Related Links
The BLACKCAPS go into their first World Twenty20 warm-up game against India with plenty of confidence, after beating the Indian side twice in the 20-over game during the New Zealand summer.
The two sides meet at Lord’s in London on Monday evening (UK time), on the first day of official warm-up matches ahead of the World Twenty20 tournament starting.
Captain Daniel Vettori told a media conference at Lord’s today his team’s recent track record against India was positive, but it was still up to players to hit form at the right time.
“You get one or two individual who stand up on the day and that can be enough to see you through,” said Vettori. “And if you look through those games, we’ve had those players stand up – probably a little bit more than India.”
The New Zealand captain was also pleased with the form that some of his team’s top order batsmen had found in the recent IPL tournament.
“For our top-order guys, particularly Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and, to a lesser degree, Jesse Ryder, being able to face some of the best bowlers in the world, in tough conditions – and coming out of it pretty well – will have given them an air of confidence.
“They’re looking forward to this tournament. It’s a game a lot of our guys enjoy playing because they just get to play as naturally as they can.”
Vettori rated New Zealand’s chances of success in the tournament highly, but said many other teams would also come in with confidence – and India would be a front runner.
“You’ve got to look at India first and foremost. They’ve probably played the most Twenty20 cricket in terms of the individuals and the amount of guys they had playing in the IPL.
“I think Sri Lanka will be dangerous with their bowling line-up – if you look at Mendis, Muralithan and Malinga – it’s very tough to score heavily off those three bowlers, and with the calibre of their batsmen they’re going to be difficult.
“There’s always Australia – you’d throw them in the mix, and South Africa are a pretty formidable line up.”
New Zealand play warm-up matches against India (1 June, Lord’s) and Australia (2 June, The Oval). Their first round competition games are against Scotland (6 June, The Oval) and South Africa (9 June, Lord’s).
