By IANS,
Bridgetown (Barbados) : New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori is drawing strength from their last year’s Champions Trophy experience as they strive to bounce back into contention in their second Super Eights match of the World Twenty20 against defending champions Pakistan here Saturday.
The Black Caps lost by 13 runs against South Africa Thursday and they now need to win their remaining Super Eights stage matches against Pakistan and later England Monday to advance to the semifinals.
In Champions Trophy last year, New Zealand were staring down the barrel after losing their opening group match – also to South Africa – but came back with wins over Sri Lanka and England before overcoming Pakistan in the semifinals.
“I hope that sits well with us,” Vettori was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald.
“We did it at the Champions Trophy, we had to win games on end. This is the same. It’s opposition we’ve played a lot lately and we’re pretty familiar with so we’ve got some confidence but they’re going to be big games.”
Vettori is hoping for a turnaround against Pakistan, who lost their opening Super Eights match to England.
“In Twenty20 cricket you have to be perfect in your execution and we weren’t that against South Africa,” he said.
“It’s the nature of the format that your four overs can be brilliant one day and pretty tough the next. We’re hoping for a quick turnaround from some of the guys’ performance today.
“Guys adapt pretty quickly and hopefully one game out here will mean we’re better for it in the next game against Pakistan.”
The New Zealand bowlers were given a mauling by Albie Morkel who slammed 40 off 18 balls, including five sixes, and supported by an unbeaten 47 from AB de Villiers, 31 by Jacques Kallis and 30 by Herschelle Gibbs.
Vettori was happy with the bowling through the middle stages but said the game effectively swung on the last five overs, when they conceded 62.
“We weren’t as good as we normally are and it’s a very small ground and if you’ve got a destructive hitter like Albie Morkel, it’s a bad combination if you miss,” he said.
“You can’t get it perfect every time but there are certain situations within a game that you have to get right. Today it was the last four to five (overs). It was not what I expected and wasn’t what I want.”