It’s like a final – Fleming

Needing to win at least one of the their remaining two matches, Stephen Fleming has labeled tomorrow’s match in Melbourne a must win semi-final for the Black Caps.

“This is what we wanted,” Fleming said.

“We want it to be a semi-final, a pressure game, where we continue the momentum we build.

“That’s what the World Cup’s about, so if anything we couldn’t ask for much more.

“It’s uncomfortable because you want to win these next two games, but we certainly don’t want to miss out on the finals so we’ve got to play accordingly.”

The skipper also acknowledged that getting close to the Australians was just not good enough.

“We’ve got to start beating them,” he said.

“While we’re close it’s OK to walk away saying ‘Gee, we’re not far away’. But far away could be eight runs, it could be 58 runs.

“We’d love to beat Australia and not only cement a finals spot, but just continue playing well and get some good momentum.”

New Zealand enter today’s game at the MCG coming off a 58 run win over England last week whilst the home side suffered a 92 run loss to England on Friday.