How far should New Zealand take aggression
In the New Zealand Hearald , David Leggat says Kyle Mills' altercation with Faf du Plessis was a blemish on an excellent match for New Zealand
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
In the New Zealand Hearald, David Leggat says Kyle Mills' altercation with Faf du Plessis was a blemish on an excellent match for New Zealand. The test against Sri Lanka will be even sterner, he writes.
Aggression is important as long as it's controlled. New Zealand's players earn some slack on the incident as emotions were clearly running high. After all, written off and suddenly, having squeezed the South African lemon hard and long enough, they could see the pips starting to fly out. But it was ugly. Pointing out to du Plessis that he'd effectively tossed away the game is fine, but Kyle Mills, who was not even in the XI, had no place getting involved when the verbal sparks were flying. Hefty fines were handed out to Mills, Vettori and du Plessis, and justified, too.
Nathan Astle, though, has no problems with New Zealand's players getting in du Plessis' face, especially since he had made pre-match comments about not being afraid of New Zealand. The challenge for the team now, Astle writes in the same paper, will be overcoming the inconsistency that has plagued them since his time as a player.
It was a great move to get in the South African faces because they don't like it. They are big on being the aggressors. They pride themselves on stamping their authority on games. The Black Caps made sure the shoe was on the other foot and since Faf du Plessis made prematch comments about not being afraid of the Black Caps, I'm sure they were reminding him of that at a crucial part of the game when he ran out AB de Villiers.
What's the secret to New Zealand, the game's eternal underdogs, lifting themselves in World Cups? David Lloyd tries to find out in the Independent.
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo