LAHORE: Skipper Mitchell Santner said New Zealand have endured some “tough travel” but insisted they are raring to go for their Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa on Wednesday in Lahore.

New Zealand convincingly won their first two games of the ODI tournament in Pakistan, then lost to India in Dubai on Sunday, and have now flown back to Pakistan again for the encounter at Lahore´s Gaddafi Stadium. “It was actually more of a daytime sleep,” Santner said on Tuesday on the eve of the semi-final.

“I think it was a tough travel but it´s nice to get it done, get here and kind of a reset and get ready for today (training) and tomorrow´s game.” The Champions Trophy is played on a hybrid model after India refused to travel to Pakistan over political tensions, instead playing all their matches and their semi-final in Dubai.

All the other teams in Group A — Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh — had to travel to Dubai to play India, who promptly won all three matches. India faced Australia in the other semi-final in Dubai on Tuesday.

Critics have condemned the tournament´s unusual arrangement as giving India an unfair advantage. South Africa also travelled to Dubai not knowing who they would face in the semi-finals, but instead returned to Pakistan less than 24 hours later without playing a game.

Santner said scheduling in international cricket “is an issue just all around”. “I think when you do have time to rest and recover it´s very important,” said the skipper.

TODAY’S FIXTURE

New Zealand vs South Africa

2:00 pm PST