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New Zealand unperturbed by indifferent build-up

Andy Moles has shrugged off the ordinary performance by most NZ players who took part in the IPL

Cricinfo staff
30-May-2009
Ross Taylor led New Zealand to an emphatic win over Ireland  •  Getty Images

Ross Taylor led New Zealand to an emphatic win over Ireland  •  Getty Images

New Zealand coach Andy Moles and national selector Glenn Turner have shrugged off the indifferent performances by most of their players who took part in the IPL.
"The nature of the beast which is the Twenty20 game is very hit and miss," Turner said. He added that even net practice at the IPL was better than "sitting at home in the winter doing nothing".
Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum found form towards the end of the IPL, and Daniel Vettori was his miserly self in his limited chances, but the rest of the New Zealand players - including Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Scott Styris - were totally out-of-sorts in South Africa.
New Zealand have had a better time of it after reaching England, posting a narrow win over Bangladesh and a more comfortable one over Ireland in the two warm-up matches so far.
"A lot of thought has gone into the preparation for this tournament and we hope that it will be rewarded," Moles said. "We have plenty of match-winners with bat and ball; it's a matter of them performing as consistently as possible. This is our strongest squad so there are no excuses."
New Zealand had reached the semi-finals of the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007, and are grouped with Scotland and South Africa this time. They still have a couple more warm-up games to fine-tune their preparations - against India on June 1 and against Australia the day after.