Kyle Mills: Pool game or final, every ball counts for dedicated side

Chris Gayle looms as a potential danger to the Black Caps in the knockout stage of the World Cup. Photo / AP

Opinion

The World Cup is about to get really interesting and playing knockout cricket brings a completely different mentality and kind of pressure.

There are no second chances. It's not like a series, when you've got three or four days to put things right for the next one, or even a pool game. It's now or never.

There's more of an edge in the week leading up to a big game. Every ball matters and there's more emotion around it.

That's what happens externally, anyway. As a side, nothing changes for us.

Everyone has seen how committed we have been in the pool games, throwing ourselves around in the field and treating every ball as if it counts. That's the mentality we tried to go into the tournament with so it won't feel different when we get into the knockout stages.

In previous teams and at previous tournaments, there has often been a feeling that we needed to change things because the stakes had been raised. It doesn't work like that.

Our team meetings and scouting throughout the World Cup have been no different to the ones we had 12 months ago or during the series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Just because it's a big game doesn't mean we have to change anything.

It means there's a real calmness in the side. The hype around the Australia game was enormous externally but everyone was really relaxed leading into the match.

Captain Brendon McCullum has been crucial in creating that environment. He just brings calmness and emphasises the importance of not getting too far ahead of ourselves. As long as we give it a crack, play as well as we can, that's all we can do.

There's always a chance we will get beaten because someone takes the game away from us. All teams have match-winners, just like we do, and that's the nature of cricket.

The West Indies, who we could be playing in the quarter-final, have an obvious one in Chris Gayle and that makes them dangerous.

It's the same for Ireland, who are another possible quarter-final opponent.

They have a strong batting line-up, with a number of seasoned campaigners who have played plenty of English County Cricket and have had some success on the international stage.

We are respectful of any opponent but we have to believe that if we play to a decent level, we should be alright.

There has been some concern about our middle order but it wasn't that long ago Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi were having incredible summers against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Our batsmen really haven't had a chance to spend long periods at the crease because our bowlers have been so effective.

Players don't get caught up in that sort of debate and everyone has great confidence in their teammates. We should be confident, having played so well in the pool games, and we are in a position we expected to be in.

To be top of the pool is quite satisfying but we know we haven't achieved anything yet. Hopefully, that is still to come.

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