News desk
\nBIRMINGHAM
\nTable-toppers New Zealand was having a ball at the World Cup. But that was before they encountered the Pakistani juggernaut.
\nOn a tricky Edgbaston wicket, Pakistan ended New Zealand\u2019s unbeaten run in the World Cup with an impressive six-wicket win on Wednesday.
\nA win against Pakistan would have secured a semi-final place for the Black Caps. They must be feeling some pressure after failing in what was seen as their first real test in the tournament.
\nJimmy Neesham, who hit an unbeaten 97 in the low-scoring match, doesn\u2019t think so.
\nThe talented New Zealand all-rounder stressed that his team wasn\u2019t affected by the loss that came just days before tough games against defending champions Australia and hosts England.
\n\u201cWe will prepare the same way we do for every other game and we\u2019re basically in a situation now where it\u2019s one win from two and we will be in the semi-finals which is obviously our goal,\u201d Neesham told reporters after Wednesday\u2019s game.
\n\u201cThe mood in the dressing room is good, the guys were joking and laughing when I left. We\u2019re not the type of team that take losses really hard. We\u2019ll have a couple of beers tonight as a team and kind of talk about how that game went and then we\u2019ll pretty much park it.
\n\u201cAustralia is a team that we\u2019ve played a lot over the last two or three years. We know how they go about their game, they\u2019re obviously a very good team but we certainly won\u2019t prepare any differently for them that we would for any other game.\u201d
\nNeesham made it clear that New Zealand wasn\u2019t expecting to go through the group stages of the tournament unscathed.
\n\u201cThere are too many quality teams going around to expect to win every game. We prepared before the tournament that we would probably lose one or two games but for us, it\u2019s all about making it to the semi-finals and then you\u2019re only two good games away from lifting the trophy.
\n\u201cSo for us, nothing changes, we will prepare for the next game that same way we prepared for the last six,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News desk BIRMINGHAM Table-toppers New Zealand was having a ball at the World Cup. But that was before they encountered the Pakistani juggernaut. On a tricky Edgbaston wicket, Pakistan ended New Zealand\u2019s unbeaten run in the World Cup with an impressive six-wicket win on Wednesday. A win against Pakistan would have secured a semi-final place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n