Latham determined to go one step further than dad Rod and take New Zealand to the World Cup final
- New Zealand were beaten by England by 119 runs but are in a good position to make the semi-finals
- Rod Latham helped New Zealand to the World Cup semi-finals in 1992 – son Tom wants to go one step further
New Zealand wicket-keeper Tom Latham is aiming to go one better than his father Rod by taking the Black Caps to an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final.
Despite losing by 119 runs to England, New Zealand have one foot in the last four with Pakistan needing a highly improbable margin of victory over Bangladesh to oust them.
Rod Latham was part of the New Zealand squad who reached the semi-finals of the 1992 World Cup before losing to eventual winners Pakistan.
Latham junior said: “I’ve spoken to him a lot over the years about that tournament – it was the same format as this one and hopefully we can go one better than they did.”
Left-hander Latham, 27, made his first half-century of the tournament having previously not passed 14 and he admitted: “It was nice to spend time in the middle and get familiar with the things that I do well but we weren’t on the right side of the result.”
The Black Caps vice-captain was batting in familiar surroundings at the Riverside, having played two seasons for Durham in 2017 and 2018.
He said: “It was nice to come back and see a lot of familiar faces. It was a great day here in the north-east.”
He praised his bowlers for restricting England after their openers’ blistering start, saying: “I don’t think the toss was hugely important. The wicket did slow up a little bit but I think the way they played at the start did put us under pressure.
“The way we managed to pull things back and restrict them to 300 was outstanding. Unfortunately we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. If we are in that situation again hopefully we can correct a few things.”
Latham said that New Zealand’s players will start preparing for the semi-finals even though they will not know for sure they have qualified until Friday.
He said: “We’ll have a couple of days off which will be nice for the guys to regroup. Then it’ll be about going back to basics and doing the things we do well to be successful.
“One you get to the semis it doesn’t matter who you play you’ve got to play two good games of cricket to win the final.
“Hopefully we can get a little bit of confidence in those two training sessions and then hit the ground running in the semi-final.”