Cricket: Wake-up call needed, says Vettori

Captain Daniel Vettori will call on New Zealand's recent experience at the Champions Trophy to lift them out of a hole at the Twenty20 cricket world championship after succumbing by 13 runs to South Africa in Barbados this morning.

Vettori's men are teetering, probably needing to win their remaining Super Eight stage matches against defending champions Pakistan on Sunday and England on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals.

It is a similar scenario to last year's Champions Trophy when New Zealand were placed on sudden death status when losing their opening group match - also to South Africa - but bounced back with wins over Sri Lanka and England before downing Pakistan in the semifinals.

"I hope that sits well with us," Vettori said.

"We did it at the Champions Trophy, we had to win games on end. This is the same, it's opposition we've played a lot lately and we're pretty familiar with so we've got some confidence but they're going to be big games."

Vettori believes his team will be better for their experience at Kensington Oval - where the Pakistanis also lost today, to England - and believed Sunday's match there would see an improvement from a New Zealand side who weren't far from their best against the big-hitting South Africans.

"In Twenty20 cricket you have to be perfect in your execution and we weren't that today," he said.

"It's the nature of the format that your four overs can be brilliant one day and pretty tough the next. We're hoping for a quick turnaround from some of the guys' performance today.

"Guys adapt pretty quickly and hopefully one game out here will mean we're better for it in the next game against Pakistan."

Morkel slammed 40 off 18 balls, including five sixes down the ground to push South Africa out to an imposing 170. He was supported by an unbeaten 47 to AB de Villiers, 31 by Jacques Kallis and 30 to Herschelle Gibbs.

Tim Southee was the most expensive New Zealander, conceding 39 runs off three overs, and his place could come under threat from Kyle Mills.

Vettori was happy enough with the bowling through the middle stages, including his own none for 21 off four, but said the game effectively swung on the last five overs, when they conceded 62.

"We weren't as good as we normally are and it's a very small ground and if you've got a destructive hitter like Albie Morkel, it's a bad combination if you miss," he said.

"You can't get it perfect every time but there are certain situations within a game that you have to get right. Today it was the last four to five (overs). It wasn't what I expected and wasn't what I want.

"We fought pretty hard (with the bat) but if we could do anything again, it would be doing that (death bowling) a bit better."

To reach 157 for seven in response against a quality South African attack on a slowish pitch left Vettori satisfied enough.

Nobody could go past opener Jesse Ryder's 33, leaving too much for the lower order to achieve although Nathan McCullum again proved effective with an unbeaten 26 off 17 balls.

South African captain Smith believed his side played "clever cricket and at a good intensity".

"We knew if we could set a good platform up front, it really allows the likes of AB and Albie an opportunity to score... their (72-run) partnership probably made the difference today."

- NZPA