BLACKCAPS match-winners Scott Styris and Jacob Oram were happy with their form and the team performance in the seven-wicket win over the West Indies in Antigua.
The New Zealanders’ victory at the ICC World Cup’s Super Eight Series set up two more vital points as they close in on the semi-finals.
Styris claimed one wicket and an unbeaten 80 and Oram took three vital wickets in an important second-round win.
Styris said: “I was pretty happy with today. I’ve struggled a little bit with the ball and today I think I bowled as well as I have since I came back from injury a couple of months ago.
“I struggled early on. I’m not sure why. I just kept hitting the splice or the bottom of the bat – I just couldn’t get going at all.
“But because we were only chasing 170 I knew I had time, I didn’t have to take a risk. It came towards the end, which was great.
“We are trying to win games and we are doing that at the moment, which is great. Any time I can contribute I am really happy and today was another of those occasions.”
Oram, whose three-wicket haul earned him man-of-the-match honours, backed Styris’ contribution.
Oram said: “To be honest it’s a little bit embarrassing standing here when Scotty got 80 not out and took one for very little as well but I am very happy to accept the award.
“It was nice to have it all going well and with guys like Dan (Vettori) and Shane (Bond) bowling at the other end, we just want to dot it up and thankfully I got a couple of wickets today so it’s falling into place nicely for us.”
Captain Stephen Fleming added: “It was a good day for us. It was a good toss to win and the two opening bowlers really set the scene. They didn’t take wickets until about the tenth over but the pressure they created set up the rest of the innings.
“We have a tricky game next against Bangladesh, who beat us in the warm-ups, so we’ve got to do some planning, leave this game behind us now and look forward to the next game ahead.”
Home captain Brian Lara was determined his side recover from defeats in their first two Super Eight games against the BLACKCAPS and Australia.
“We are down to the fighting part of the tournament now,” he admitted. “We’ve got four games left and we have to win all of them to qualify.”
