SPORTS
During their win over South Africa, New Zealand showed they are not going to be pushovers anymore.
When was the last time you heard of New Zealand players, winners of many ICC fairplay and ICC spirit awards, being reprimanded by the ICC for breaching the code of conduct?
It needs no cricket historian to say that it was only recently, after their quarterfinals against South Africa. Captain Daniel Vettori and substitute player Kyle Mills, who had brought drinks to the ground, were involved in an altercation with Faf du Plessis. The complexion of the match changed after that incident and the New Zealanders went on to win the tie. However, both Vettori and Mills were fined 90 and 120 per cent respectively for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’. The latter was fined for “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players”.
While it was shocking enough to see the Kiwis usurp the favourites South Africa, what was astonishing was the aggression they displayed during the controversial episode.
Having shocked the Proteas, a Cup-starved New Zealand appear to have turned from the proverbial gentlemen to aggressive cricketers, who want to lay claim on the coveted trophy, which has eluded them so far. Sri Lanka cannot afford to be complacent against the New Zealanders simply for the fact that they have beaten one of the hot favourites of the tournament. Also, going as underdogs into the game will do a lot of good for the visitors as they will have a chance to go all out in the do or die game to be played on March 29.
Vice-captain Ross Taylor revealed that the team is happy with the tag of underdogs ahead of the semis. “Most of the time New Zealand play, we are underdogs. It’s something we almost enjoy and expect when we play.
“I know a lot of teams expect to beat us, and we enjoy the underdog tag and we expect to beat them as well,” Taylor said after their practice session at P Sara Oval on Sunday.
Taylor said that some teams have taken them lightly and this has infact helped them.
“We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to. There was self-belief in the team, we knew we could win. But I don’t think too many people gave us a chance, which probably made other teams take us a bit lightly than they normally would and played into our hands. But you know, it’s going to be a tough game on Tuesday, one that we are looking forward to,” he said.
New Zealand were thrashed by the Lankans in their previous league encounter in Mumbai, however, Taylor believes that the mistakes they made then could be rectified.
“It’s a new game. We are taking a lot of confidence from our last game against South Africa. We have got an advantage that we have played against Sri Lanka in the pool matches, and we did a few things wrong. Hopefully, we can rectify that in the match on Tuesday.”
England’s defeat in the quarterfinal on Saturday at the R Premadasa Stadium has given New Zealand an idea or two on how to deal with the situations there. “We saw bits, not the whole game. But we can take some positives out of that. The way Trott batted is something we can take a leaf out of in our batting. The way they played Murali, because he was a big factor in the way Sri Lanka beat us in the last game.”
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