New Zealand's Adam Milne celebrates the wicket of India's Rishabh Pant. Photo / AP
New Zealand's Adam Milne celebrates the wicket of India's Rishabh Pant. Photo / AP
Black Caps head coach Gary Stead has lauded his side's bowling performance in their crucial Twenty20 World Cup win over India as one of the best he's seen.
The Black Caps bowlers restricted India to 110-7 on a Dubai wicket that still offered plenty to the batsmen – proven byhow the Kiwis eased to an eight-wicket victory with 33 balls to spare.
It's a pivotal victory which puts qualification for the semifinals in their hands – win their final three games against Scotland, Namibia and Afghanistan, and the Black Caps will advance.
Stead was hard-pressed to find a better bowling display than the effort that included 54 dot balls and an incredible 70-ball spell in the middle overs where India couldn't reach the boundary.
"I thought the bowling effort was absolutely outstanding - up there with the best performance I've seen in my time with the T20 bowling team," said Stead.
"To restrict a star-studded team like India to 110 was really special, and then I thought the batting was very clinical – Daryl [Mitchell] and [Martin Guptill] gave us the start we wanted, and then it's always nice to see Kane [Williamson] come in with the quality he's got to steady the ship there and get the team home.
"It's hard to say if it's must-win or not because it's still pretty early in the tournament, but you imagine the way the group's structured that it's going to be very difficult for the team who didn't win to get through to the semifinals. It gives us the best chance."
New Zealand's Adam Milne celebrates the wicket of India's Rishabh Pant. Photo / AP
After the match, Indian captain Virat Kohli lamented his side not being "brave enough", and Stead was delighted by the way the bowlers continually attacked the Indian batsmen.
"When you look through the Indian side and see the quality of the likes of Kohli coming in at four and [Rishabh] Pant five and Hardik [Pandya] at six, it's like 'geez, they've got players who keep coming at you', and I guess that's the pleasing thing from my perspective – just the way we stuck to the plans we had, we were prepared to be smart around the way we played but also to fire some shots back at these guys, because we wanted to make sure we took wickets still and they weren't going into a death stage with their top-quality players in."
New Zealand players celebrate the dismissal of India's Ishan Kishan. Photo / AP
Stead pointed to Trent Boult's first ball to Rohit Sharma as an example of their brave display. While Adam Milne dropped the catch at long leg, Boult's immediate intent to try and take the upper hand was something Stead believed was crucial to the mentality the bowlers showed.
"Rohit being bounced first ball showed to me the courage and bravery of what we wanted to do. We all know Rohit can hit the ball out of the park and he's an amazing hooker of the ball as well, but our pre-match talks were about making sure we felt we were in charge out there, and we were prepared to throw something at India that they may not expect.
"When Boulty starts bowling people are generally looking for him to come and hit the stumps and hit front pads, so we thought 'what can we do different here to perhaps put them on the back foot?'
"Whilst the catch wasn't taken, the intent on what we were trying to do set the tone for the whole innings.
"It was pretty amazing really on a ground in which I think the surface was pretty good still - I find it pretty remarkable the way the guys put in that effort."
