Cricket: Wayward Kiwi bowlers told to keep eye on target

By RICHARD BOOCK

New Zealand cricket coach David Trist will ask his bowlers to pay more attention to the bulls-eye in Friday's must-win one-day international against South Africa.

The New Zealanders were out-blasted by Pakistan in Sunday's rain-affected tri-series opener in Singapore after a scatter-gun performance from all the front-line pacemen apart from Geoff Allott.

Beaten by 12 runs in a 25-over slog-fest, New Zealand need to knock over the resurgent South Africans to retain a realistic chance of qualifying for the tournament final, and the lack of precision in the pace department is causing the biggest headache.

Of the quicker bowlers on Sunday, Allott continued his encouraging comeback, but Chris Cairns, Shayne O'Connor and Scott Styris tended more towards the barn door than the William Tell school of accuracy, giving up a combined total of 71 runs off seven overs.

In a variation of the "can't see the wood for the trees" theory, Trist said his bowlers were trying so hard to contain Pakistan's batsmen that they failed to concentrate on the target - the stumps.

"We need to get back to that old-fashioned strategy of bowling straight and full when the opposition are getting after us," said Trist. "We went for 38 runs off three overs at one stage, and mainly because the bowling was simply too loose.

"Our slow bowlers did pretty well, but our quicker guys need to pay more attention to the target, and get back to the basic 'if you miss, I hit', principle.

Chasing a formidable 191 at the Kallang Ground, New Zealand were unable to capitalise on some bright batting from Chris Harris and Roger Twose, and were eventually bowled out for 179 off the second-last ball of the match.

New Zealand were out of the blocks quickly courtesy of openers Cairns and Nathan Astle, and appeared to be on track to score the required 7.6 an over as Twose and Harris added 64 for the fourth wicket.

Trist said he was reasonably comfortable with the batting and believed the side had placed themselves handily to win the match.

"We did pretty well in the conditions," he said. "But losing Twose and Harris in the space of a couple of overs took the momentum out of the innings."

He said Cairns had been promoted to open because the match was abbreviated, and confirmed that Vettori was likely to partner Astle against South Africa on Friday.

Injury worries have eased, with Allott showing no signs of fragility and Twose his minor back strain.