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Injury problems mount for New Zealand

LONDON - New Zealand’s World Twenty20 campaign faces a potentially make-or-break 24 hours as they wait on the fitness of several senior players.

Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori has yet to appear in the tournament because of an injury to the left-arm spinner’s bowling shoulder and opening batsman Jesse Ryder is struggling with a groin problem.

Ryder too didn’t feature during Tuesday’s last ball loss to South Africa in New Zealand’s final group match.

But middle-order stroke player Ross Taylor did play only to suffer what appeared to be a hamstring strain while batting and he too is now doubtful for Thursday’s Super Eights opener against Ireland at Trent Bridge.

Taylor helped stand-in skipper Brendon McCullum add 56 for the third wicket before, with New Zealand in sight of victory, he was bowled slogging against left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe.

McCullum, who top scored with 57, fell soon afterwards when he was stumped off van der Merwe, whose two for for 14 turned the tide in the Proteas’ favour.

The acting captain said it had been the right call to let Taylor bat on in what was a ‘dead’ match, with both sides already through to the Super Eights after beating Scotland.

“That was my decision,” McCullum told reporters. “A guy like him, even at 80 percent, is capable of hitting the ball out of the park and one or two over the rope would have made the difference in that game.”

Asked about the extent of Vettori, Ryder and Taylor’s injuries, McCullum said: “I’m not too sure, we’ll find out in the next 24 hours whether they’ll be available for remainder of the tournament, the next game or not at all.

“We’ll try and get as many as bodies on deck as possible and make sure we get guys as fit as we can so we can make a decision on selection.

“Then we’ll look at the surfaces and opposition we are playing and try to come up with the best game plan.

“Over the last two games we saw our batting the way we want to play against Scotland and today (Tuesday) it was with ball and in the field, so if we can marry those two up then hopefully we’ll give ourselves an opportunity.”

Teenage South Africa seamer Wayne Parnell held his nerve to just deny the Black Caps the 15 runs they needed off the last over but McCullum said there were positives for New Zealand in defeat.

“It’s not too bad, considering we had three guys come into the mix and took on an impressive South African side and competed the way we did.

“It’s a small step forward, but not winning does hurt and we know we have a huge job to do in the next few days.”