Fletcher appointed consultant for New Zealand team

JAIPUR - Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has been appointed a consultant by New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and will be with the team for the rest of the One-day series against India.

Fletcher arrived here Tuesday and will be closely scrutinising the New Zealand cricketers, who will be looking to level the series in the second match against India here Wednesday.

In front of Fletcher, some of the fringe players will get a chance to stake their claim for a place in the World Cup squad to be held in the sub-continent early next year.

Coach Mark Greatbatch welcomed Fletcher’s input and said the players need to lift their game in all the departments after a 40-run loss in the first ODI in Guwahati, Sunday.

“We did some good stuff but I don’t know that we were consistent enough across the board. We let them get 30-40 too many. We got ourselves in position at 113 for two to chase that total (276) down but then we lost four for 40. That hurt us,” Greatbatch said.

“That middle period (when batting), we have to look to control the game when we can. If we can’t control the game, we’ve got to have parity whether we’re batting or bowling,” he told Radio Sport.

Stand-in captain Ross Taylor concurred with the coach.

“It was disappointing with the way I played in the test series. The (cheap) wickets of Scott Styris and Grant Elliot for us were the turning points of the match. Probably we could have pulled it off if we had wickets in hand,” he said.

Both captain Daniel Vettori and wicketkeeper Brendan McCullum missed the opening loss with back niggles and have been closely monitored since while fast bowler Daryl Tuffey will be returning home with a bicep strain.

Greatbatch hinted that Vettori might play, but a decision would be left until late.

“It would be nice to have two of your best players playing. But those two had a big workload during the test series. We’re hoping we’ll have at least one, if not both of them, available to play the next game,” he said.