”We have to find a way of dealing with the aggressive way they play,” was the suggestion made by New Zealand cricket vice-captain Brendon McCullum on Wednesday, two days before the second Castle Lager Test match between New Zealand and South Africa at Supersport Park.
McCullum said the Black Caps have had a couple of days to digest their massive defeat by South Africa in the first Test at the Wanderers, which ended a day early. South Africa won the Test by 358 runs — their biggest victory and New Zealand’s biggest defeat.
”It was a very embarrassing loss for us, but we’ve got another Test in two days’ time, so we’ve really got to work out what went wrong and how we’re going to implement our plans in the next game. We’ve got to make sure we don’t carry any baggage into the next Test,” said McCullum.
He said New Zealand’s lack of Test cricket in recent times — they last played a Test match 11 months ago — could not be used as an excuse for their poor performance at the Wanderers.
”We have to give a harder performance in the next Test. They’re a very, very good side, but we believe we can knock them over, and we just have to find the way to do that.
”We did well with the ball last time, but we didn’t give our bowlers enough rest by being bowled out in 40 overs in the first innings,” he continued. ”That probably lessened their potency.
”Our batting let us down. We’ve got to find a way of negating the aggressiveness that they [South Africa] had. They come hard at you, and they bowl short. They have a very simple game plan and it’s been very successful against many teams.
”We’ve got to find a way that we can be at our best against them for the five days of the Test.”
McCullum said New Zealand have identified South Africa’s long tail as a weakness in the team. ”We’ve looked at that as an area we can exploit,” he explained.
”Their top order is outstanding — they have some fantastic players with very good records — but if we can get through them, they do have a real weakness without Shaun Pollock at number eight. So for us, it means coming really hard for the first five or six wickets, and then opening up the tail.”
He conceded that the absence of pace bowler Shane Bond was a severe blow. ”He’s a world class bowler, but we have operated without him in the past,” he said.
”We got guys in the team like Daniel Vettori, who’s also a world-class bowler, and Chris Martin, who has done very well, particularly in South Africa. They’re probably the two guys we’ve got to look to, supported by Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills.
”If our batters can give our bowlers enough rest, we can be just as potent as South Africa.”
All-rounder Oram, who had to leave the field with a hamstring strain during the first Test, and former captain Stephen Fleming, who has an injured thumb and a badly bruised forearm, are both expected to be fit for the second Test. — Sapa