperately didn’t need, but we’re still hopeful he can play tomorrow and we’re hopeful Ross Taylor will be fit as well. I think if Ross is fit, then he will replace Jesse as a straight swap, but if neither of them are fit then we’d look to play Neil Broom and use Martin Guptil in an opening position. Its not ideal for us, we talked at the beginning of the tournament about how our strength was in our top four and potentially three of our top four cant play in our most important game.”
On making changes…
“Its not easy but I think teams go in with a squad mentality these days and they think if certain players don’t perform or they’re injured then guys can slot in and we have had some extreme examples of that. We never expected to call anyone in outside the 15 and we didn’t expect to pick from only 11 in a couple of games but its something we’ve just had to deal with.”
