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A scathing Daniel Vettori blasted New Zealand’s bowlers for failing to give their side the crucial mental edge ahead of the one-day series against Australia following a six-wicket loss to the Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval on Thursday.
Vettori singled out his attack’s inability to defend the Black Caps’ total of 5-271 against the inexperienced PM’s line-up, saying they had missed a golden opportunity.
“Winning’s such an important thing when you come to a place like Australia, if you can get off to a good start the you can ride it the whole time,” Vettori told reporters.
“If you’re always continually trying to chase the result or get back on the horse then it makes it very difficult so we wanted to win today to go on to Perth with a little bit of confidence.”
Tasmania’s George Bailey and retired opener Justin Langer showed the much-hyped Test aspirants in the PM’s XI side how it was done, guiding the side to victory.
With all the pre-game hype surrounding a bat-off between openers Phil Hughes and Michael Klinger in the battle for the spot at the top of the Test batting order recently vacated by Matthew Hayden, it was Hayden’s old partner and 26-year-old Bailey who stole the show.
Klinger was caught hooking for just six and Hughes was bowled by Jeetan Patel for 22, bringing Bailey to the crease, and when Callum Ferguson went for 30, 38-year-old skipper Langer strode to the crease with his side in trouble at 3-71 chasing 272.
Dropped on 35, Bailey proceeded to crack 107 not out, sharing a fourth wicket partnership of 153 with Langer, who made 72 off 67 balls in front of 6,593 fans braving a 37-degree Canberra day.
“We bowled really poorly today so that’s something we’re going to have to lift,” Vettori said.
“We just bowled both sides of the wicket, we looked like we didn’t have a plan when we turned up to bowl and guys just turned up and hoped for things to happen.”
In some good news for the Kiwis, Vettori said paceman Tim Southee (groin) would be right for the Chappell-Hadlee series opener in Perth on Sunday, while MRI scans have cleared batsman Jesse Ryder of serious damage to his shoulder.
“We hope that our planning will give us an advantage, we hope that we’ll be able to be quite insightful in our thinking in terms of how to attack some players,” Vettori said of the upcoming series.
“We just have to be at the absolute pinnacle of our game to beat Australia.”
Bailey’s century brought a sigh of relief to the Tasmanian, who earlier had dropped two sitters during New Zealand’s innings of 5-271, and it was he who hit the winning runs with 13 balls to spare.
“I thought after I dropped a couple of catches probably a first ball duck would cap the day off nicely,” he said.
Langer and Bailey nullified Brendon McCullum’s 114 as the Kiwi ‘keeper/batsman also dispelled any doubts over a hip injury to play the sheet anchor role for his side.
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