Saturday 17 February 2018 06:51, UK
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson refused to blame his bowlers after Australia pulled off a world-record T20I chase to beat the Kiwis by five wickets in Auckland.
SCORECARD | AS IT HAPPENED | REPORT
Martin Guptill's century had propelled the Black Caps to 243-6 Eden Park, with the hosts hitting 18 sixes across their innings.
However, on such a small ground - with the shortest boundary straight down the ground just 55 metres and the longest 65 metres - Williamson admitted there was little more his side could have done to avoid defeat.
"It's hard to be too critical [of the bowlers]," he told Sky Sports. "All you can do is look at your defensive options as well as you can and look to execute next game.
"At the same time even when you did execute today, half hits would go 20 rows back. It was a very good surface and a small ground and I suppose a game like this was bound to happen here at some point.
"Often we have seen scores on the lower side but today both teams batted outstandingly well, put both bowling attacks under a lot of pressure and came up with [the game] we had today.
"At the half-way point we felt we had a fairly good score on the board but at the same time you still know that any opposition here won't die wondering and if they come off they will get close - and they got more than close today."
Opposite number David Warner struck five sixes of his own as he hammered 59 off 24 balls, putting on 121 in 8.3 overs with fellow opener D'Arcy Short (76 off 44).
The 31-year-old said the magnitude of chasing down such a large target meant his players could play with complete freedom.
"What a fantastic effort there by the guys. When you've got a total like that and an outstanding innings from Guppy, you've just got to take the scoreboard out of it and back yourselves and start well, and we did," he said.
"You've just got to keep playing with freedom and keep backing yourselves and don't get caught up with the small boundaries but keep playing your natural strokes.
"From day one when I started this I said we should have a lot of energy, have fun and keep a smile on our faces. We're doing what we love - we're living the dream playing cricket for our country.
"After we got the first wicket I said to them 'just try to keep executing your best ball; if it goes for six or four then so be it'. It's a fantastic surface for batters!"
Watch New Zealand take on England in the penultimate match of the Trans-Tasman Tri-Series T20 live on Sky Sports Cricket from 5.30am on Sunday.
