India vs New Zealand 2020: Hamish Bennett Praises 'True Leader' Tim Southee

New Zealand player Hamish Bennett hailed his compatriot Tim Southee for showing exemplary leadership in their second ODI win versus India, in Auckland on Saturday.

As per reports, Southee was suffering from a stomach bug during the match but opted to play through the pain barrier nonetheless, which has impressed promising bowler Bennett a lot.

On Saturday, Southee bagged two wickets, giving away 41 runs in his spell, as New Zealand won by 22 runs, to wrap up the three-match ODI series.

Earlier, they had won the first ODI as well, in Hamilton, making a roaring comeback after being whitewashed by India 5-0 in the T20 series.

Hamish Bennett sings the praises of his compatriot Tim Southee:

Speaking after New Zealand’s win in the second ODI, Bennett has lauded Southee who he felt behaved like a ‘true leader’ on the field.

“For him to do that, it just shows how much wearing the silver fern on his chest means to him. He’s a good leader in our side and his actions have a lot to do with that and last night we saw that. He led by example, to show that no matter what the situation is, you’ve just got to go out there and get the job done,” said Bennett.

He further added, “As New Zealanders, that’s what we pride ourselves on, getting the job done, whether we’re fit or not fit. It was a pretty brave effort.”

Bennett says New Zealand were ‘fortunate’ as their ploy for Team India worked:

The 32-year-old also revealed that the Kiwis had a ‘plan’ in place to tackle the challenge posed by India.

New Zealand carried out their ploy to perfection and were ‘fortunate’ that they won the second ODI and wrapped up the series.

“Eden Park is a funny ground, it is small boundary-wise and scores here haven’t been too high, as people would like to believe. It is not an easy ground to bat in the ODIs. We knew if we get early wickets we could put pressure on their batting order. They have a couple key players, and once we got them early, you can put pressure on any batting group doing that. Last night we were fortunate that our plans came off,” said Bennett.

New Zealand will look to do a three-peat on India in the third ODI on Tuesday, at Mount Maunganui’s Bay Oval.

After that, the two teams will play two Tests beginning from 21st February.