New Zealand captain Tom Latham previews their clash with South Africa at the ICC Cricket World Cup

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00:00 Tom, welcome to Pune. You've had a couple of days to reflect on the happenings of Dharamshala

00:13 in that high octane, nail-biting finish that we had. What are some of the learnings and

00:19 how do you look forward to this game against South Africa?

00:21 Yeah, as you said, reflecting on what was an amazing game of cricket. Obviously disappointing

00:27 to come out on the wrong side of it, but I think if you look at the game as a whole,

00:32 we did a lot of good things really well. We were obviously put under a lot of pressure

00:37 at the start, the way Australia came out to bat, but I think the way we were able to pull

00:41 ourselves back into the game, we obviously understood pretty quickly that it was a pretty

00:45 decent surface and it was going to be a high pass score. They probably got a little bit

00:50 more than what we wanted towards the back end, but I think we obviously put ourselves

00:55 in a position towards the end of the game to win the game, which is I guess what you

01:00 want in these World Cup games, is to put yourself in a position where you can win and when you're

01:06 chasing something like 400, you kind of need everything to go well. From a batting point

01:12 of view, I thought we did a fantastic job. We were one shot away from being on the other

01:16 side, so a lot of positives. We obviously reflected from a bowling point of view as

01:21 well and hopefully we can put those learnings into practice tomorrow.

01:27 Just going on from that 388 that we were chasing in that game, coming up against a side which

01:34 has come close to 400 a couple of times in this tournament, does that make you look at

01:40 strategy around how to utilise the bowlers a bit better and stuff like that as well?

01:44 Yeah, I think it's just recognising situations as best you can, trying to be proactive as

01:49 much as we can as well from a bowling point of view and a field placement point of view

01:54 as well. Like every team, we do our scouting, trying to find weaknesses from a batting point

02:01 of view from South Africa, but as you said, they're a team that's running pretty hot at

02:04 the moment. They've got some guys in form from a batting point of view, so again, it's

02:10 going to be another great challenge. If we come to a different venue, we've got to adapt

02:15 as quick as we can to this ground here in Pune.

02:18 Last one from me. Jimmy Neesham has given you a good headache to have in the sense that

02:21 he comes into the side and plays quite a vital role in that game. What happens with selection

02:27 and stuff like that if Chapman's fine for selection as well?

02:30 Yeah, I think from a selection point of view, we've obviously just arrived here. We've got

02:34 a few guys to get through a few fitness tests and I guess once we train, we'll have a clearer

02:41 idea of what the XI looks like. So fingers crossed all those guys can get through a bit

02:46 of work today at training and be ready to go tomorrow.

02:48 Hey Tom, all the best for the game tomorrow. I just wanted to touch upon Glenn Phillips,

02:54 the bowler. He's taken some huge wickets in the tournament so far. So how does the team

02:58 see his role as a bowler and how he goes about developing his skills?

03:02 Yeah, he's been fantastic for us. He's obviously had sort of limited opportunity with the ball

03:07 comparative to the other two guys, but he's an all-rounder for us that obviously has a

03:13 lot of power with the bat, but also can bowl some handy overs and it's nice having the

03:17 option with the ball spinning the other way. I think when he's bowled, he's obviously taken

03:21 his opportunity really well. I think you look back to the Australia game a couple of games

03:24 ago where we were under a lot of pressure and for him to bowl 10 overs from one end

03:30 and get three for 30-odd, I think it was, was obviously a fantastic effort on a wicket

03:35 that wasn't necessarily offing a lot. So I guess it just shows he's a really hard worker.

03:41 He's someone that hasn't been bowling off spin for long. He's a keeper from growing

03:48 up. So I guess that just shows that the work that he's put in for him to get a few rewards

03:53 throughout this tournament has been great and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to hopefully

03:58 getting an opportunity again at some point with the ball and hopefully he can, I guess,

04:01 keep showing us the skills that he's got.

04:04 Hi Tom, can you give us any updates on Lockie Ferguson's Achilles and also is there any

04:12 update on Kane?

04:13 Yeah, just as I said before, there's Lockie Kane and Mark Chapman. We'll obviously get

04:19 through hopefully a bit of work today and then we'll see how they pull up from a selection

04:25 point of view. But yeah, obviously Lockie went off in the last game with a bit of an

04:29 Achilles niggle. So fingers crossed he'll be right for tomorrow.

