New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum yesterday vowed his side would stick with their aggressive approach as they look to maintain their perfect record at the Cricket World Cup when they face archrivals Australia.
The Black Caps are top of Pool A with three wins out of three, including an eight-wicket thrashing of England, heading into their showdown with fellow cohosts Australia in Auckland in front of what is set to be a capacity 40,000 crowd at Eden Park today.
New Zealand are set to field an unchanged side with swing bowler Tim Southee, who took a stunning 7-33 against England — the third-best World Cup return — fit following a minor shoulder injury.
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“It’s an aggressive, confident style where we are as positive as we can be, trying to endear ourselves to a public with the manner in which we play,” said McCullum, who did exactly that with the fastest World Cup 50, off 18 deliveries, against England.
Australia former World Cup-winning captain Steve Waugh has tipped New Zealand as the favorites for today’s match, but McCullum was not interested in such talk.
“Look, I have said all along, favorites or underdogs, it’s irrelevant once the game gets under way,” McCullum said.
“Our focus is very much on how we try and execute the game that has served us so well over the last little while. If we do that, we will be hard to beat,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we are going to win, but we are going to be hard to beat if we perform to the standards we know how. Both teams are desperate to win tomorrow.”
McCullum added that his team, bidding to give New Zealand their first World Cup title, were in a confident mood because of their record over the past year.
“The fanfare and anticipation is big, but the guys are in a good space because of what we’ve done previously,” he said.
Big crowds for New Zealand home matches are rare, but McCullum said the Black Caps would not be overawed by the magnitude of the match.
“There’s no real nerves, we’ve been playing some good cricket of late, living the dream really and getting the opportunity to play for your country in a World Cup at home and tomorrow [today] is going to be a great event, 40,000 people and playing against Australia,” he said. “It doesn’t really get better than that, so the guys are excited.”
Dynamic Australia opener David Warner, never shy of tossing in a verbal barb before or even during a match, suggested the visitors would try to make McCullum have a “brain explosion” with the bat.
However, the opener refused to rise to the bait, with McCullum saying: “I probably am guilty of the odd brain explosion while batting. I’ve read reports throughout the week, but believe Australia’s been nothing but respectful and complimentary about our group.”
“Warner is an outstanding cricketer who has performed well in all three forms of the game over a period of time,” he said. “He is a dangerous player that we need to make sure we keep him quiet, but so is Aaron Finch and so is Steve Smith and Michael Clarke and the rest. We have to make sure we are able to execute the plans we want, and if someone does get away then we have a plan for shutting them down.”
One particular challenge at Eden Park is defending the ground’s exceptionally short straight boundaries.
“You need to be smart with the lengths you bowl,” McCullum said. “The square boundaries aren’t overly long either. If you focus too much on back-of-a-length, then those players are capable of good horizontal bat shots. You’ve got to be smart about using the short ball.”
Meanwhile, Australia bowling coach Craig McDermott brushed aside the McCullum factor, saying his fast bowlers are capable of handling him.
“Facing our blokes at practice is difficult enough, so I think our blokes are going to be pretty well prepared,” said McDermott, himself a World Cup winner in 1987.
“I can think of four players that play for us who are equally as good, so maybe they’ve got four times the headache,” McDermott said in reference to power-hitters David Warner, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh. “And there’s 10 other guys in that team besides Brendon, so we’ve got to deal with the whole team, not just him.”
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