Black Caps coach Gary Stead has put his hand up and admitted that he should have included spin bowler Ish Sodhi in his team’s Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan
New Zealand suffered their first loss at the tournament this morning, as Pakistan cruised to a six-wicket victory.
Stead kept the same XI which had won five previous games in the Cricket World Cup and revealed in a post-match interview with Radio Sport Breakfast that he made a huge mistake not including Sodhi in his team.
"Ish didn't play because we weren't convinced it was going to spin and in hindsight we got that wrong. The information and intel that we gathered was that it wasn't likely to spin a lot," Stead told Radio Sport Breakfast.
"[We] realised [we'd misread the pitch] in the first over when it spun pretty big … that can happen, we put our hands up - we got that wrong."
Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson had a surprising spell with the ball, with the part time spin bowler picking up the wicket of Mohammad Hafeez.
New Zealand even gave Colin Munro a spell with the ball, which proved costly as he let in nine runs in his one over.
"When the threat is spin, especially when the wicket became a lot slower it was still turning square and I even managed to bowl some myself which is unusual. We were trying to get anybody in there that would rotate the ball," said Williamson.
Stead said Williamson was excellent after his cameo with the ball and revealed that he had received the wrong intel in regards to how the wicket would play.
"You talk to the groundstaff, you look at other matches here, talk to people about what they think will happen, and the information we were given was that it was likely to skid on rather than spin.
"It certainly felt a lot harder than the first game we played on here as well [against South Africa], but I think with the wicket being under covers all day yesterday as well, it probably just made it a little bit sticky."
The Black Caps take on arch-rivals Australia next in the tournament this Sunday [NZ time] at Lord’s in London.
"We'll let the dust settle and won't make decisions until we get to Lord's and look at the pitch there."
New Zealand sit in second place on the overall standings, one point behind leaders Australia who are on 12 points and have already been guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals.
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