Mark Richardson: Way to play is without fear

Brendon McCullum has true belief.

And so the Black Caps bounce back again and win the second Twenty20 after a poor first game.

Was it because, as everyone says, "it's only T20 and no one really cares"? If no one cares, there's less pressure.

Could it be this team bounce back after defeats because a loss lowers expectations and allows them to play with more freedom? Or does the anger of defeat free their minds from self-doubt?

If comments from the Black Caps were to be believed during their great victory over Pakistan in the third test, then the emotion of Phillip Hughes' death freed our players' minds to the point they were able to achieve a superb level of performance. Skipper Brendon McCullum said cricket was secondary and Mark Craig said he didn't think, he just bowled.

Well, 200 runs and 10 wickets respectively suggests that sort of thinking works.

The concept of 'no consequence' has always fascinated me and, in fact, was something I tried in vain to incorporate into my play.

I'm a believer in playing with a free mind - not a lazy mind. A focused mind free of the distraction of self-doubt, pressure and expectation is the best state to produce high performance. In golf, it's why we hit the ball well on the range and not the course and why some cricketers play extraordinary innings when the game is gone.

How you achieve this free-but-focused state of mind, unfortunately, is anyone's guess. But sometimes, as we saw last week in the third test, extreme circumstances can be a magic pill.

Consequence, I believe, has stumped us so often in the search for opening batsmen and never has that search been more important than over the upcoming string of ODI matches.

Our team must have a functioning opening combination come World Cup time. The problem is, every time someone goes out to open the batting in any form of cricket for New Zealand, they know the spotlight is on them.

The first wicket for this country appears to carry such consequence. The last time we had an ODI opening combination we enthused over was in the latter part of the last decade when McCullum and Jesse Ryder were together. McCullum has undying belief and Ryder played free of conscious distraction.

It will be a challenging time for the Black Caps over the next few weeks. Whoever finds a way to play without fear will win a place in the World Cup squad.

But then comes the World Cup.

The Black Caps know they are already being talked up as a good chance and, with that, comes public expectation. Nothing produces the thought of consequence like the thought of letting everyone down.

I think back to the 1992 World Cup in New Zealand. Our team were awful going into that tournament, having been spanked by England in a warm-up. Perhaps that was the catalyst for what we saw then but, unfortunately, I don't believe the same lack of public belief in our current lot will be present in two months.

Somehow our lads have to find a way to perform. Let's hope they won't have the distraction of tragedy to help them do it.