Mike Hesson Heaps Praises on the Kiwis Following Resounding Victory in Dunedin Against Pakistan

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has revealed it is not up to him or his players to judge if they haven’t been given their due credit this summer despite playing some exceptional cricket over the past many months.

However, he was quick to mention a few things which were worth considering from everyone’s point of view.

The Kiwis will enter the 4^th ODI against Pakistan at Hamilton on Tuesday on the back of 11 consecutive victories across all three formats of the game. The Black Caps had proved to be too good for the Windies and the Pakistani’s keeping an equal focus on their performance and how well NZ have played this summer. Hesson didn’t say anything but feels that New Zealand’s long-term record could speak for itself.

“That’s up for others to judge. In the last five years, every side has travelled here. And our record at home is pretty good,” Hesson said.

“We know we play pretty good cricket here, we know we challenge teams away from home as well, but we’re still trying to get better.”

Hesson heaped praises on his team following their resounding victory by 183 runs against Pakistan in Dunedin on Saturday to seal the ODI series.

“Last game was pretty close to perfect on a tricky surface,” said Hesson, who said that he has never seen Trent Boult and Tim Southee bowl better than this in tandem.

“I think the first ten overs, that’s the best I’ve ever seen. In terms of when you have to bowl into the wind – Tim’s five overs into a howling gale, he never missed the strings, kept hitting the top of the bat … he was exceptional, and obviously, Trent was relentless from the other end.” Rather than contentment Hesson expressed his satisfaction at the way New Zealand is playing at the moment.

“We’re improving, and I think we’re playing some smart cricket, particularly on a variety of surfaces, so that’s very pleasing.

“We were very smart on surfaces that perhaps haven’t allowed us to play how we’ve wanted to play. We often want to play with a bit of flair and be aggressive with everything we do with the bat, and sometimes conditions don’t allow that.

“I think perhaps in the past we might have just kept going and reflected on it at the end of the day. But especially in the game the other day, I thought Kane [Williamson] and Martin [Guptill] were exceptional in how they assessed the conditions.I thought Ross [Taylor] and Tom [Latham] certainly added a bit of punch to that order.”

Despite his praise, Hesson feels that New Zealand won’t become complacent and nothing would change for them.

“Nothing changes for us. We’re very clear how we operate pre-game – I think one of the keys is we’re very consistent about how we operate, whether we’ve come off a win or a string of losses. We don’t get too overawed if we lose a few games, and if we’re on a roll, we don’t drop our guard.” He also didn’t plan to make any experiments with his team.

“We’re relatively new in terms of the kind of roles we’ve given our players.Colin’s [Munro] very new at the top of the order, Tom and Henry [Nicholls] are very new to that middle-order role.  From a bowling point of view, Lockie’s [Ferguson] new, we’re playing two spinners – we’re trying a few things this summer, and it helps that we’re developing some depth.”

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