LONDON: New Zealand will not let their tight loss to England in the classic Test at Lord’s lessen their resolve to keep playing aggressive cricket, captain Brendon McCullum said.

New Zealand’s batsmen scored over 700 runs and their bowlers took all 20 wickets but England completed a 124-run win in the final 10 overs of the fifth day on Monday courtesy of the all-round brilliance of New Zealand-born Ben Stokes.

The Black Caps’ attacking mindset drove them to a maiden World Cup final in March and McCullum said his team would not alter their style for the second and final test at Headingley starting on Friday.

“It hurts a lot. I certainly won’t lie. But at the same time there is an element of pride that we continue to play the style of cricket that we know gives us our greatest chance,” McCullum told reporters.

“There are times we know that teams are going to be able to stand up to you and withstand the pressure you apply to them and come out on top.

“When that happens you’ve just go to doff your cap and say well played to them and make sure that next time you get that opportunity you go hard again and make sure that you’re asking the same sort of questions.

“Who knows at Headingley ... we may see some different results but I’m pretty sure our guys will continue to play the same style of cricket which we have in this Test and which we have done over the last 18 months.”

McCullum said being defensive had not worked for New Zealand, who have not lost a Test series home or away since being swept 2-0 on their last England tour in 2013.

“For a long time we had that kind of mentality and it didn’t serve us anywhere near as well as the aggressive mindset that we are now taking into games,” the 33-year-old said.

“You’ve got to make sure you’re authentic to that style, under pressure or whether you’re on top.

“We scored over 720 runs in this Test. We took 20 wickets. We ticked off a lot of things which normally would lead to a test win but in some of the key moments we weren’t quite able to come out on top.

“The message to the team will be that we weren’t far away. There’s certainly no knee-jerk reaction to a performance like this. For the most of it, we were pretty good.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand sweating on B.J. Watling and Corey Anderson for the second Test Luke Ronchi could be in line for a Test debut at the age of 34 against England after injured New Zealand gloveman Watling was rated a 50-50 chance of being fit for the second Test.

Watling and all-rounder Corey Anderson (back) were the two main walking wounded the morning after New Zealand’s 124-run defeat in a Lord’s epic.

Coach Mike Hesson said Watling, who suffered heavy bruising above his knee when trying to stop a delivery from Matt Henry on day one, was still struggling. “B.J. is not 100 per cent. Clearly his knee is still an issue. He struggles to push off and get a lot of power. He’s a 50-50 at this stage and we’ll just have to keep monitoring him,” Hesson said.

Hesson also confirmed Anderson suffered a back injury during the Test which saw him bowl just eight overs.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2015

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