Monday, February 7, 2011

Black Caps going to 2011 World Cup with poor form, loss of confidence


New Zealand travel to the Indian subcontinent on Tuesday for the 2011 cricket World Cup in very different circumstances to what they were as a side in 2007.


Confidence was high, key players were in form and New Zealand, as they have so often done at World Cups, played good cricket to reach the semi-finals before bowing out to Sri Lanka.

Now, they go to India Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with a side that has been inconsistent in batting and is experiencing a loss of confidence.




The New Zealanders will also have to adapt to the reverse swinging ball, which will come more into play on the abrasive subcontinent pitches than it does at home.



Their bowling up front has been pretty consistent. We are trying to master the art of reverse swing bowling. With the rough wickets in the subcontinent, it's an area that we need to keep getting better at.


New Zealand has two warm-up matches, against Ireland at Nagpur on Saturday and India at Chennai on February 16. Their first group match is against Kenya at Chennai on February 20.