Top order delivers for New Zealand

In the Herald on Sunday, Mark Richardson says that while New Zealand's fielding and bowling was spot-on, it was the long partnership between Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor that did the trick in the quarter-final against South Africa.

I doff my cap to Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor, who put on 114 for the third wicket. Surely, after the two openers went in soft fashion, the wheels would have felt awfully wobbly once more. In one-day cricket that feeling of 'here we go again' is one of the most destructive in the game.

But Ryder and Taylor did a sterling job. Yes, I know it was heavily on the cautious side but what other option did they have? If the middle order from five down had been exposed, doubt would have once more festered throughout the batting effort.