Mates turn rivals!

Less than a week back, Daniel Vettori and Ross Taylor were rubbing shoulders with each other trying to stop the might of the Aussie juggernaut. Come Sunday, the two Kiwis will be on different sides of the fence, the Kiwi skipper doing duty for the Delhi Daredevils and Taylor battling it out for the Royal Challengers if both men, as expected, break into the playing eleven.

 “It’s not hard at all,” Taylor said on Saturday of having to square up against his national captain. “It’s the same as today – Bollinger and Watson were playing with each other and now they are playing against each other. Dan’s been a good competitor and someone that the (New Zealand) team looks up to. It’s good to be playing against him and I am sure in our team meeting tomorrow, we will be talking over how we are going to attack him.”

Ricky Ponting has launched a scathing attack on New Zealand and suggested that they would be better off with paceman Shane Bond playing Test cricket for the country rather than T20 cricket for the Kolkata Knight Riders. “Shane’s made his decision to retire from Test cricket. I just hope he doesn’t decide to retire from one-day and T20 cricket,” Taylor said of his team-mate.