'It doesn't really matter if it was the best decision' - Black Caps coach defends Super Over decisions

New Zealand coach Gary Stead says his team will continue to seek ways to get better in pressure moments like super overs after another heart-breaker in yesterday’s T20 series decider against England.

The Black Caps lost the Super Over by nine runs at Eden Park with Stead saying it was good to see the players put under the pressure a year out from the T20 World Cup in Australia.

 “We have to keep thinking about how we can keep getting better in these situations,” Stead said.

“How we can nail the things that we want to nail from a batting and bowling perspective.”

Stead defended the decisions in the Super Over to hand captain Tim Southee the ball and put wicketkeeper Tim Seifert on strike with the bat.

“It doesn’t really matter if it was the best decision or not, no one will ever know that ‘cause it was the one decision that was made.”

“You could play Super Over after Super Over and you’d get a whole lot of situations.”

Seifert was picked because of his ability to play the ramps and laps well, Stead said.

“Seifert is one of the few guys in our team who scoops and laps pretty well,” he said.

“We predicted that Chris Jordan would bowl the Super Over and generally he’s very good at bowling yorkers as well so we wanted someone who could exploit that first ball of the over and hopefully put us on the front foot.”

“Tim tried that, he only got two for us unfortunately, I guess they’re the decisions you live and die by.”

Captain Southee decided to bowl the Super Over with Stead also revealing that Trent Boult and Mitch Santner were discussed as options by the group.

The NZ coach also batted away a question about the current format, which sees the team that chases in the game bats first in the Super Over, saying that was just to avoid delays.

Stead said the members of the NZ Test squad would enjoy a few days off before they begin preparing for the first Test at Mount Manganui against England which starts next Thursday, November 21.