Mark Richardson: Being patient should pay off

Ross Taylor. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Good things will come to those Black Caps batsmen who wait. This is because they won't have to wait too long.

The feeling is that, when you bat against Australia, you have to be aggressive and take it to them. That is a mentality that sits well with our top six - but this time I feel that approach is not necessary.

In 2001 when we toured, the plan was to play on Australia's desire to advance games and win test matches at all costs. It meant making them make all the play in terms of fast scoring and taking risks and it nearly paid off.

There was a very friendly declaration in the first test and a daring runs chase from them in the third test that kept wickets falling.

In 2004, the same approach was taken but the Australian attack was just too good, climbed all over us and smothered the life out of our top order. We were soundly beaten without firing a shot.

The reason plan A worked so well in 2001 was because there were pressure releases from the Australian attack in the form of Brett Lee and Shane Warne - who was not at his best after coming back from injury. Application at the crease was rewarded with loose balls and pressure was never maintained for too long.

However, in 2004, Warne was at his outstanding best again. Glenn McGrath was, well, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie was as tireless as always and Lee had been replaced by Michael Kasprowicz, arguably the bowler of the series. They simply did not bowl loose balls - or not enough for patience to be rewarded.

But things have changed, even since 2008 when Australia won convincingly. For one, the New Zealand top order is more mature and knows what they are about these days.

For another, most of the bowling attack they face will leak runs. They will see an Australian bowling stripped of Pat Cummins (out with a sore heel), Mitchell Johnson (foot), Shane Watson (hamstring), Shaun Marsh (back) and Ryan Harris (hip).

That means the Australians are down to Peter Siddle and back-ups from the Australian A team, players such as Trent Copeland, James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc and Ben Cutting.

Siddle likes to attack and cough up runs and it appears from the warm-up match that the Australian A attack weren't the most economical of attacks either.

So planning for this challenge is simple - don't get out and the runs will come.

I'm not advocating going in with a defensive mindset because that is totally foreign to our top six and won't work for any of them.

Actually, to tell you the truth, it is a mindset that doesn't work at all because it tends to make you inefficient in putting away the bad balls when they come.

What I am saying is pay attention to one's defensive technique and don't get impatient.

Even if the current Australian attack tries to 'dot' the batsman up, they are totally incapable of doing so.