Hesson happy for Black Caps to ‘limp’ into final

Black Caps coach Mike Hesson said despite a bitter-sweet loss against England they were comfortable “limping into the final” against Australia.

Due to their victorious run net rate, the Black Caps will play Australia in the T20 final at Eden Park tomorrow.

Hesson told NZME that although it had been a series of “mixed performances” the Black Caps were happy with their position heading into the match.

“We’ve been high flyers into a few finals in recent times and been unbeaten going into them and it hasn’t quite worked our way, so it’s nice to limp into a

Cricket

final and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“It’s not like we’ve been poor, just in some of those key times we haven’t nailed it.”

“We had three really good games recently, very close games, and two of those losses we felt that we were in positions to win so we’re not far off and obviously having made the final we give ourselves a chance, which is great.”

Hesson said that the Black Caps loss to England produced “mixed emotions”, but that making the final was what was most important.

“Obviously you go into every game trying to win it and we’re really well aware of what we needed to do to reach the final, but we put ourselves in a position to win it,” he said.

“We got ourselves in a position where we could have won it, at the end they bowled good death and we didn’t adapt as well as we should have.”

“When you’re under pressure like that you do end up chasing the game and part of T20 cricket is trying to be ahead of it, and that’s easier said than done.”

The Black Caps will be looking to make a comeback at this week’s final, after Australia claimed victory over the Kiwis in a record-breaking semifinal.

It was confirmed that the same wicket would be used tomorrow, however, Hesson didn’t rule out potential changes to the line up.

“We’ve made a late change the last time we were here, we’ll have to look at that if we think it’s going to turn,” he said

“We’re gonna come up with a couple of different things and see how that works.”

Despite the recent result for the Aussies at Eden Park, the world renowned venue was criticised by Australian commentator Jim Maxwell, who called on the International Cricket Council to “ban” the Auckland ground as an international venue.

Likewise, England’s coach Trevor Bayliss has called for the overall end of T20s in the international programme.

But Hesson said he believed hosting the match at Eden Park was great for the game and that T20 was a “meaningful” series that shouldn’t get scrapped.

“For New Zealand cricket to get 35,000 thousand people to Eden Park is huge for us, huge for the game, huge for the promotion of the game, and we certainly get great support for T20 internationals over here,” he said.

“Every international you play is incredibly meaningful, you’ve got guys who only play T20 and it’s their chance to play international cricket, so it’s absolutely meaningful.”

— NZME