Bracewell keeps the faith

John Bracewell is set to keep the faith with his underfire bowling attack for the second one-day international against Sri Lanka tomorrow.

James Franklin went for 69 from 10 overs, Michael Mason 60 from six, Mark Gillespie 64 from nine and Andre Adams 54 from seven in the first one-day international up in Napier. The only bowler to come out of the match with some credit was Daniel Vettori who took 1-33 from eight overs.

Bracewell told the NZ Herald that “They were pretty positive by the time we left the dressing room [at Napier] in terms of what they were going to do about the next game.The proof will be in the pudding – to see if they improve or go backwards.”

Bracewell went onto say “The inexperience showed. A couple of young bowlers who can bowl reasonably fast got a bit red-eye with the radar. They were trying to run in a little too hard and bowl a little too fast in an effort to get wickets, rather than trying to control the game through good accurate, back-of-the-length bowling.”

As we reported yesterday, Craig McMillan has been called up into the squad as cover for Nathan Astle.

New Zealand Squad
Daniel Vettori (captain), Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Michael Mason, Brendon McCullum, Jeetan Patel, Ross Taylor, Craig McMillan

Sri Lanka Squad
Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Malinga Bandara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ruchira Perera, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Upal Tharanga, Chaminda Vaas