Styris: 'We're not getting the praise we deserve'

Scott Styris, the New Zealand allrounder, has insisted his team are not getting the praise they deserve as they sit one win away from clinching the one-day series against South Africa.

After celebrating their six-wicket win at Dunedin to put them 3-1 up in the six-match series, the squad are now targeting Saturday's day-nighter at Eden Park as the biggest game of the summer.

However, Styris, who scored 69 off 62 balls at Dunedin, said it was taking time for the team to get the credit they deserved from commentators and the public. "We know we're a good team, we've got a lot of good players and with so many guys standing up to be counted we should have this confidence," Styris said. "The typical New Zealand way of praising the opposition and not us, we don't buy into that. We feel it's always "they didn't play well" or "the wicket doesn't suit them". It's not "we played well", and that's been disappointing."

Styris added: "The attitude's changing a little bit with the clinical performance last night, and hopefully it will continue to change and people will now say this is a good New Zealand side rather than saying South Africa played poorly."

New Zealand had an optional training session at Eden Park today, and there was excitement building already about Saturday's match, not only because Chris Harris, the popular allrounder, will be joining the squad, but also that South Africa are the only side New Zealand have never won a Test or one-day series against.

"We're hugely excited. We're trying to tick off everything we haven't achieved in New Zealand cricket history and we're really set on achieving this goal," Styris said. "This is another one, if we can do that then we move on to the Test series and tick one more off."