New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has hailed his bowlers' performance against India as one of their best ever T20I performances after the Black Caps’ eight-wicket victory in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on Sunday (October 31) in Dubai.
After losing their tournament opener to Pakistan, New Zealand made a brilliant comeback against Team India, as they restricted the Men in Blue to 110/7 in 20 overs before chasing the target with more than five overs to spare and 8 wickets in hand on Sunday in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
For the Black Caps, Trent Boult (3/20), Ish Sodhi (2/17), and Tim Southee (1/25) were the star performers with the ball against India in Dubai.
Stead told reporters: “I thought the bowling effort was absolutely outstanding, possibly up there with the best performance I've seen in my time with the T20 bowling team. To restrict a star-studded team like India to 110 was really, really special and then I thought the batting was really, really clinical.”
With the massive win over India, New Zealand's hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 remain alive and the coach admitted that the road to the spot is a tough one.
He explained, “It's hard to say if it was 'must win' or not because it's pretty early in the tournament. But you would imagine the way the group is structured that it's going to be very difficult for the team that didn't win to get through to the semi-finals.”
Well, New Zealand will now face Scotland, Namibia, and Afghanistan in its final three Super 12s matches and the head coach said they will not take any of them lightly and will try to improve its net run rate.
Stead signed off by saying, “Net run rate is always important. Afghanistan has got a big lead on everyone at the moment, but we'll just have to see how the next two games play out before we play Afghanistan. But, at the end of the day, if we win all three games, it is in our hands, and that's certainly our goal.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
