BLACKCAPS Batting Coach Craig McMillan fronted the media this morning after the emphatic 108 run win over Sri Lanka yesterday in the 5th ANZ ODI at University Oval in Dunedin. The BLACKCAPS lead the ANZ International Series 3-1 and will be looking to finish off the job and clinch the series win at the same venue tomorrow.
What is the update on injuries?
Everyone has rocked up pretty well. With a game like that you always get a few bumps and bruises, but barring Adam Milne [side strain] who is still a couple of days off, the boys are pretty good.
How did you celebrate the milestones?
We celebrate significant performances and wins as well. It is important to do that. Everyone had a quiet drink in the changing room afterwards and chewed the fat. We celebrated a special performance from two guys [Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliot]
What is the message to the players today?
The message is that we still have a lot of work to do. There are still lots of areas that we’d like to improve on still. It was far from the perfect game. It is nice to be winning cricket matches when you are not playing the perfect game. We know that there are a couple of areas that we can tighten up and if we do that we will be even stronger and harder to beat. Very happy to win yesterday, but we know that Sri Lanka will bounce back and be even stronger tomorrow.
What are the key work-ons?
If you are 90-5 you have lost a few too many wickets at the start so we need to reassess that and not put ourselves in that hole that puts pressure on the lower – middle order. Also with the ball we offered up too many scoring opportunities to the Sri Lankan batsmen so they are the two key work-ons for us.
It must have been satisfying as the batting coach to watch Elliot and Ronchi’s display?
[It was] very nice to watch. The satisfying thing is in the last few games we have been in different situations and we have had guys come out and play significant knocks that have got us over the line. It really was in Sean Fitzpatrick speak a game of two halves. The first half of the innings belonged to Sri Lanka and we expected that because of the surface but the last 30 over belonged to us and the partnership between Elliot and Ronchi really made sure that period was going to be ours. We dominated and put ourselves in a strong position.
How did your mood change throughout the innings?
We knew that there was going to movement early on and to get through that initial tough period only two wickets down was alright and then we were looking to do some damage at the back end. We were probably a few too many wickets down at that 20 over mark and then the ability of Ronchi and Elliott to form that partnership and cause some carnage took us to a place that at the 30 over mark no one really envisaged.
Are you concerned about the lack of form of Martin Guptill or Ross Taylor?
Not really. If you look at the batting group, everyone has got a score. Ross is probably the only one who has got a significant score. I think Tom Latham in Auckland played a nice knock. With Taylor we know what a quality individual and a quality batsman he is and when he comes good, he comes good big and he wins your games. More from a team point of view, there are a couple of guys there who are not scoring the runs that they would like, but others are stepping up and doing a good job. Ross is working very hard on his routines and he is putting a lot of time in, in the nets. Unfortunately, that hard work hasn’t paid off yet, but it will. He is not far off.
How do you keep the guys fresh and inspired leading into the World Cup?
Winning breeds confidence. Sri Lanka are a quality side, we know that, and they are always there at the pointy end of the tournament. It is important to go out there and play well and win. We are not looking at the World Cup – we have this series and then we have Pakistan as well and then we’ll look at the World Cup once these series are done. We are looking at the game ahead and so far it is working pretty well for us.
Are we likely to see any changes to the side for tomorrow?
We will chat about that this afternoon and we will make a call tomorrow morning. First things first and we want to try and win the series. That is the most important goal.
How hard is it for someone like Luke to back up – keep wicket and bat again?
There is no doubt that he will be a bit stiff and sore today, but he will get the treatment that he needs to be ready to go. When you play an innings like that you just want to keep batting and he has done that two games in a row. In Nelson he played a nice little cameo and yesterday he took it to a whole new level.
