New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum (in pic) vowed the Black Caps would maintain their high intensity cricket in Friday’s crucial World Cup clash against England despite having to play three games in a week.
The co-hosts trounced Sri lanka in the opening Pool A match by seven wickets before a patchy three-wicket win against minnows Scotland took them onto four points.
“Three games in seven days — I guess that’s one of your concerns, but we have a full squad to pick from, and we’re going to go with the same team we’ve played the last two games,” said McCullum on Thursday.
A win over England will put New Zealand in a strong position to make the quarter-finals with Australia (February 28), Afghanistan (March 8) and Bangladesh (March 13) left to play in the pool stage. The top four from each of the two groups will qualify for the last-eight.
McCullum stressed his side were exploiting a winning groove which has seen them defeat Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, 3-2, and then see off the Asian giants again 2-0 on home ground just before the World Cup.
“So we knew the scheduling well before we came into it so we were able to factor that into our preparation. So we go on with no excuses. We’ll give ourselves a good chance, and hopefully we can replicate our form of late.” he said.
The skipper admitted that England's attack will pose a different challenge for them.