NEWS
Follow UsWhen New Zealand trounced defending champions England on the opening night of the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup, it was almost like a statement win. Then, the BlackCaps continued their run with some dazzling wins in the tournament before hitting a roadblock in their loss against India in Dharamsala.
But ever since that loss, New Zealand’s rail has derailed off the track, with successive losses at the hands of Australia and, later, South Africa, a match that cost the BlackCaps a huge chip from their net run-rate.
Coming into the clash against Pakistan, they have found themselves in a pretty new situation, a must-win one. Integral to New Zealand’s campaign, Daryl Mitchell insisted that every game right now is vitally important, and two points are at stake.
“Look, for us, every game in this tournament is vitally important. They're all worth two points. And for us, again, it's just showing up and playing the black-cap style of cricket that we want to play,” Mitchell said ahead of the clash against Pakistan.
“And I'm sure if we can control those little things and do them for long periods of time, then we'll go a long way to getting some outcomes which we want, which will hopefully mean we're in the mix coming into the tournament. But yeah, we won't make it bigger than what it is. We'll just keep doing what Kiwis do and we'll see what happens,” he added.
Thus far, the two results at the Chinnaswamy Stadium have been starkly different. While Australia won batting first in a high-scoring thriller against Pakistan, Sri Lanka were dominant in their one-sided win against England in a low-scoring game later.
“I haven't had a chance to look at the wicket yet, but we've obviously got training after this, so yeah, we know what this ground's like, we know the dimensions and what the wicket can be like, but we also know within tournament cricket, pitches can vary from time to time, depending on times of preparation and things like that between games,” Mitchell insisted.
While Mitchell was adamant in stating that talking about a rule change for squad members would be above his ‘pay grade’, he insisted that everyone in the squad are ready to do a job when called upon.
“Look, I think we back everyone within our squad to do a job. That's one thing we pride ourselves on and I guess you can see with the schedule that we've had over the last 12-24 months a lot of guys have had opportunities. So, I know that we back everyone if they get the chance to do a job for the team with that silver fan on their chest and I know as a group we're really excited,” Mitchell said.
“Look, we've obviously got training this afternoon and a number of guys have got to get through fitness tests and pass that and we probably won't know till tonight and tomorrow morning how they pull up from that, but yeah for us, we back everyone within our squad to have success and do a job for the team,” he added.
But at the same time, Mitchell stated that the Kiwi side aren’t ‘outcome focused’ at the moment and added that if they keep getting the basics right, the result will take care of on its own.
“Yeah, again you play to win games of cricket, and it's nice to win games. But for us, it's making sure we do what we do best. And we're not outcome focused. We never will be. We'll control the things that we can control.”
“And that stuff will take care of itself if we keep doing our jobs. That's what we do as Black Caps and as Kiwis and it seems to have worked for a number of years now and we'll just keep doing what we do and we'll see what happens.”
