Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum promised the New Zealand team would continue their high power cricket in Friday’s important World Cup fight against the English team despite having to play 3 matches in a week.
The New Zealand team thrashed Sri Lanka in the opener Pool A game by 7 wickets before a 3 wicket victory against Scotland took them onto 4 points.
On Thursday Brendon said that 3 matches in 7 days and he has a full team to select from, and they are going to play with the identical team they have played the last two matches.
A victory over England will put New Zealand in a healthy position to make the quarter-finals with the other co-host Australia on 28th February, Afghanistan on 8th March and Bangladesh on 13th March left to play in the group stage. The top 4 teams from each of the two pools will pass for the super 8.
McCullum emphasized his team were utilizing a winning furrow which has seen them defeat Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 3-2, and after that defeated the Asian giants 2-0 on their home soil just before the ICC World Cup.
He said that they have been practicing a lot of cricket recently, so they are likely in a wee bit of a furrow. Once this match has ended, they will get a satisfactory break before the match against Australia and another big break after that.
So they knew the planning well before they came into it so they were able to part that into their practice. They will go on with no excuses. They will give themselves a good opportunity, and probably they can recreate their form of late.
The Black Caps skipper admitted that England’s attack will pose a different challenge for them.
The Black Cap skipper was quoted saying: “I think they have a good bowling attack. They have a bit of pace and they get some bounce with (Stuart) Broad and (James) Anderson. So they’re going to pose some different challenges to what we’ve probably faced in the last little while, but it’s a challenge the boys are looking forward to.”
McCullum trusts his side can grip the pressure of being tagged World Cup main contenders.
He said that the tag is kind of irrelevant. They are the dark knights, and they are the underdogs. He thinks they have been capable to handle some of the assumption which has risen recently because of their calmness within the pool.