Wellington, Feb 24: New Zealand fast bowler James Franklin has defended teammate Jesse Ryder who has been under-fire for his failure to guide the Kiwi side to victory despite finding themselves in a comfortable situation at one point in the game against the Proteas in the final Twenty20 match.

Franklin praised Ryder for his brilliant innings of 52 off 42 balls, and added that the choking during the end overs was just a blip. "It was one instance last night and we''re all making a bit of a mountain out of a molehill," Stuff. co. nz quoted Franklin, as saying. Franklin believes it is unfair for everyone to target Ryder for the loss. He believes that the team's loss was due to the whole team and not just one player. "He played a hell of a great innings to get us to the point of winning and then the rest of us couldn''t really pick up the slack and get us across the line," he said "It''s really unfair that people are nailing him on it.

There were a lot of us who also had the opportunity to get the team across the line and we didn''t," he added. The Kiwi's needed 16 runs from the last four overs but somehow managed to lose the match by three runs. Ryder's struggle to bring his h fifty and a poor shot selection with just eight runs required to win has come under fire. Earlier, former Black Caps batsman Craig McMillan had blamed Ryder for New Zealand's loss to South Africa "This defeat falls squarely on his [Ryder''s] shoulders and he has to wear it," said McMillan. (ANI)