"Absolutely no excuses in regards to the quarantine" - Jhye Richardson after Australia's defeat in 1st T20I
Jhye Richardson has refused to blame the two-week quarantine period for Australia's poor display in the first T20I against New Zealand on Monday. While chasing 185, the Aussies were bowled out for 131, with the Kiwis comfortably winning the match by 53 runs.
On the back of his superb performances in the recently-concluded BBL, Jhye Richardson is back in Australia's T20I setup. The right-arm seamer was the pick of the Australian bowlers in the first T20I, returning with figures of 2-31 in his four overs. However, his performance went in vain as New Zealand easily won the contest.
There have been suggestions that Australia's two-week quarantine period could be the reason behind their poor performance in the first T20I. But Jhye Richardson refused to believe so.
"Absolutely no excuses in regards to the quarantine, We were able to get out and train a few hours a day, and we were really confident with the way we went about our preparation. I think everyone was really confident going into the first game, knowing that they’ve honed in on our skills and practised enough and got what they needed to feel right," Jhye Richardson said after the defeat.
The 24-year-old pointed out that T20 games can be 'fickle' and said:
"We just didn’t get it right last night, and we know that T20 is such a fickle game that if you’re off by a few per cent, things can go very poorly for you.”
New Zealand were tottering at 19-3 at one point in the first T20I. However, Devon Conway's unbeaten 99 changed the course of the game and helped the hosts post 184-5 in their 20 overs.
"We can bounce back" - Jhye RIchardson
Jhye Richardson said Australia won't reflect on the defeat and will look to bounce back quickly in the five-match series.
“We’ve got to move forward pretty quickly and concentrate on the next game. Credit to New Zealand, they played fantastically; we didn’t have a great day, but the beauty of that is there’s more games to go, and we can bounce back,” added Richardson.
The second T20I will be played on Thursday in Dunedin. With four more matches remaining in the series, Australia will back themselves to turn things around.