Another upset targeted by Taylor

South Africa didn’t play a bunch of dummies who had to just turn up in Dhaka and watch Graeme Smith’s men crumble from a vantage point.

South Africa kept their record ongoing as they failed to pass their knockout test again. It was really depressing for the S.A fans as it was one of the undesirable fallouts of South Africa’s exit from the world cup. Jesse Ryder showed how good a batsman can be. New Zealand players were team possessed they had given all over performance in fielding, batting, and bowling. They never wanted to go home and also wanted to settle a score with the ground that gave them the lowest low as they are not bunch of dummies.

Quietly they have slipped into Sri Lanka, warmer than Dhaka, not as hot as Mumbai, facing a far tougher task than the one they accomplished in Dhaka, that of beating a team much more naturally talented, much more varied, playing in home conditions, used to conditions warmer than Dhaka but not as hot as Mumbai.

And it’s staying under the radar that they are hanging on to. Most of the time New Zealand play we are underdogs, Ross Taylor, who has captained New Zealand in some of the games this World Cup, said two days before their sixth semi-final in 10 World Cups. It’s something we almost enjoy, and we expect when we play. I know a lot of teams expect to beat us, and we enjoy the underdog tag, and we expect to beat them as well.

New Zealand have played Sri Lanka before in this tournament, and the result was not too encouraging, a defeat by 112 runs at a ground these teams will be fighting for the right to play at. Taylor sees having played Sri Lanka as an
advantage, as an opportunity to have made the mistakes in a game not so big.