Loss against SA won't have any bearing: Glenn Phillips
New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips on Monday said the defeat against South Africa will have no bearing ahead of their final match against the bottom-placed Canada, as the Kiwis look to seal a Super Eights berth from Group D. New Zealand are currently placed second with two wins from three games behind South Africa, who are through to the Super Eights with six points.
The Kiwis will look to address the frailties exposed by South Africa in the seven-wicket defeat and reaffirm their status as title contenders and Phillips feels that defeat shouldn't necessarily be looked upon as the "be-all end-all of learnings"."You look at games of T20 cricket and there's small margins between winning and losing. South Africa were very good in all facets of the game the other day. On our day as well, we've taken (on) South Africa, well, in different formats," Phillips said.
"But we've played our best cricket in the recent past, so understanding that you don't necessarily look at one game as the be-all end-all of learnings. There's not necessarily been a pattern per se. If our top order has gone down, then our middle order (has) stepped up. Sometimes, it just happens to be the way that the top order gets off to a start and then the middle can't go through. "That's just the nature of T20 cricket when you're trying to keep the momentum going the whole time. But if you look at the options the boys took, they're in really clear mindsets." Phillips said execution is crucial in T20 cricket.
"It just comes down to execution at the end of the day. With the ball as well, we're just trying to make sure that we're hitting our straps as much as possible. Guys are allowed to hit you (on) good balls and then if we didn't bowl as well as we have on previous days, then we look at that and we can be better on the next day and that's fine. "It's professional cricket at the end of the day and sometimes you're good and sometimes you're not. You just hope the gap between the two is a little less each day."
