No pressure, it’s more excitement, says Tim Southee ahead of the decider

After wrapping up the ODI series against Australia in the first three games itself, India got a reality check against New Zealand who won the first ODI in Mumbai to announce that they were not pushovers. However, Virat Kohli and co came back brilliantly in Pune to level the series 1-1 and are favourites to go all the way on Sunday.

Despite an underwhelming display by the Kiwis in the second ODI where they were bundled for just 230 runs and eventually lost the game by six wickets, Tim Southee said that the team were more optimistic than pressurized ahead of the game.   

Last year, New Zealand came close to a series win before going down 2-3 against India and another similar opportunity reflected in Southee’s eyes.

“No pressure, it's more excitement I would say. There was an air of excitement around the guys today at training. Obviously, we feel freshened up after the day off yesterday. The series is on the line tomorrow,” he said.

“That's what we play for and like I said, good sides have come here and walked away empty handed. I guess it'll be nice to seal the series here. But India are a tough team in their own conditions as they have shown that over a while.”

The 28-year-old has been clinical in the series so far, picking up four wickets in the last two games and looked confident practicing in Kanpur’s "pleasant weather". After the heat in Mumbai and Pune inflicted problems on the Kiwi players in the last two ODIs, Southee expects Kanpur’s weather to help them give the extra push in the final game.

“Training today was nice; it wasn't too hot. We know that coming to India, the heat is always a challenge. What we experienced in Mumbai was something, some of the players never experienced before...the humidity and the amount of fluids lost. Pune was relatively nice," Southee concluded.