Auckland, New Zealand (BBN)-Brendon McCullum on what’ll take to lead New Zealand to their first World Cup final.
Pressure? High stakes? Skipper Brendon McCullum is exhorting the Black Caps to have fun when they bid to become the first New Zealand side to make a Cricket World Cup final.
South Africa in Auckland on Tuesday stand between them and a berth in the title decider in Melbourne on Sunday, reports Cricket.com.
McCullum acknowledged the significance of the occasion, describing is as “obviously a really big game”.
But he expects his message to his players before they head out on to Eden Park to be the same as before the previous matches in their 7-0 run in the tournament.
“We talk a lot about this being the greatest time of our lives and the trip that we’ve been on so far has been one that we’ll all remember,” he said.
“The game is meant to be fun. Go out there, express yourself, enjoy the occasion, put our best foot forward and we’ll see where the cards fall after that.”
McCullum cut a relaxed figure as the pre-match press conference on Monday.
He said he had found that being stressed never helped.
“It’s a great stage to be a part of,” he said.
“It’s what you play the game for, all the trainings that you do, all the time away from home, all the hard work and sacrifice that you make.”
The Black Caps have played one previous match during the tournament at Eden Park, a tense low-scoring affair in which they squeezed past Australia by one wicket.
The ball moved around that day, and Black Caps seamer Trent Boult picked up five wickets and Australian quick Mitchell Starc six, but McCullum is expecting the conditions to be different this time.
“I’m no weather genius, but I think tomorrow is meant to be a little less humid so we probably won’t see as much swing,” he said.
“The wicket looks pretty good so far, similar to the practice nets, as well, which is always nice when they marry up together.”
Meanwhile, the Black Caps will look at the pitch and overhead conditions on match day before making a call on who will replace injured speedster Adam Milne.
Milne will take no further part in the tournament after pulling up sore from the quarter-final win over the West Indies in Wellington on Saturday and the 22-year-old right-armer was ruled out with a heel complaint on Monday.
A scan on Sunday showed swelling around the heel and the early prognosis is that he will be out for some weeks.
The options to replace him are Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan and Matt Henry.
Coach Mike Hesson says a decision has yet to be made on the playing 11.
“Once we get to the ground tomorrow, we’ll look at whoever is available, we’ll look at the wicket again and we’ll pick what we deem to be the best squad,” he said.
“If Matt ends up in the squad, he’ll be considered along with the others.”
The 36-year-old Mills is the most experienced of the trio, his 240 ODI wickets the second most among New Zealanders behind spinner Daniel Vettori.
McClenaghan has an excellent strike rate, being equal second fastest to 50 ODI scalps.
But he was expensive in his only appearance in the World Cup so far, conceding 0-68 off eight overs against Bangladesh when Milne was out with a shoulder injury.
Henry, 23, has shown wicket-taking ability as well, with 21 in eight ODIs and he offers a more like-for-like replacement for Milne.
He has also been playing regular competitive cricket in recent weeks for Canterbury.
Hesson said Milne got the news on Monday morning that he would be out.
“We’d looked at different options but it just wasn’t going to work so obviously there was a lot of disappointment,” he said.
“He’s gutted and all the players are gutted for him.”
Milne has operated as the third seamer and his express pace – he has been clocked at 150km/h during the tournament – offered a foil to swing bowlers Tim Southee and Boult.
Although he collected only four wickets in his six matches, Hesson said his impact had been significant.
“He gives us extra pace and he gives us the ability to attack at different times of the innings,” he said.
“Even though he might not have got wickets at his end, he certainly helped to create them at the other.”
Hesson said the injury was one that Milne had, had issues with for a couple of weeks, but he had gone into the quarter-final pain-free.
He came through that match fine, but then the heel flared up to a point where he couldn’t bowl.
“He’s in a lot of pain when he bowls,” he said.
“He’s fine walking in a straight line but unfortunately, when he bowls, it’s become increasingly uncomfortable to a point where he’s unable to carry on.”
BBN/SK/AD-23Mar15-3:10pm (BST)
