Cricket: Black Caps believe Pakistan beatable

Daniel Vettori has called on his team-mates to be at their calculating best for tonight's cut-throat Champions Trophy showdown against Pakistan.

Vice-captain, key bowler and New Zealand's top-scorer in the previous game against Sri Lanka, Vettori yesterday said his side could win the Pool B match but needed to be more accurate and methodical.

New Zealand, having beaten South Africa and lost to Sri Lanka, need to win tonight at Mohali to qualify for the semifinals of a tournament they won six years ago in Kenya.

Vettori said he had great respect for Pakistan's ODI ability but believed New Zealand could carry the day if they kept strictly to the game plan and played anywhere near their potential.

"Pakistan will no doubt be pretty confident after riding out their recent storms and then beating South Africa," Vettori said from the team hotel at Chandigarh.

"But they can often fluctuate wildly in form and we feel that if we can be as clinical as they are emotional, we'll be giving ourselves a good chance.

"It's important we all concentrate on our respective jobs, because the standard of our execution is going to dictate whether we succeed or not."

Most interest this morning will surround the naming of the New Zealand XI and whether coach John Bracewell opts to persevere with struggling fast-bowler Shane Bond and out-of-sorts batsman Hamish Marshall.

Bond is battling back pain, heat and a lack of rhythm while Marshall is in the middle of one of the worst ruts in ODI history, having scored 284 runs at 15.77 in his past 20 innings.

Bracewell could replace Bond with either James Franklin or rookie Mark Gillespie and Marshall with Peter Fulton.

Whatever the decision, Vettori believed the tournament title was still up for grabs for almost all contenders, including New Zealand if they can make the semifinals.

"There's been a few surprises, a bit of ebb and flow and Australia are obviously the favourites.

"But I think once it comes to the semis, it's anyone's title and we'd like to think that we'd have as much chance as anyone."

Pakistan have an ominous record against New Zealand at neutral venues, winning 18 of the 23 games played so far; the most notable being the semifinal triumph at Manchester in the 1999 World Cup.

But New Zealand have claimed some success; beating Pakistan in the final of the Bank Alfalah Cup in Sri Lanka three years ago and in the semifinal of the 2000 Champions Trophy.

Vettori said that, though his team wanted to shake off the underdog's label, they were used to the predicament they had found themselves in and knew how to get out of it.

"It's probably something we're familiar with even though we'd prefer not to be," he said.

"We've talked about trying to play more consistent, winning cricket so we're not faced with early elimination games but it hasn't quite worked out like that in this tournament."


Champions Trophy

* Live Sky Sport 1, 9.30 tonight

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (c), Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Brendon McCullum, Hamish Marshall, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent.

Pakistan: Younis Khan (c), Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Abdur Rehman, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naved, Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez, Rao Iftikhar.