When did you come to know that Daniel Vettori will not be able to play the all important final?

After we came to the ground, Daniel said that he won't be able to play.

Which means you did not get ample time for preparation to lead in the final?

 It was a bolt from the blue that our captain will not be able to take the field. It was really a huge blow for the whole team.

Did you miss him as a bowler?  More than anything else, we missed him for captaincy. He has a great knack for inspiration. How will you explain the opening spell of Bond and Mills?

 Excellent. We wanted to create pressure on them. We wanted to reach to their middle order quickly. If we could have five wickets for 100 runs the game could have gone to for different directions. But our total of 200 runs was not enough. We should have scored at least 250.

How will you analyse the Australia's performance?  Incredible, they have got a good mixture of youth and experience. One of the Australia's plus point is their pretty good batting depth and they also know how to play under pressure.

But your team also fought?  Yes we did. Especially, when we had only 200 runs on the board. The way the whole team fought, I am proud for our team.  

Could you tell us something about Shane Watson?

 He took the game away from us. He has improved like anything. I dropped a crucial catch. If I would have held that catch at that time, certainly it would have been a different story. I am responsible for that miss. I started running back but was short by a couple of meters.

Daryl Tuffey has been ruled out of the match because of a broken hand. Jacob Oram is still out, Jesse Ryder is out after he suffered a groin injury.


Team manager Dave Currie told Radio Live here from South Africa that Tuffey suffered his injury while fielding."He broke a bone in the back of his hand. He needs to get back to New Zealand now to have surgery,"


Tuffey will be replaced by Ian Butler who is available for selection again after being down with a stomach illness.Meanwhile, batsman Aaron Redmond who was rushed to South Africa to replace Ryder is unlikely to be considered for the match as flight delays mean he will only arrive a few hours before the game begins. New Zealand need to win this match to qualify for semi's.

Do you think the loss in the first match would create a major problem in the ICC CT?

It doesn't make a lot of difference to us. We know we still have to turn up and play pretty well to beat a strong South Africa side. Sri Lanka played exceptionally well in the first match. We're under no illusions about how hard it is going to be.

What would be your impression about the wicket here in SA?

The wicket is a lot better than we expected it to be. Not sure we're going to play on the same one or we've got a new block. It was a slow deck and suited the Sri Lanka more than the South Africans and it brings the question whether we play two spinners and what's the best tactic on a wicket like that.

Will you support of keeping 2 spinners in the side?

In the past if you look at how balanced South Africa line-up, is that they play two spinners. I think they will adapt pretty quickly to the conditions and they know them pretty well. It won't hurt us coming out of Sri Lanka for last six weeks. We've played on wickets like this and hopefully we're ready for that. But it'll be a tough ask.

What is your impression about the ODI cricket?

I think it's great. The format of the ICC Champions Trophy is also nice. It feels like every game is relevant. In the past ICC Champions Trophy there's probably been a few almost warm-up like games you've been able to get yourself into the tournament. You have to turn up here ready to play and ready to win, otherwise you can get knocked out quickly. For me personally, the relevance of the ODI game, the easiest solution is to play less games. I don't think we need to tinker around with the format. I think we've played so much people get a bit sick of seeing it so if you reduce the amount of games that is a quick fix solution.

Lot of talk about tinkering...

So much talk about tinkering and there has been in the past, for me personally, it is a good format and it has produced an array of good cricketers and different styles as well. With the ODI format you can still get a number of different cricketers who can succeed. If we take that away and keep tinkering with it we'll lose those styles of cricketers. We're lucky in cricket that we have three formats and people can enjoy all three. If we keep changing we might lose some of the fanbase. As long as we don't overload the public we can get a nice balance between the three.

Tell us something about the preparation for the ICC CT.

We know coming here that we have to beat quality teams. England has come off a tough series against Australia. But all teams in the group will be wary of each other. We had mixed results in the warm-ups. We lost to a first-class team and then played really well against India. Hopefully we can take the confidence of the India game into our first game. Particularly it's our batting department where we've struggled a lot. But a couple of guys stepped up. To make 300 against an Indian side is always something that makes me happy as captain and pleases the team as well. Challenge is to put a score on that board and defend it as a bowling unit.

South Africa will have to beat England today at Centurion to make it through to the semi-finals.



"The most important thing for us tomorrow is to win, to focus on our basics and to carry out our game plan well...We can't be worrying about run-rates. The important thing for us is to win and to get to four points on the log. If we get to 40 overs and we are close to winning the game, then we will definitely up the tempo a bit. It is a massive game for us. We normally come off when the pressure is there and we need to win. The same thing happened at the 2007 World Cup when we had a 'must win' game against England and we managed to do it then and pull through.The Wanderers wicket suited them (England). In addition they have just come out of a tough series at home and managed to win the last one there where they had similar conditions. But they (England) played extremely well against a very strong Sri Lankan side and deserved their win. It is going to be a tough group for us and I think it is going to come down to net run-rate.  " -AB de Villiers

 

I went prowling in Purna's mind and just realised that England winning has caused South Africa to fall to 3rd place on their Group B log. This means that the Proteas & the Black Caps will need to murder England. Oh shit! Come on Dan, Baz & Taylor, don't let us down.

It's official New Zealand suck! They lost a warm-up game against a South African Domestic Team. The Warriors have not won a trophy in the last 6 years, but they managed a 2 wicket win with 6 balls to spare.

The Black Caps lost the toss and were sent in to bat. Martin Guptill made 78 off 97, Ross Taylor hit 51 from 70 and Grant Elliott contributed 47 off 48, but their last six wickets fell for only 27 and they were dismissed for 237.

For the first half of Sri Lanka's innings we all considered that NZ will win once again. But a fantastic come-back from SL changed everything. Dan's nightmare became a reality.



Now for those who have wondered what my deal is, this is your day. So I'm proudly South African, the Proteas will always be my #1 team. Secondly whenever South Africa is not playing, I tend to side with Team Luke Wright, Sri Lanka & New Zealand. This is why the outcome of todays match didn't bother me that much.

I have always been very fond of Sri Lanka & New Zealand. So much that it didn't bother me that much who won. But I did enjoy the today's game. As soon as Tillakaratne Dilshan walked on that field Sri Lanka's victory seemed inevitable. But New Zealand never gave up and they faught back with honour. Well done guys.

They have lost it. Sri Lanka won with 48 runs. What happened, ehere did it all go wrong? They will blame it on their injuries, that's for sure. Brendon McCullum the latest victim is suffering from a fractured finger. So it will be Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa,and West Indies going through to the semi-finals.

What exactly happened to our batting order? We all know that Smithy & Kallis aren't the best openings batmen in the world. (Did you see Brendon McCullum shine? He got the only 50 for the day.) Mickey Arthur tried to get some of the other batsmen to show what they are made of. It didnt work. Roelof van der Merwe was out for a duck. Gibbs didnt perform. AB came in at 6 and left for only 15. The guy tried to get the run rate higher but ended up being run out. JP sticked around a bit but Mickey forgot about the golden rule: Albie Morkel should start playing by the fifteenth over. He came in after the seventeenth over. He struggled to get the ball over the rope. I felt for him when he missed the last ball of the SA innings. Kicking the ground with despair.

Looks like Ross Taylor will share the bench with Daniel Vettori. Darn it. They are some favs of mine. Good news is that SA has a strong bowling side. Can you guess who was "the man"? Van the Man... Yes he might have been unlucky with the bat, but he sure made up by getting 2 wickets.