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March 27, 2007

New Zealand have been forced to replace the injured Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey for the Super Eights. Both these players have been injured mid way during the ongoing tournament and the ICC has given its green signal for their replacements.

Opening batsman Lou Vincent had consecutive failures, two ducks to be precise to begin with, but he made up for that with a century against Canada. Unfortunately, the man who has been probably the best fielder in this World Cup has been ruled out with a broken wrist. Vincent was struck on his wrist while facing the fire of Shane Bond in a net practice session in Antigua. A fracture has been confirmed according to the X-Ray reports. Hamish Marshall, the middle order batsman and also an exciting fielder just like Lou Vincent is has been named as his replacement.

A few days before Lou Vincent was injured, pace man Daryl Tuffey has been put out of action due to a bicep problem. Tuffey had just got the one game which was against Canada. The tall medium pacer got slaughtered around by John Davison before he was forced out with this same bicep injury that had kept him out of International Cricket for two long years. Ironically Daryl Tuffey was just making his International comeback with his opportunity coming only because of the knee injury picked up by Kyle Mills. The replacement for Tuffey is Chris Martin, New Zealand's regular new ball bowler in Test Matches, but one of the worst batsmen around.

The Black Caps are struggling with injuries and its not just Tuffey or Vincent so far. Mark Gillespie, the opening bowler has been a passenger so far in this World Cup due to a shoulder problem. Emerging batsman Ross Taylor had injured his hamstring during his half century knock against Kenya. So the reserve strength for the Kiwis looks a bit thin. They will meet West Indies in their first game of the next round on Thursday.

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