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Daniel Vettori says his New Zealand side should feed off their home-crowd support as much as possible because next time they tour Australia things are bound to get ugly for the Black Caps.
A rowdy crowd of about 10,000 is expected to squeeze into the stands and grassy banks at Hamilton’s Seddon Park on Tuesday, eager to give Australia’s Mitchell Johnson a bit of lip.
Johnson was fined last Wednesday for his physical clash with Kiwi batsman Scott Styris.
Despite being booed all day long in the second one-day international in Auckland on Saturday, Johnson was in awesome touch and took four crucial wickets.
The Kiwi fans are sure to give Johnson another tough day at the office but Vettori says it’s nothing worse than what his men suffer in Australia.
“The games over there are pretty intense,” Vettori said on Monday.
“I’ve been fortunate in the last few years. I’ve been captain and I haven’t had to field on the boundary (in Australia) so I’ve missed a lot of that stuff which is good.
“It’s the same worldwide. You get that when you stand on the boundary.
“They (Kiwi fans in general) certainly step up when Australia comes here. It’s the series that all New Zealanders look forward to.
“They get up for it as much as we do.”
Vettori said even at home grounds the Black Caps receive some hostile barracking.
“Sometimes it’s directed at us so we’ll look forward to that,” he grinned.
“But no, they’re a good crowd and they get into it.”
Vettori backed the safety measures put in place for the Chappell-Hadlee series, which included Johnson having two guards escort him from the field after scoring 16 not out in Auckland.
“The security of players is paramount,” Vettori said.
While Kiwi fans will be keeping an eye on Johnson, so too will the New Zealand batsmen.
“We know that Johnson is their strike bowler. The way that Ricky Ponting uses him is to come in and try to take wickets,” Vettori said.
“He’s the guy that I suppose more than anyone we need to make sure we play him on his merits.
“The other guys are pretty new to a lot of us. Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris we haven’t played a lot against, Nathan Hauritz even.”
Vettori is desperate to have star batsman Ross Taylor and all-rounder James Franklin available for Tuesday’s game, although both are rated only 50-50 chances because of hamstring injuries.
Uncapped batsman Shanan Stewart, who lists Ponting as his favourite player, is on standby.
“It’s probably the most important game of the series. The team that can go two-one up only needs to win one more to take out the series,” Vettori said.
“So we’re trying to put everything into this game.”
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