Chris Harris keen to make most of chance at No 3

Lynn McConnell

January 12, 2003

Chris Harris: keen to tackle role of batting at No 3 in McMillan's absense

New Zealand can't be beaten in the series which they lead 4-2, but they would prefer the final margin to be 5-2 rather than 4-3.

Central to that happening is a better batting effort from the TelstraClear Black Caps in their last outing of the New Zealand summer.

Harris inherited the No 3 role when it was decided to send Craig McMillan back to domestic cricket to work on his batting and while being surprised initially, he has settled into the idea, although he admits to being desperate to get some runs.

In his first outing at Wellington, he was leg before wicket to Zaheer Khan to leave New Zealand three wickets for three runs, then in Auckland yesterday he was leg before wicket to Agit Agarkar for another duck which left New Zealand 28 for two.

"It would be nice to go out and prove I can do it. It's not where I would prefer to bat but it is a new challenge.

"All batsmen like to think they can bat anywhere in the order," he said.

"I'm keen as always to go out there and have fun and to try and do as well as I can really."

Harris said there was no point putting too much pressure on himself because he had always done better when he was enjoying the game.

"I am enjoying it at the moment. Obviously I would enjoy it more if we were winning and I was getting a few more runs.

"We fought back pretty well last night, it looked like a foregone conclusion when they needed 20 runs with seven wickets in hand. But we fought back and it turned into quite a thrilling match. That was one of the few positives that came out of it yesterday."

Harris said when he was introduced for the 44th over, he saw the ball was in good condition and it was still a seamer's wicket, there had been some swing and a little bit of movement off the track.

He had no warning that he was coming on to bowl which had probably been a good thing.

"Batting at No 3 is a new challenge and something I'm looking forward to and trying to pull off.

"You've got to put your technique up against it and hopefully I can put some runs on the board in this game."

Harris said he was excited by New Zealand's prospects at the World Cup starting in South Africa next month which will be his fourth, and that the side was a good one.

He was hopeful that the wickets in South Africa would allow him to bring his bowling back into effect. It was understandable what had happened in New Zealand this year with the pitches the way they were.

"The wickets in South Africa are a little bit similar to Australia and I thought I had a pretty good World Series [VB Series] in Australia with the bat and the ball so I'm hoping I can take that sort of form into the wickets in South Africa," he said.

Harris said the inner circle fielding of New Zealand at the moment was a weapon for the side with himself and younger players like Lou Vincent, Andre Adams and Mathew Sinclair throwing themselves around made them very useful.

And last night's result, albeit a loss, would have given many of the young players in the side some valuable experience.

"To all of a sudden think that if we had knocked [Javagal] Srinath over at the end, we'd have won the game. It was amazing to get it to that point. Just the way the boys never-said-die, just kept fight and almost pulled off an amazing victory.

"They're always very valuable those games to draw from experience," he said.

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Chris Harris

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India tour of New Zealand

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