Vettori gives credit to bowlers and fielders
March 26th, 2011 - 2:05 am ICT by IANSDhaka, March 25 (IANS) All keyed up after pulling off a surprise 49-run win over favourites South Africa, New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori gave the credit to his bowlers and fielders for leading the country to the World Cup semi-finals here Friday.
“Every single bowler stepped up today, and probably it was the fielding that got us through. Martin Guptill was exceptional,” said the Black Caps skipper.
New Zealand scored 221 for eight and then shut out South Africa for 172 in the quarterfinal match here at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. They would take on the winners of Saturday’s quarterfinal match between Sri Lanka and England in Tuesday’s semi-final clash.
“We wanted 250 on this pitch. We lost some wickets, and scraped through to 220. We knew it was a tricky wicket, and knew it was going to be an old-school one-day game. That’s the sort of game we like to play.
“Once we got 220, we knew we had to be aggressive. We were hanging in there even when (Jacques) Kallis and AB (de Villiers) were going,” he said.
Kallis and De Villiers were going strong at 108/2 and Kallis’ departure triggered the South African collapse.
“Once we got de Villiers and Kallis, we were back in it. The run out of De Villiers was an amazing piece of work. We are pretty happy to be in the semis, and will be glued to the TV to see how the wicket in Colombo plays tomorrow,” the bespectacled Vettori said.
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Tags: ab de villiers, bangla, black caps, bowlers, captain daniel, collapse, colombo, daniel vettori, day game, fielders, guptill, jacques kallis, quarterfinal match, semi finals, semis, sher, skipper, wicket, wickets, zealand captain