Wednesday 22 October 2014 17:23, UK
New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson has been ruled out of the rest of the ODI series against South Africa by a wrist injury.
The 24-year-old suffered a ligament tear during a Champions League game in India and played no part in Monday's series-opening six-wicket defeat to the Proteas in Tauranga.
New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said: "Kane has been ruled out for the rest of the series. He needs further rehabilitation on his wrist and it's not the time of year where we want to rush him.
It's a ligament issue, it was a one-off incident where there was a small tear in there. It's been injected and it's recovered, it just needs some rehabilitation.
"It's a ligament issue, it was a one-off incident where there was a small tear in there. It's been injected and it's recovered, it just needs some rehabilitation. He batted the last couple of days [in the nets] without a huge amount of discomfort but it's not something we want to rush back."
The hosts are already without frontline batsman Ross Taylor, who like Williamson is hoping to regain fitness in time for next month's first Test against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
Reflecting on defeat in the first ODI, Hesson added: "With the bat we weren't as sharp as we needed to be. Some of our execution was certainly off and if you do that in an international you get exposed. To come back from 68-5 showed good fight but we certainly needed more from our top order."
Better news for New Zealand comes in the form of seamer Tim Southee, who is likely to have recovered from a shoulder injury in time for Thursday's second ODI in Mount Maunganui.
Meanwhile, South Africa all-rounder JP Duminy insists his side have room for improvement despite cruising to victory in Monday's opener.
Duminy singled out the bowling towards the end of the innings as a particular area of concern, while he was pleased with his own performance in the first match after hitting an unbeaten 58 in a partnership of 139 with AB de Villiers that swept the Proteas to victory with 11 balls to spare.
"It was a really good bowling performance,” Duminy said. "If we are really hard on ourselves in any way, we could be better towards the backend, but that is a work in progress.
"We haven’t played together in five weeks so I guess it’s about finding out the areas where we can improve and that is probably the one area.
"The batting went according to plan but in an ideal world you probably want to finish the match with only two or three wickets down.
"I’m obviously quite happy with the partnership that AB and I put together. If we had lost another wicket the game would have been in the balance."
Watch New Zealand v South Africa, 2nd ODI, Thursday 10.30pm, Sky Sports 3
