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NOTTINGHAM - He knows his coaching of the New Zealand test cricket side is under debate, but John Bracewell is quick to defend his role in their test series loss to England.
The tourists travel to Worcester for a one-day warmup match tomorrow, still mulling over the giant strides the test lineup need to take to be competitive with Australia in two tests across the Tasman in November.
While Bracewell's team back themselves to topple England in the five-match one-day series starting near Durham on Sunday, the gulf between their one-day and test form continues to baffle.
Bracewell acknowledged his role, and that of the specialist coaches on tour, would be scrutinised after the capitulation by an innings and nine runs in the third test at Trent Bridge and 0-2 series loss.
"It's an interesting debate, and I'm sure it will be debated long and hard by whoever wants to debate it, especially between All Blacks tests. It'll fill in some time," he said.
"It's an imponderable. The nature of cricket is not a structured game like other games where you put the play on the whiteboard and you go and play it.
"You get the situation where, this is our gameplan, but do I decide or does he (the batsman) decide whether it's a half-volley or not? Do I decide or does he decide whether he's going to get forward or back?"
With his inexperienced batting lineup, who folded for 123 in the first innings of the third test here, Bracewell tried to impart the first-hand lessons of England pair Andrew Strauss' and Kevin Pietersen's centuries at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge.
But it didn't take long for the batting plans to go awry against James Anderson's sharp swing bowling.
"We talked about what we learned from Pietersen's innings, he tried to present a full face and we felt that was the best strategy to play straight, and we had two guys (Aaron Redmond and Brendon McCullum) play across the line in the first 10 overs and have their off pole pulled out of the ground," Bracewell said.
"You can put all the plans in place, but then who applies them?"
Then, captain Daniel Vettori was the main culprit on the fourth morning with Jacob Oram swinging away at the other end to get New Zealand within sight of making England bat again.
They lost five wickets for 35 in the best batting conditions of the test, leaving Oram 50 not out.
"We failed to adapt and support a guy who was striking the ball pretty cleanly," Bracewell said.
"We knew what our gameplan was, we talked about it, playing a little straighter, not chasing full and wide balls, and supporting in a partnership role.
"Once we moved out into the middle and the training wheels came off, so did all the wheels. We chased wide half volleys and got sucked into width and failed to support a player who could have got us into a point where we were competitive."
Team psychologist Gary Hermansson arrived before the second test, replacing batting coach Mark O'Neill on the specialist coaching rotation.
But Bracewell said there was still some "anxiety", among the players on day four, and he admitted some of his players still were not psychologically tough enough.
"Some are, some aren't, that's the nature of any team. Some of them are pretty tough nuts. Some of them are learning to be tough, and some of them are just our best players and they have their foibles and weaknesses."
Those can be more easily masked in the one-day game, where New Zealand will play a similar side with Scott Styris and Mark Gillespie the only newcomers.
Bracewell confirmed McCullum was hopeful of keeping wicket after his back problem, and would open the batting with Jamie How.
New Zealand and England reconvene for Saturday's (NZT) Twenty20 international in Manchester.
- NZPA
