New Zealand were not deemed favourites to win the T20 World Cup but they are just one step away from winning the championship for the first time in its 15-year-long history. They have been superb in their execution and have defeated favourites such as England and India to reach the final of the tournament and their coach Gary Stead credits all those successes to their “never-say-die attitude”.
He referred to the semi-final against England and also the second semi-final between Pakistan and Australia to highlight the role of “holding your nerve” against quality sides. He said that the innings by James Neesham and Daryl Mitchell outlined what the Blackcaps are made up of as the former hit the ball with unbelievable courage and Mitchell fought right from the start and remained undefeated and came back only after hitting the winning runs.
"I think the never-say-die attitude is that we pride ourselves on and take things, bigger teams right down to the wire and then it's who can hold their nerve the best as well in the most pressurised situation," Stead said. "The innings that Jimmy Neesham played put us in a position where we could genuinely win the game and then Daryl Mitchell had obviously fought throughout the innings and then him to finish it off...that was particularly pleasing as well.
"I thought on the whole we actually bowled pretty well. I think there was an odd over that went for a bit of a tap, but that happens in T20 cricket and if you watch the second semi-final, the same thing happened between two quality sides. It's really just about holding your nerve and that's the thing that was particularly pleasing for me that we managed to do that against the pre-tournament favourites."
He expressed his satisfaction at reaching the final of another global event but warned his side of another big challenge against the Australian side that have the best bowling attack in his views and have plenty of match-winners.
"I think it's really exciting for this team to be in this situation again. We've played some wonderful cricket in the last four-five years and I guess people measure that success at World Cups. So, for us, to be in another final is really, really satisfying and rewarding for the team. Australia have got a bunch of guys who are real match-winners as well and we've got to make sure our planning and scouting is right on point for all their players because they can rip a game open pretty quickly as well,” Stead added.
New Zealand are into the final of a T20 World Cup for the first time and Gary Stead will hope the experience of playing a lot of such games in the past couple of years will help his players in “holding on to their nerves” which he believes makes the real difference in the end.