By CricketCountry Staff
Former New Zealand opening batsman Nathan Astle has criticised the Black Caps for their spineless performance against their trans-Tasman rivals Australia in their second World Cup game at Nagpur which they lost tamely by seven wickets.
Published: Mar 02, 2011, 04:57 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 02, 2011, 04:57 PM (IST)
Nathan Astle feels New Zealand batsmen must bat for longer periods
By CricketCountry Staff
Auckland: Mar 2, 2011
Former New Zealand opening batsman Nathan Astle has criticised the Black Caps for their spineless performance against their trans-Tasman rivals Australia in their second World Cup game at Nagpur which they lost tamely by seven wickets.
Astle said New Zealand lacked serious planning and it showed in their lop-sided loss to Australia. “The Black Caps heavy loss to Australia was obviously disappointing but more so was the fact the side didn’t seem to have a plan,” Astle was quoted as saying in New Zealand Herald.
The former fluent strokemaker said the New Zealand batsmen failed to show any application and refused to put a price on their wicket. “There were a lot of loose shots, no one seemed to want to bat time and do the hard yards to get a good score which is what they were going to need,” he said.
Astle said New Zealand has enough firepower in its batting department but is not delivering at the moment. “That’s what disappoints me with your McCullums, Guptills and Ryders – they’ve got all the shots in the book and they are very good players; if they just went out and batted time they would get big scores. But at the moment it looks like they want to be on 50 before they are on 10.”.
He was, however, optimistic about New Zealand making it to the quarterfinal despite the defeat to Australia. “They can still bounce back and reach the quarterfinals and Zimbabwe is the perfect team to play to get back on track.”
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