Reaction after England beat New Zealand by ten runs in Cardiff, Wales on Sunday (June 16th) to seal a place in the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy.
Brendon McCullum, New Zealand captain (on New Zealand’s chances of reaching the semi-finals):“It’s never nice when you leave destiny in someone else’s hands. So, we’ve obviously got to watch tomorrow’s game (between Australia and Sri Lanka) and see what unfolds, but we had our opportunity and we passed it up, so whatever unfolds from here is going to require some luck and if we do get an opportunity then great, but if not we know we had a chance here and we passed it up.”
Alastair Cook, England captain (on England’s chances of winning the Champions Trophy):“It’s great to get the opportunity to keep it in our own hands today, wasn’t it, obviously with the rain about, which…. eight o’clock this morning wasn’t there and then you come off, just after the toss and everyone’s saying ‘it’s just about to rain’. We just, a bit of relief that we managed to get on, and kept (it) in our own hands, and it was a pretty good performance. It’s always tricky batting first in a 24 over game. You never know quite what a good score is. You know, it’s not twenty-twenty, there’s power-plays, seven overs of power-plays, which are different, and obviously the wicket being under covers for a while. So, you didn’t quite know what a good score was and we got a competitive total in the end and I thought we bowled very well.”
“These three games, I’ve thought we’ve played pretty well. Clearly there was an outstanding hundred by Kumar Sangakkara (for Sri Lanka) to beat us, the other day, and today we’ve…. we’ve adapted well to a different condition of game. So, it was a real good effort and…. yes, any four of these sides or any eight of these sides we’ve found in this Champions Trophy have been a dangerous side to play, so…. you have to be on top of your game to win.”
