New Zealand won't be over-awed: Anderson

Auckland, Feb 24: New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson on Tuesday has said that his side will not be over-awed by the magnimity of the World Cup Pool A encounter against Australia on Saturday.

Both teams have been good form. While Australia beat England comprehensively in the event opener and had their second game against Bangladesh washed out, New Zealand have been unstoppable, winning all three games against Sri Lanka, Scotland and England.

“They’re not going to be foreign. They’re our neighbours from across the ditch, they don’t have guys who come out the back of hand, anything like that. We just have to go about our work and stick by our blueprint,” Anderson was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Anderson was unfazed by Australian opener Aaron Finch’s comments Monday, who said that the pressure will be on New Zealand.

“That might be mind games. It’s the World Cup, every game is a pressure situation. It’s exciting for us and we look at it is as a positive to come out in front of packed crowd at Eden Park who hopefully will get stuck into the Aussies. I’m sure the next few days it will sink in about how big it’s going to be at Eden Park,” said the 24-year-old.

“Their sledging tactics are well known now and something we haven’t involved ourselves in. We’re fairly neutral on the field, stick to what we do. We’ll be expecting a bit of heat from them and I guess that’s part of their game plan. We’ll just deal with it as it comes.”

The left-handed batsman was, however, concerned about the short boundaries at Eden Park here where even mistimed balls can go for sixes.

“It’s a bit daunting when you walk back to your run-up and can almost touch the boundary, it’s not the nicest feeling as a bowler. It’s a ground where you need to change it up a lot. If you miss slightly, you can get taken to. Top edges don’t go for four, they go for six. It’s one of those things, just get on with it,” said the southpaw.

“As a batter it’s nice. It’s a different ground and we’re lucky we’ve played here a reasoble amount of times. It’s been a reasoble hunting ground. We’ll have the same plans from the last few times we’ve played there.” IANS