New Zealand coach Mike Hesson satisfied with his team’s performance

The coach of New Zealand Mike Hesson is extremely pleased with his team’s performance in the recently concluded ODI series against India. The visitors came so close to winning their first ever series in the country but fell agonisingly short by 6 runs chasing a monumental 337. They have now lost the fourth decider in India which shows the way they have played whenever they have been in the country. Hesson was all praise of his players and hailed them for putting India under pressure but was also disappointed for falling short by such a small margin.

There were a lot of positives for Kane Williamson and his men in this series as Colin Munro looked a completely different cricketer at the top. Also, Tom Latham was the player of the series for them with his wicket-keeping skills and the ability to play spin well. He almost took his team over the line on Sunday before getting run-out unfortunately. The Kiwis also pushed India to the corner which the teams like Australia and England failed to do in their home season.

Hesson acknowledges bowlers’ efforts

Mike Hesson hailed his batsmen for standing tall during the steep chase and went very close. He also recalled that exactly a year ago they had capitulated under pressure while chasing in the decider itself. “A year ago we were playing the decider and got bowled out for 67 [79] chasing 260 [270], so to put that into context, to be chasing a formidable total like that and to put in a performance (like that) shows how the team is evolving,” he said in the post-match presser on Sunday.

He also praised the death bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “[Jasprit] Bumrah was exceptional in the end. It was always going to be difficult. We got it down to 25 off two overs. When you’ve got a score like 338, you want to see yourself up to have a small chase like that but you know that with Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah, who are probably two of the three best yorker bowlers in the world, so was always going to challenging. We got them to miss a couple of times and were able to take advantage of that but not quite at the end. It was one hell of a chase; disappointing to fall short,” Hesson added.

The coach also pointed out that the Indian batsmen played out Mitchell Santner and didn’t take too many risks against him. “They certainly respect Mitch over here. They know he’s a quality bowler so don’t take too many risks against him. So he’s got to earn his wickets, but he created pressure for us and backed up the quicks who I thought were very good over here. Not great surfaces, not ones that we’re used to but Trent Boult’s spell in Mumbai, Tim [Southee] was very good today, Adam [Milne] in Pune was getting close to his best, so there’s some very good signs,” he continued.

“We were looking at anything between 350 and 370 at one stage, so to bring them back was a good effort. We knew it was a good surface and was a very fast outfield compared to the other ones we’ve played on, so was always going to be a high-scoring ground. We just haven’t been able to chase those targets in the past so was always a little bit daunting, but certainly we broke it down,” Hesson concluded with a smile and looked satisfied with his team’s show in the series.