Injuries frustrate New Zealand

Scotty Styris sat out two matches, but will look to recover by Friday © Getty Images

Despite being 2-0 on the tour of South Africa so far, New Zealand are not without their share of injury concerns. Scott Styris (hamstring), Jacob Oram (back) and James Franklin (heel) are all causes of worry for Stephen Fleming, their captain.

Fleming hopes that they will be fit to play in the international Pro20 match against South Africa at the Wanderers on October 21. "Our bowling is a concern, with Franklin, Styris and Oram all probably underdone. We want some selection dilemmas, we don't want injuries to play a part in this series, it happens too much to us," Fleming was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Styris, who missed both warm-up games against South Africa A, bowled and batted at the Wanderers nets on Tuesday, and should bowl in Friday's match. Fleming, however, will look at Styris to contribute with the bat as well, given the top order's erratic batting form. Fleming has led from the front on the tour, scoring a fine century in Potchefstroom on Sunday, but the only other batsmen with scores over fifty have been Craig McMillan and James Marshall.

However, Fleming maintains that it is too early to be worried about the batting, saying that his players had not had much game time recently. "We're pleased that we've got a couple of hundreds on the board, we could so easily have gone through these games with none of us in any nick at all. We do want the others to fire and they've got to do the work during the week to get up to speed."

He added that New Zealand would treat the Pro20 international the same as any other big match. "We put a lot of importance on it. It's certainly not a hit and giggle. It plays an important part in the tour. We are looking forward to it and we want to win it."