The team spirits are still high: Tim Southee

The India vs New Zealand second ODI did a lot of good to both the teams as it must have pumped the visitors with winning confidence the Indian team, on the other hand, is hurt and will do all in their prowess to stage a comeback and take lead in the series. They are in Mohali now for the third match of the series and on the eve of the game Kiwi pacer, Tim Southee believes that the team doesn’t get “too far ahead of ourselves” nor “too down of ourselves” when the outcome isn’t going their way.

New Zealand came back really well to grab a 6-run victory in the Kotla ODI which was their first win on the tour, having lost the Test series 3-0 and the opening ODI at Dharamshala. While addressing the media Southee said, “I think the strength of our side is that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves and we don’t get too down of ourselves when the results don’t go our way. We prepare the same way before every match and I don’t think you can let what’s happened in the game before influence the game you are preparing for,”

The right-arm pacer who bagged the winning wicket for the Kiwis in the second game had 3 wickets in the match having already scored the first half century of his ODI career in the series opener at Dharamshala. Talking about the mood in the team after their win he said, “Our preparation has been the same, we know it’s a big match. We’ve got to get used to these conditions as quickly we can, which obviously are different than what they were in Delhi.”

Ross Taylor hasn’t quite been able to get hold of the challenges and has been completely out of sorts on the tour thus far. Talking about the top order batsman’s form Southee said, “It’s not an easy place (the sub-continent) to come in, had a difficult Test series, but Ross is a class batsman, he has shown that for a number of years. He is a quality player, he is not far away from, I guess a big score. He is still working hard at the nets.”

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He further added, “Yeah, obviously, he’s a bit disappointed, he is a senior player, he wants to obviously lead with some runs. We know there is a big score round the corner for him.”

In spite the fact that the results have not gone their way in the tour the pacer pressed on the fact that the team is in good spirits and the overall environment is very good. “The team spirits are still high, it’s been a long tour, but the guys are still happy and a great group of guys came in a couple of weeks ago and the environment has been good”. Southee concluded saying.