Captain's Log: Get Well Soon!
From the BNZ Series website, 14/1/1999

Hi everyone, Dion Nash here - filling in for Stephen Fleming. Obviously it's disappointing for Flem to be injured at the moment. I think he's been doing an outstanding job as captain, so when I was asked to step in for him during the Taupo game, I just tried to keep going all the things he's put in place. That's my goal at the moment - to keep things in good order for when he comes back.

It's always hard to stepinto someone else's shoes. Flem's got his own style and has earned the trust and respect of the players - and that's something you can't conjure up overnight. It's something that comes through time and on-the-field experiences.

I've only got four, maybe three matches to do that. But having said that, I'm certainly enjoying the challenge of it. And I have to admit that to be given a chance to lead my country is a great personal thrill, something I take seriously. It's an honour to be called upon.

The rest of the team has been absolutely fantastic in offering their support. I have a lot of backup from senior players like Cairnsie, Adam, Gav Larsen and Harry. It's brilliant having heaps of experienced guys to turn to for advice.

There's lots of communication between us all out there on the field, especially as I tend to think the bowlers know better than me where they want their fielders.

A few people have asked me if it was nervewracking, but to be honest you're too busy to be nervous! Certainly the game in Napier was pretty tense, especially towards the end. But I really enjoyed it. It was just a shame we couldn't pull off the win after coming so close.

At the end of the day we had to look back and say, "what if...". In the last over, I thought we had a sniff. I thought we'd done everything we possibly could to keep us in the game up until then, that we now had a real chance of pulling off the win. So to lose on the second to last ball was utter dejection for us.

The guys showed great spirit and great fielding out there, but it all came down to one snick in the last over. Another day the batsman might have missed it completely, or it might have gone straight to a fielder - but it wasn't to be.

Though obviously we were disappointed, I think all the guys could hold their heads high after that gutsy fielding performance. They showed sheer determination. And at the end of the day (or night!), it was a great game, great fun - and I think that's what most people play sport for, isn't it?

Fair play to India, of course: they stuck to their task well and handled the pressure.

The most disappointing aspect of that game for us was our running between the wickets. Normally I think we're a very good side running between the wickets, so five run-outs is a very bad game for us. I think it was just one of those days. There was also a lot of noise, a lot of Indian fieldsmen yelling and things like that which made communication that little bit harder when guys were looking for quick singles.

We talked about it in our debrief in Wellington the next day, discussed what went wrong. We knew that we just had to come back stronger from it. Put it down to experience. To be honest, I don't think it is really the problem for us that it may have appeared. Generally the guys run well together so the important thing is not to lose our confidence in ourselves and in each other.

After that game we had to say farewell to Geoff Allott. We're all feeling for him - he did such a good job for us as 12th man in the last couple of games. Then, when he finally gets on to bowl, he gets injured! After the game in Napier poor Geoff had to get up every three hours through the night to ice the injury - that's dedication! I hope he enjoys a swift recovery.

Losing him is a real disappointment for the side, but in the same breath we've welcomed Chris Drum into the team. Chris has been performing really well in the Shell Cup and kept a very cool head playing his first home international at the Basin. It's not easy bowling to someone like Sachin Tendulkar in your first over, but Chris just looked like he'd been playing One-Dayers all his life!

We knew we had to pick ourselves up quickly after Napier, the Series 1-1 with three games to be played in quick succession. We have to make sure we keep that positivity going, while we also have to do as much as we can to look after our bodies and manage our fatigue as best we can. The morning after the game in Napier (before we caught our plane to Wellington) we went and had a 40-minute soak in the swimming pool - helping get the lactic acid out of our tired muscles. We actually stayed up a little bit later the night before in order to get our bags packed and ready so that we'd have time in the morning.

Everyone's feeling tired, but we're still very focused. The disappointment of losing in Napier off the penultimate ball has only intensified that focus. We were still holding our heads high after the game, knowing if we field and bowl like that again - and just put our batting together a bit better - we've got every chance of taking out this Series.

Hope you enjoy the next few games - and here's hoping that the next time you tune into Captain's Log, Flem will be back in black!

All the best,

Dion.

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