‘Benchmark’ Black Caps stay true to values

A day after the Black Caps beat England for the 10th time in test match cricket, a former England captain has sung their praises.

Michael Vaughan was speaking to BBC 5 live Sport about the Australian ball-tampering scandal, which he said was the result of a team that was ‘‘too arrogant and so up itself’’.

‘‘I look at New Zealand and think that’s the way to play cricket. I’ve been in teams that have gone over the edge in terms of things we’ve done and said. New Zealand - they’re the benchmark for how cricket should be played.’’

Black Caps coach Mike Hesson said yesterday the team was focused on staying true to its values, best summarised as playing hard, but fair.

’’We just look after our own backyard, don’t we, rather than look over the fence. We work pretty hard on how we play the game and what we try to do and the values we have.

‘‘It would be unfair to pass judgment

on how other teams do it.’’

While he was understandably focused on his team’s match, which ended on Monday night, Hesson had kept an eye on events in South Africa, where Australian captain Steve Smith and batsman

Cameron Bancroft are at the centre of an inquiry after the latter was caught rubbing the ball with tape during the third test.

‘‘It’s not great for the game and not great for Cricket Australia,’’ Hesson said. ‘‘I’m certainly

interested in the outcome of the inquiry.’’

The findings of Cricket Australia’s inquiry are expected to be made public today.

But while Hesson is intrigued to see what happens there, his focus

will be on the Black Caps, who have a chance to claim their first series win over England since 1999 when the second test starts at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Friday.

He was pleased with how his charges acquitted themselves on the final day of the day-night test at Eden Park, where they won by an innings and 49 runs, with 18.5 overs left in the day.

‘‘We believed the new ball would play a big part, probably because of the hardness, more than anything, and we also knew the last session, when it does skid on, that that would present opportunities. But it presents opportunities when you’re bowling to the tail, rather than a couple of set batsmen.

‘‘We knew we were going to have to invest the whole day, and thankfully, we gave ourselves 20 overs of grace.’’

The Black Caps will win the series with a draw in Christchurch, but Hesson said their focus would be on trying to win the match.

‘‘You don’t go into a game like this trying to draw it, it’s a matter of starting the game well and preparing well. It’s been a big series for us, we’ve been planning for the last six months, and we’ll make sure we use the next few days wisely.’’