Nathan McCullum on arrival in Cardiff speaks to the media ahead of Sunday's New Zealand v Sri Lanka game at Cardiff Wales Stadium
Nathan McCullum, New Zealand: "From our point of view Sri Lanka aren't a team we struggle against particularly. In certain conditions they become more favourites and likewise ourselves, and I'm sure Sunday's game will just be head to head and whoever will come out on top and that's the way you've got to play this tournament.
"You've got three tough games and you've got to get through those as well as you can and move onto the semi-finals. Obviously its huge tournament for us, Sri Lanka is first step. They've got big players, and we've got big players, so its about making sure all your players stand up on the day against their players.
"We've been fully focused on the last Series against England so I'm sure over the next couple of days we can now turn our attention to the task that faces us game by game {in the Champions Trophy].
"We'll take it game by game, a lot of the guys have noticed with international fixtures the wicket tends to change at different venues from what your used too
"Whether the wicket in Cardiff will play slightly different on Sunday than it did for the India game we'll wait and see but we'll get as much knowledge from those experienced around as we can to make us go forward
"I saw a little bit of the opening game in Cardiff, there wasn't a lot of turn almost a stop in the wicket a bit so it does favour a change of pace in the slower bowlers, so whether that's something we look to, I'm sure Sri Lanka will play a number of spinners in their line up, so I guess it's something you make sure you factor in to your preparations that's going to be involved in the match
"If you look back in the last 12 months the way our guys have played spin is far above how we've played spin in the past so I think our boys are competent playing spin these days and know when to go for the throat against spin and when to soak it up so our boys will deal with it as and when we need to throughout this competition and first and foremost on Sunday.
"I guess being in England for some time gives us a little extra, but the biggest edge is probably the hard fought competition we've had from the three One-Day games.
"As good as warm up jobs can be, sometimes you don't the attitude or spirit of a real match and the fight from the players doesn't come quite out, but we've shown tremendous form in the last three games and we've pieced our game together pretty well
"We're happy with our preparation and things are going good and it's a matter of us riding this out for the next couple of weeks
"If you are to speak frankly about how the two teams are used to weather back home, we'd probably prefer it a bit more unsettled but we're enjoying our time here {in Cardiff} in whatever conditions come up with, we know they'll be pretty similar to what we have back home in New Zealand
"We're comfortable with what we'll come up with, and we're enjoying our time here. Cardiff is a lovely place and its been quite welcoming so far, and it's a lovely Stadium as well so we're looking forward to getting out there and playing a bit."
Glamorgan Cricket Chief Executive Alan Hamer commented: "The arrival of the teams in Cardiff, coupled with the fantastic weather and three 300 scores out of the last four innings here, has resulted in a significant increase in the demand for tickets for the Cardiff ICC Champions Trophy matches
"The opening game provided a fantastic start to the tournament - a sell-out crowd, good weather and a good game, it's all we could have hoped for.
"It was quite noisy, probably 90% Indian crowd and they were great supporters for their team. It is important for us to host events like this, as if we impress in the eyes of ICC and ECB we're likely to be looked at favorably when future games are allocated.
"For the game on Sunday I hope people will come out, it's another good forecast and you have the likes of Dilshan, Malinga, Guptil and McCullum and then Chris Gayle and co return to play South Africa here, and the South Africans will have to win that game next week to stay in the competition."
Following the superb opening day of the tournament in Cardiff on Thursday, the Glamorgan Ticket Office has reported a surge in ticket sales, both following the game and throughout Friday, with many supporters locally visiting the Stadium to buy tickets and the Club's ticket office being inundated with phone calls from people wanting to get their tickets for the four remaining fixtures.
There is limited ticket availability for the England v New Zealand group match on Sunday 16th June with only 1,000 remaining and sales for the semi-final on Thursday 20th June have increased dramatically.
On Twitter there were many favourable comments about the opening game from the media and supporters in Cardiff, and Down Under:
@Damianowen7: "Fabulous day at the cricket @GlamCricket cardiff was like mumbai for the day. Great supporters. England vs india semi would be nice
@robphillipshere: "Top day watching India beat SA. Huge credit @GlamCricket + volunteers for making Wales look so fine to huge global audience.#championstrophy
@TheExiledRobin: "9 ciders, 650 runs, tons of sun & thousands of quite brilliant Indian supporters. Perfect day! #icc2013 #indvsa #cardiff @GlamCricket"
@SkyCricket : "Really top day - good cricket, great atmosphere well done @cricketicc @GlamCricket and @ECB_cricket - good signs for rest of tourno #ct13
@dockerhutch : @GlamCricket @cricketicc from this this cool Aussie winter SWALEC/stadium looks a picture and the pitch a belter..
