'Match Aussies' intensity, beat them'

Australia beat New Zealand at the Punjab Cricket Association in Mohali on Wednesday to enter the final of the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time. What had started to look like an unequal contest, turned out to be rather interesting one thanks to the never-give-up attitude by Daniel Vettori and his partnership with Jacob Oram. Although, the duo tried their best, but the Australians prevailed in the end. The left-arm spinner spoke to CNN-IBN's Chief Cricket Correspondent Nishant Arora about the match, his role in the team and the upcoming World Cup.

Nishant Arora: Daniel you made some useful contribution so you must be happy with your effort?

Daniel Vettori: I am reasonably happy with how I played. Overall it was pretty disappointing as we thought we had a chance to beat Australia and be in the final. But we just got off to a really bad start with the bat and Australia won the game.

Nishant Arora: Batting has been a problem?

Daniel Vettori: Yes it has been tough all-round. I think we had some good performances with Stephen Fleming playing really well and in a couple of innings guys have chipped in here and there. But we haven't been able to put together a consistent team performance apart from winning against Pakistan. So we need a little discipline.

Nishant Arora: Looking at the Australian side you have played a lot, are they really unbeatable? Or teams are not doing what they need to do when they play against Australia. What is needed to beat Australia?

Daniel Vettori: I certainly think that they are beatable. They are a team that plays hard for 50 overs. If you want to compete with them then you have to match their intensity and that's what we could not do for the first 15 overs when we were batting. The rest was good but when you give them one or two overs they tend to take away the match.

Nishant Arora: Looking at the wicket, how was it like? It looked like it is doing more than what everyone expected.

Daniel Vettori: It had a little bit in it. I think the dew came in and probably quickened up little bit. It was a little tough for batting but overall it was not a bad wicket. It was a wicket someone would not expect to come across in India and that's why people were a little bit bemused by the way it played.

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