Howarth confident despite one-day loss

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 38

Howarth confident despite one-day loss

NZPA Brisbane “Goodnight New Zealand” was the very apt newspaper heading in Sydney yesterday after the touring New Zealanders’ loss in the one-day international on Tuesday night. After the heady moment of victory in the first pnedayer in Adelaide on Sunday, the New Zealanders were well beaten on Tuesday night and the Australians, a mite sour after Adelaide, were back to their usual confidence yesterday morning. But Geoff Howarth, the New Zealand captain, is confident that the New Zealanders will wake up in time for the first test against Australia at the Gabba tomorrow. The only problem has been the injuries which have affected the team in the last week. “Our buildup was going very nicely indeed,” said Howarth, after arriving in Brisbane yesterday afternoon. “The players were very fit

and confident. I was delighted the way the playing side of the team was developing, and the team was working nicely as a unit. “We had carried on the team attitude we developed against the West Indies at home last season. The players were backing each other up and they had a belief in their own ability. They were also confident and had a pride in their performance,” Howarth said.

“So these-injuries are a setback, for they have not done anything to build up the players’ confidence. “We will have to be very wary whether we play some of the injured players in the test. We will have to talk about it a lot, and we may even not have our final team named until the first morning of the match.” Howarth said that now the early one-day internationals were over his players would have to settle down to. the hard business of test cricket. “These one-dayers have been very valuable, regardless of our being defeated at

Sydney last night,” he said. “And really that game hinged only on one man, Greg Chappell, and the toss.”

“The one-dayers have helped our preparation, even if they cannot be compared with test cricket in a tactical sense.

“We have had a look at most of the Australian players and have watched how they play. They have one or two batsmen who are obviously going to get runs at some stage of the test series, but there has not been anything overpowering about the Australians’ cricket.” Howarth was not sure how the Gabba pitch would play but estimated the Australians would leave out one of their spinners, Ashley Mallett, the veteran off-spin-ner, or Jim Higgs, the legspinner. “But whoever the Australians play we are in this test with a chance,” said Howarth. “Man for man we are just as good as the Australians.”