Mike Hesson speaks to media after the BLACKCAPS three wicket win over Bangladesh at Seddon Park in Hamilton. The BLACKCAPS completed the pool matches unbeaten and have to wait till today to know who they face in Wellington for the quarterfinal this weekend.
What did you make of the game against Bangladesh?
Any time that you chase 290 in conditions that certainly weren’t ideal facing a sub continent side, I thought it was a really good chase. I don’t think we were as good in the field or with the ball as we have been but it was a really pleasing win.
Was it pleasing to see different players step up?
We’ve won a lot of games comfortably but [on Friday] we were challenged chasing a score and to get over the line with different players standing up breeds a lot of confidence.
You must have been pleased with the opening spell of bowling from Tim and Trent as they swung the ball beautifully again?
I thought the opening overs from Trent and Tim were as good as you get. If you try to take them on, there is risk involved. They played and missed a lot, then thought it was better to get through the new ball.
The performance of Martin Guptill must have been pleasing at this stage?
He has got better and better as the tournament has gone on. He started well against Sri Lanka and his innings against Afghanistan he was getting back to his best and then [on Friday] we saw the real Martin Guptill and that was nice to see.
How you temper the hype and the expectation on the BLACKCAPS as we head into the quarterfinals?
Within the group we can. Externally there are lots of other pressures and some people will cope with that better than others. The key for us is that we’ve had consistent performances over a year or two and we’ve got that because of how we prepare. We don’t think too far ahead.
Do you feel like the All Blacks where a win doesn’t seem to be good enough anymore?
The All Blacks are a good analogy. They have to win by a certain amount of points to get respect but, if they win by more than that, the opposition are ‘rubbish’ – it’s quite hard to find middle ground.
I’m not sure what a perfect win is because we’ve beaten a lot of teams convincingly and we’ve been told we should have a closer match, and we’ll be underdone, then you win a close game and you haven’t played very well. It’s quite difficult to know what you have to do, but we will just focus on the next game.
Adam Milne sat out the match with Bangladesh, are you confident that he will be ok for Wellington?
He [Milne] wasn’t quite right, but we didn’t push it with a quarterfinal in mind and the fact he’s an important part of our side, it wasn’t worth the risk. I expect so [he’ll be fit for Wellington]. Shoulders are a funny thing but he’s making good progress.