04:34 And then I don't know what you gained from our intro, but it was about the Rugby World

04:37 Cup and just kind of the sentiment around South Africa and obviously they're taking

04:41 a lot of inspiration from that. I know you guys didn't win it, but what can you get from

04:46 the All Blacks, if anything, to kind of motivate yourselves?

04:48 Yeah, that was obviously a fantastic game of rugby. Obviously, again, unfortunate to

04:53 be on the wrong side, but I guess you look at the All Blacks as a whole, they played

05:00 some great rugby throughout this World Cup. I think you look to the final and I guess

05:05 a Kiwi way is we look to scrap the whole way, obviously faced with a little bit of adversity

05:10 in terms of being down to 14 men. But I guess it's something we talk about in our team as

05:15 well as we scrap right to the end regardless of the situation. And I think we showed that

05:20 the other night as well as taking the game as deep as we can. And if we can do that,

05:25 then hopefully that gives ourselves a good chance towards the back end of the game.

05:31 Such a long tournament. Hasatim, how do you go about picking at the right time? And in

05:36 that context, the previous two games, would you say are the blessing in disguise?

05:41 Yeah, I think we just focus on every game as it comes really. Every game is just as

05:46 important as the next. And even though we've come off the back of a couple of losses, we've

05:52 actually done a lot of good stuff as well. It's easy to point out the negatives and things

05:58 that you may want to do better, but we've come close in both those games, especially

06:03 the last one. And when you have some tight turnarounds, some quick turnarounds, it's

06:08 about trying to obviously recognizing the areas that you want to get better, but then

06:13 also focusing on the things that we do well. And if we do that, then as I said, hopefully

06:16 we give ourselves a good chance towards the back end of each game.

06:20 Tom, I don't know. The situation in South Africa is that not too many people have noticed

06:31 the Cricket World Cup because of the Rugby World Cup. And I just wonder, is something

06:34 similar true in New Zealand? You guys have been able to kind of sail under the radar

06:38 until now?

06:39 There's obviously two pretty special sporting events going on at the moment. Obviously one's

06:45 just finished, but we certainly feel that the support that we have back home might be

06:52 slightly different to other countries around the world. But we certainly feel the support

06:55 back home. Obviously, a few people here as well, which is nice. Yeah, we certainly understand

07:01 the countries right in behind us, and hopefully we can, I guess, make them proud as much as

07:06 we can.

07:07 Tom, South Africa's blueprint is fairly obvious for all to see. I mean, they're basically

07:18 playing G20 cricket with 30 overs to get there. So early wickets is obviously the key, perhaps,

07:26 to disturbing that blueprint. And obviously, lucky would be important. But are you thinking

07:33 that bowl your strike bowlers up front in early wickets might be the key tomorrow?

07:38 Yeah, I think whatever game you play, not just against South Africa, I think it's important.

07:43 Wickets are really important. That's the way to stem the run rate as best you can by taking

07:48 wickets. And that's not just at the top, that's through the middle as well. And as you said,

07:52 we've seen South Africa, they're running really hot at the moment, and they've got a lot of

07:55 power throughout their whole line-up. So certainly wickets is going to be important. And I guess

08:01 it's just trying to understand the match-ups as best you can. And we certainly know we've

08:05 got a world-class bowling attack as well. And when they're on song, they're certainly

08:10 very threatening. So if they, I guess, bowl to the best of their ability, then we'll certainly

08:16 give ourselves a good chance. But as I said on the back of that, South Africa has a lot

08:20 of batters that are in form, and it's certainly going to be a great contest tomorrow.

08:27 Just to sort of follow up to what you had asked the previous question, South Africa

08:32 is chasing against Pakistan. Do you see any kind of opening for yourselves in that kind

08:37 of situation as South Africa to chase, set up a target? Do you see anything different

08:42 from what South Africa had done before while batting first?

08:45 Yeah, I guess whether you're batting first, whether you're bowling first, you've got to

08:48 do it well. I guess you look at games in the past year, whether Jui's going to be a factor,

08:55 and I guess we're going to come up with the decision of what's going to be best for us

08:58 in terms of how we want to approach this game. So I guess that sometimes you could look at

09:04 the opposition and what they want to do, but for us it's always been about focusing on

09:08 us and what's best for us as a team. So we'll obviously have those discussions, that training,

09:14 and come up with those decisions.

09:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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