Three days out, the media conferences were less a war of words, more two teams playing hot potato with the favourites tag.
For BLACKCAPS coach Mike Hesson, it’s business as usual. “We know it’s going to be a great contest – we haven’t played Australia a lot in recent times, it’s an important game for us and an important game for this group, we’ll treat it as we would any other one.”
Martin Guptill at BLACKCAPS training.
“For us favouritism doesn’t mean anything, we’re playing against a side that’s playing some pretty good cricket and we don’t really buy into favouritism or not,” said Hesson.
And any talk of favouritism got the dead bat treatment from Aussie all rounder Shane Watson too: “I honestly don’t think there’s an underdog, we haven’t played each other for a while and we’ve both been playing good one day cricket.
“Going into it I think it’s an even contest. Knowing that it’s here in New Zealand it’s going to provide an advantage for them, but we’re both playing very good cricket and it’s going to be a great contest,” said Watson.
It’s a step into the unknown for many of the players, who haven’t faced each other in international colours before – but these days the Indian Premier League has lessened the mystery somewhat.
Shane Bond talks to Tim Southee at training.
“One great thing about the IPL is that you get to know opposition guys you wouldn’t really get to mix with that much, so Tim Southee’s in my IPL team, so good to get to know him. Or sort of good, I didn’t really have a high opinion of him playing against him, but now I know he’s a very nice guy. I know he’s a highly skilled bowler and had a great day against England, so it’ll be a good challenge,” said Watson.
The extra fire the Aussie pace brigade brings is a factor that’s been talked up, but Hesson is confident in the BLACKCAPS experience have playing their own attack – and that hey have a few surprises of their own.
“We face Adam Milne every day, he bowls 150 kph, and we cope with that OK. Everyone we play has some different challenges and Australia have got some guys that bowl some good gas.
Australia take up residence at Eden Park.
“Besides, some of them haven’t faced some of our quicks. We obviously respect Australia, they’ve won the World Cup three or four times, and they’re playing some good cricket, we’re certainly looking forward to the game on Saturday.
“This World Cup is something we’ve been planning for for a long time, we’ve obviously started well, had a good first week, nice to have a break but we’re pretty desperate to do well in this game and are preparing as well as we can. We know it’s a big game, we know it’s a big crowd, hopefully they’re really supportive and we can put on a good show for them,” said Hesson.
