Cricket: Six lessons for Black Caps

BJ Watling is bowled by Rahat Ali in the first test. Photo / AFP

Coach Mike Hesson tells the Herald’s Andrew Alderson how the New Zealanders can offer more substance in the second test against Pakistan starting tonight in Dubai

1. Watch the bowlers for angles

"Especially against spin with the newer ball where it skids on and techniques can be exposed. The key is to line up angles. The spinners sometimes go quite wide of crease, angle the ball in and get it to straighten. Sometimes the deliveries don't look like they're doing a lot but we've got to make sure we're lining those balls up to reduce the risk of lbw [the spinners got three wickets in that fashion in the first test]. The guys are working hard on that but the difficulty comes when you take what you practised and add the anxiety factor out in the middle, when you're surrounded by fielders in the early stages of an innings. It's hard to generate that level of anxiety in training."

2. To sweep or use the feet?

"It's a lot easier to sweep when the ball's coming into you, and we saw left-handers Corey [Anderson] and Tom [Latham] do that well. That's the value of having left-handers in the group, whereas [right-handers] Brendon [McCullum], Ross [Taylor] and Kane [Williamson] are not big sweepers, especially with the ball attacking the stumps. They've got to work at accessing the ball with a straight bat rather than hitting across it [against the spin]."

3. Get spinners to bowl quicker

"Our spinners acknowledged they bowled slower than they needed to. The key difference is Pakistan's spinners can beat our batsmen off the wicket whereas at home our guys try to beat batsmen in the air because the ball doesn't spin as much [upon pitching]. I think the solution is in the pace you bowl. You have to be quicker so they can't adjust off the wicket. But, Ish [Sodhi] and Mark [Craig] had opportunities that were missed [in the first test] and could have drawn confidence from that."

4. Avoid the wicket-eating virus that can sweep through a team

"We need to stop losing wickets in clumps. There were occasions where we lost three for 14, three for four, three for 12 and four for 10 in Abu Dhabi. The ability to start against spin and reverse swing can be difficult because our guys don't get a lot of either at home. However, once you're in and the ball starts to reverse you're okay. Starting against it has been a focus in training."

5. If it sort of ain't broke...

"We'll look at personnel, as always, but Tim [Southee] and Trent [Boult] at times bowled extremely well and never looked like getting a wicket. It's a tough question how to take more wickets on flat surfaces with little bounce. We need to see if they can use the [width of the] crease more, bowl more cutters and work on the ball to get better reverse swing."

6. Grill Pakistan for a change

"At no stage did we have Pakistan under pressure and, to be fair, Australia didn't either [in their 2-0 loss]. We'll have to play nigh on the perfect test. We have to get to a situation, by applying ourselves with the bat, where we're ahead in the game to see how their relatively inexperienced bowlers react. It's a lot easier to control a cricket match when you've got 566 runs on the board."

Andrew Alderson travelled to the UAE courtesy of Emirates.