The coach of New Zealand is ‘proud’ of his young team’s performance against Pakistan

Black Caps coach Gary Stead declared himself “proud” of his team’s effort against the hosts, one day after Pakistan defeated New Zealand by nine runs to tie the five-match T20I series.

Stead told reporters in Lahore, “I’m very proud of the way our team played.”

His comments follow Pakistan’s fifth-round T20I victory against New Zealand, their second victory of the series after the first game was postponed due to inclement weather.

The Men in Green crushed the Black Caps in the second Twenty20 International, but the Kiwis rallied to win the third and fourth games.

We had a disappointing first outing where we were soundly beaten, but to bounce back from that I thought was really pleasing and I think there’s a few young guys that have certainly increased their stocks over here, Stead said. Stead will name his squad for June’s World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean tomorrow (Monday).

Remember that Pakistan was a World Cup finalist only two years prior, and it was, in his words, “really, really pleasing for us to compete with them.”

Given that replacements will probably be required at some point, the Black Caps coach emphasized that all players in the international setup should continue to train hard even if they were left out of the World Cup team on Monday.

He stated that there are some players in the Indian Premier League (IPL) who would either join us right away when we go to the West Indies or join us after they are eliminated from the IPL.

“So the men will continue to put in a lot of work. Many borderline players who are left off the roster will want to continue practicing in case they get hurt, the speaker said.