Reason revealed why Black Caps chucked Tim Seifert in the T20 deep end

Publish Date
Monday, 11 November 2019, 1:11PM
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New Zealand cricket coach Gary Stead has defended the Black Caps' decision to hurl inexperienced Tim Seifert into the Super Over showdown at Eden Park.

Seifert took strike against Chris Jordan, after England had whacked an impressive 17 in their T20 tiebreaker over at Eden Park.

England repeated their World Cup Super Over triumph against New Zealand, to clinch the T20 series 3 - 2.

With veteran short-form specialist Martin Guptill at the other end, and hitters Colin de Grandhomme, Jimmy Neesham and Colin Munro watching on, wicketkeeper Seifert was the man in the middle tasked with giving New Zealand a flying start.

Seifert had smacked 39 of 16 balls in his regular bat, but the Super Over move fell well short with New Zealand mustering only eight.

The reason for Seifert's Super Over role: the scoop and ramp shots which have become an accepted part of modern cricket.

Seifert's ability to play those made him the ideal candidate this time, according to Stead.

"We were pretty certain Chris Jordan would bowl and he is one of best yorker bowlers in the world," Stead said.

"Tim is probably the best guy in our team who can scoop and ramp, the idea being he would hopefully get the first one away.

"He tried but only got two. The aim was to take him (Jordan) off his length and make him bowl something different.

"Earlier in the day it was the slower balls which were getting hit out of the park. We needed to try some way of upsetting one of the best in the world at bowling yorkers."

The decision to bowl captain Tim Southee in the Super Over was down to Southee.

"Tim said 'I'm happy to do it' and put his hand up. You've got to trust people when they do that," Stead said.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission

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