New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has said his side
may not be” the sort of guys who wander around like peacocks” but “are
in with a chance” of winning the Champions Trophy.
The Black Caps, who play Sri Lanka in their
tournament opener at Cardiff on Sunday, go into the
competition
featuring the world’s top eight 50-over sides on the back of a 2-1
one-day international (ODI) series win over hosts England.
“I think the ability to play three ODIs against
a hugely competitive side, full houses, some real intensity, is great
preparation for us,” Hesson said Thursday.
“We are confident. We are not the sort of guys
who wander around like peacocks and get too excited but we are playing
good cricket and we are in with a chance.”
New Zealand, however, have lost their last six
completed ODIs against Sri Lanka and with just he top two teams from
each of the two groups of four going through to the semi-finals, Hesson
knows his side can ill-afford a slip-up on Sunday.
“It’s as close to a knockout competition as you
can get. We are certainly not thinking two weeks ahead. We are thinking
about Sri Lanka in Cardiff. If we do that well, then we give ourselves
another opportunity against (Group A rivals) Australia at Edgbaston and
then a chance to have another crack at England.
Hesson added: “They’ve made four of the last
(six) ICC finals, so they are a pretty good side to start with. They’ve
got aggressive batsmen at the top of the order, experience in the middle
with (Kumar) Sangakkara and (Mahela) Jayawardene, so they are a good
unit.
“Their spin bowling takes wickets and they’ve
got the (Lasith) Malinga factor,” said Hesson in a reference to the
unorthodox, ‘slingshot’ seamer. “When he gets it right, he’s pretty
tough. You know you’ve got to play extremely well to beat them.”
Sachitra Senanayake is the latest impressive
spinner to emerge from Sri Lanka’s production line of slow bowlers but
Hesson said: “They’ve got (Rangana) Herath, (Jeevan) Mendis,
(Tillakaratne) Dilshan is useful as well. You could conceivably be
facing 30, 35 overs of spin… We need to be proactive against spin.”
And Hesson said a side led by innovative captain Brendon McCullum would also look to attack Sri Lanka in the field.
“We’ll be aggressive against them. We won’t
want to sit back. We’ve got some fields that we will set to try to put
pressure on them and hopefully do that before they ( the Sri Lankan
batsmen) get themselves started.”
Hesson said the thing that had delighted him
most about the recent series win over England, albeit they lost the
‘dead’ match at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge ground by 34 runs on
Wednesday, was not the batting or bowling but New Zealand’s fielding.
“The one thing I’m really pleased with is that
we are aggressive in the field and we are saving a heck of a lot of
runs. We were +12 (runs saved) in the field last (Wednesday) night,
which was probably as good as we’ve been for four years and over the
series we were +30.”
New Zealand, who won this tournament in 2000, will also hope Martin Guptill
maintains the form that saw him score 330 runs for just once out in the
England series, including an unbeaten hundred at Lord’s and a national
record 189 not out at Southampton last weekend.
“His balance is exceptional, he’s hitting the
ball cleanly. He’s a quality ball-striker but his decision-making the
last few weeks has been outstanding,” said Hesson. “Once he got a bit of
confidence at Lord’s he was away, so hopefully he has a good
tournament.”
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