DUNEDIN: Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliott’s world-record partnership in Dunedin brought understandable satisfaction for New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan.
But McMillan said on Saturday the batting higher up in the order is an area for improvement in the last two matches of the one-day cricket series against Sri Lanka.
On Sunday, the teams return to University Oval, where Ronchi (170) and Elliott (104) smashed an unbeaten stand of 267, the highest for the sixth wicket in ODI history.
The pair came together on Friday with New Zealand struggling at the end of the 20th over and their remarkable rescue effort took the score to 360-5 and set the platform for a 108-run victory.
McMillan said it’s nice to be winning matches despite not playing the perfect game, but the Black Caps know there are aspects they can tidy up with both bat and ball.
“If you’re five for 90, you’ve lost a few too many wickets at the start,” he said. “We need to reassess that and try not to put ourselves in that sort of a hole, which puts pressure on the middle to lower order.”
While the ball did move around in the first 20 overs, the Black Caps had been banking on getting through that tough period with the lost of only a couple of wickets.
“The ability of Ronchi and Elliott to form that partnership and create some carnage took us to a point that, at the 20-over mark, I guess no-one had envisaged,” McMillan said.
Despite Sri Lanka being dismissed in the 44th over, he also believed the bowling attack could have restricted the boundary opportunities offered to the batsmen.
As for Ronchi and Elliott’s fight-back, McMillan said it continued a satisfying trend of different players stepping up in the series.
“We’ve been in different situations and we’ve had guys come out and play significant knocks that have got us over the line.”
Ronchi followed up his two-hour stay at the crease with his wicket-keeping duties during the Sri Lanka’s reply.
Despite the marathon effort, he is expected to back up on Sunday as New Zealand, who are up 3-1, look to clinch the series early.
“He’s going to be a little bit stiff and sore, no doubt about that,” McMillan said. “But he’ll get the work he needs to make sure he’s ready to go. I guess when you play an innings like that, you want to go back out again and back it up.”
Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015
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