Styris backing Wright’s ‘batting expertise’ to revive New Zealand’s ODI slump
By ANIWednesday, February 16, 2011
CHENNAI - New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris reckons that John Wright has been an influential presence in the team since he took on the coach’s role two months ago.
“John’s batting expertise has been the major thing that he has brought to the side so far. He’s been great for the batters in the side because he’s given them some clarity about how to go about their innings,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Styris, as saying.
“We’ve got some tremendous strikers of the ball who are still learning how to build an innings since they are very young,” he added.
The 35-year-old further said that the Black Caps’ first priority is to record a win over Kenya on Sunday, before looking at the challenge of Australia and Zimbabwe.
“We know we’ve beaten every team on our day - it’s only six or eight months ago that we beat India by 200 runs, so we know we can beat the best,” Styris said.
“We know we’ve got a good team. We’ve just got to keep believing that we’re good enough. Once you get to the quarterfinals, and we should stress that’s our first goal, then anything can happen. It’s all on the day, previous results and world ranking mean nothing,” he added.
New Zealand has won only two of their last 14 ODIs, slumping first to a 4-0 defeat in Bangladesh before a 5-0 whitewash in India and then a 3-2 loss to Pakistan at home. (ANI)
