Another epic clash? Kiwis look to douse South Africa’s fiery batting

Pune, October 31

Stand-in New Zealand skipper Tom Latham today called on his world class bowlers to be proactive ahead of their crucial World Cup clash against a rampaging South Africa here.

It will be a battle between two formidable batting units when South Africa and New Zealand, who currently occupy the second and third spots, respectively, face off at the MCA stadium here tomorrow.

6-2 South Africa and New Zealand have met eight times in ODI World Cups, with the Kiwis holding a 6-2 advantage over the Proteas

“Yeah, I think it’s just recognising situations as best you can and trying to be proactive as much as we can as well from a bowling point of view and I guess from a field placement point of view as well,” Latham said during the pre-match press conference.

“Like every team we do our scouting, trying to find weaknesses from a batting point of view from South Africa, they’re a team that’s running pretty hot at the moment. They’ve got some guys in form from a batting point of view. It’s going to be another great challenge. And we have come to a different venue and we’ve got to adapt as quickly as we can to this ground here in Pune,” he added.

South Africa have posted three of the six highest scores in this edition of the ODI World Cup, and Latham said they will need to strike regularly to stop their batters.

“Wickets are really important. That’s the way to stem the run rate as best you can by taking wickets and that’s not just at the top, that’s through the middle as well. They’ve got a lot of power throughout the whole line-up. I guess it’s just trying to understand the match-ups as best you can. And we certainly know we’ve got a world class bowling attack as well,” he said. — PTI

Ferguson to return, Williamson remains doubtful

New Zealand captain Tom Latham expects fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to be available for the clash but Kane Williamson and Mark Chapman remain doubtful for the match. “We’ll obviously get through hopefully a bit of work today and then we’ll see how they pull up from a selection point of view,” the wicketkeeper-captain said. “Lockie went off in the last game with a bit of an Achilles’ niggle, so fingers crossed.” Reuters