We need to improve on lot of areas: Craig McMillan
After their emphatic 108-run victory over Sri Lanka in Dunedin yesterday, the Black Caps took an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the seven-match series. The record partnership between Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliot set up the victory for the hosts after their top order failed to fire. New Zealand’s batting coach Craig McMillan does see good signs in the team which is developing.
The former Black Caps all-rounder admits there are areas which need attention and improvement,
“There are still lots of areas that we’d like to improve on still. It was far from the perfect game. It is nice to be winning cricket matches when you are not playing the perfect game. We know that there are a couple of areas that we can tighten up and if we do that we will be even stronger and harder to beat.”
“If you are 90-5 you have lost a few too many wickets at the start so we need to reassess that and not put ourselves in that hole that puts pressure on the lower – middle order. Also with the ball we offered up too many scoring opportunities to the Sri Lankan batsmen so they are the two key work-ons for us.”
Top order batsmen Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor have recently come in for some criticism from fans as they are both struggling to get runs, but McMillan doesn’t want to hit the panic button yet,
“If you look at the batting group, everyone has got a score. Ross is probably the only one who has got a significant score. I think Tom Latham in Auckland played a nice knock. With Taylor, we know what a quality individual and a quality batsman he is and when he comes good, he comes good big and he wins your games.”
“More from a team point of view, there are a couple of guys there who are not scoring the runs that they would like, but others are stepping up and doing a good job. Ross is working very hard on his routines and he is putting a lot of time in, in the nets.”
New Zealand are gearing up to finish off the job and clinch the series at the same venue, University Oval in Dunedin, tomorrow. The seventh and final ODI will be played at the Wellington on January 29th.