Hesson defends NZ pacemen

AUCKLAND: New Zealand Caps coach Mike Hesson has sought to take the pressure off his struggling death bowlers by saying all three of the twenty20 triseries squads’ quicks have toiled throughout the tournament.

Deploying Colin de Grandhomme, Trent Boult and Tim Southee in the latter stages of England’s innings on Sunday, the Black Caps shipped 61 runs in four overs.

Those expensive overs ultimately helped the English to a total of 194 for seven in Hamilton, to which New Zealand could respond with only 192 for four.

The home team still qualified for the triseries final on net runrate.

It was a similar scenario in the Black Caps’ loss to Australia last Friday, when Boult conceded a mammoth 25 runs in the 17th over and put the visiting team in a position to chase down 243 with seven balls remaining.

Yet Hesson was not too concerned.

He admitted to reporters yesterday England had closed out its bowling better than his team. Chris Jordan and Tom Curran were outstanding.

Curran, facing de Grandhomme and Mark Chapman, limited the Black Caps to just nine runs in the final over to hand the English a tworun win.

But Hesson did not believe it was a sign of a larger deficiency.

‘‘All three sides are against pretty potent batting lineups and at times have been exposed — we’re no different,’’ Hesson said.

‘‘We got ourselves in a position where we could’ve won [against England] — at the end, they bowled good death and we couldn’t adapt as well as we should’ve.

‘‘It’s not like we’ve been poor; just some of those key times we haven’t nailed.’’

Nevertheless, New Zealand will go into Wednesday’s triseries final against Australia at Eden Park hoping to spring a surprise.

The unbeaten Australian side is a redhot favourite to claim the title, but Hesson said smart play could get his team over the line.

He predicted another highscoring affair.

‘‘We’ve had three pretty close T20 games — Australia batting exceptionally well at Eden Park and chasing down a score that was pretty formidable,’’ Hesson said.

‘‘But you’ve got to be in the final and give yourself a chance.’’ — NZN

❛ All three sides are against pretty potent batting lineups and at times have been exposed — we’re no different