'We came here with a lot of belief'

Having pulled off two convincing wins in the CLT20 Qualifiers, Otago Volts coach Vaughn Johnson on Wednesday said that the team had come here with a lot of belief and “flew under the radar” to surprise a couple of teams.

“We came here with a lot of belief and a side that had prepared very well both here in India prior to the tournament and also in Sri Lanka. And quietly we just flew under the radar and I think we surprised a couple of teams,” Johnson told reporters at the post-match conference.

In their first qualifier on Tuesday, the Brendon McCullum-led side thrashed Faisalabad Wolves from Pakistan by eight wickets.

“You can see the class that he is out there tonight, both with ball and bat. Even if we hadn’t got him tonight, we would probably have waited to hopefully qualify and use him in the main tournament,” he said about Ryan ten Doeschate who played his first game after his arrival here. On their run-chase, Johnson said their primary target was to see off mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis.

“When (Ajantha) Mendis came on he sort of tied us down for a while and it was a matter of whether we got busy and worked with him or sort of get through him and I think the guys out there played him very well. He is a class bowler but I think once we saw him through, we had confidence against the other guys in the attack.”