Kane Williamson-led team beat India by eight wickets in Ageas Bowl southampton.
Pocknall is happy to see his student Conway grow stronger. Originally from South Africa, Conway moved to New Zealand in 2017 at the age of 26.
Conway’s long wait to wear the Test jersey came to an end at the age of 29, and he counted it in style, becoming only the seventh cricketer to reach the 200-run mark in his first innings. In the second Test, Conway scored 80 off 143 balls in the first innings as New Zealand registered a 1–0 victory in the series against England.
In WTC Final, Conway scored 54 and 19 in New Zealand’s victory. Conway has scored 379 runs in the three Tests he has played so far at an average of 63.17, including a double century.
TimesofIndia.com caught up with Wellington cricket coach Pocknall for an exclusive interview and the New Zealander talks about a variety of topics, including what went wrong with Virat Kohli’s side in the WTC final, the Virat vs Kane debate and more .
(New Zealand beat India by eight wickets in WTC final – Reuters Photo)
Part…
New Zealand is the world test champion. How does it feel?
It’s pretty amazing here. The day after the game we went to the local indoor center here (Wellington). It’s winter here, so everyone is training indoors. But here it was just a full-fledged discussion with the kids. Everyone wants to play cricket and in some ways replicate what Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor did with the bat. So it’s going to have a huge impact on cricket and the country, which is great.
What a career start to your student Devon Conway. He started his Test career with an impressive 200 and half-centuries against England and then scored another half-century against India in the WTC final. Did he call you after the WTC win? What did he say?
“Coach, we did it. Thank you so much for the support”. With that he started the conversation. He was naturally very happy with what the team achieved and had to concentrate very quickly, as he was traveling to Somerset to get into T20 mode the day after the final.
He has grandeur. The whole world has seen it now. When he first played the trial game, he attracted attention and we just saw him play cover drives. Me and Bruce Edgar, who was the head coach at the time, just took a look at each other and just thought to ourselves – “Well, that’s amazing. This guy has some skill”. That was our first look at Devon Conway’s class, and four years later he did the same on the world stage.
It’s just a testament to how good he is mentally, able to adapt to those different situations. The final of the World Test Championship was spectacular. Seeing him do it, but it also showed what his character is like and being in the right frame of his mind mentally, was awesome.
New Zealand lost in the finals of the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups. The wait for a major ICC trophy was a long one, but Williamson and his men acted brilliantly, despite rain threatened to deny the result…
Absolutely. I think the surprising thing here for all the supporters and fans is that it is finally done, and that monkey for the Blackcaps cricket team. And thinking back to 2015, I was watching the game at the MCG, and as I was there for literally 24 hours to watch the game, and was quite disappointed after losing to Australia.
(New Zealand captain Kane Williamson with a Test mace – AFP photo)
In 2019, in the final, I stayed up all night because of time zones and it was a great game of cricket; But we clearly came out on the wrong side. So I keep those two disappointments in my mind and then to see how well this team did over the years and then finish with this final against India was absolutely amazing.
Ross and Williamson just tried to blunt the Indian attack. By using the word blunt, I mean they wanted to capture the crease as much as possible. He was using the circumstances very wisely. They were just spending their time trying to build a partnership and waiting for loose balls to come in later and score freely.
What according to you went wrong for India in the WTC final?
I think India actually struggled a bit to adjust to the conditions. From a batting perspective and a bowling point of view, I think the batsmen didn’t necessarily show the discipline that the New Zealand batsmen showed. By discipline, I mean the ability to leave and play the ball late. The New Zealand batsman did very well and held the crease for long while some Indians did, but many of them failed to do so, meaning they did not find any meaningful partnerships.
From a bowling perspective, I think New Zealand were a bit more consistent. (Jasprit) Bumrah’s match was not the best. He (Indian) is such a linchpin for the bowling attack. So his not performing at his best was a big reason for India’s defeat.
(Virat Kohli disappointed after WTC final loss – AFP photo)
Do you think India should have gone with a slightly different playing XI?
It’s too easy to say they should have had another seamer. I’m saying this because if I think they knew the conditions were going to be seamer’s favourite, Jadeja would have missed out. Vihari could potentially be included, as he had done very well in Australia. But this is backwardness.
Before the match, I would have said that two spinners should have played for India, simply because I believe it was the best chance to win. (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Ravichandran) Ashwin give a lot with the bat too, but I think after the result it is easy to say that changes should have been made. It is always a challenge for the coach and captain and selectors to act courageously and take such decisions at times.
Both Kane and Virat know each other very well. They have played against each other since their Under-19 days. What is the big difference between the two you see as a captain?
They are both very different people. But they are clearly very close. They have a very close relationship as they have had a long association. Ken is very, very calm. He doesn’t give you much. Virat is the exact opposite. He is very outspoken. He is very excited. That’s why both look quite different. But I think what they both have in common is that they are both very passionate and they show their passion in different ways.
Virat outwardly shows his passion with his antics and his words. Kane shows his passion with the interactions he has with his players within the New Zealand cricket team and what they are trying to do in terms of winning the game of cricket. Both are very different but also very similar in that they both have passion for their country and want to lead their team to victory.
(File image of Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli – Reuters Photo)
Another ICC tournament will soon be the ICC World T20 later this year. How would you rate New Zealand’s chances of winning this World Cup? who is your favourite?
The chances are really high (for New Zealand to win). There are four other teams, their chances are also very high. That is the beauty of cricket at the moment. There is no dominance of any one team in any format. You can throw a blanket over five or six of them, and that’s exciting enough for cricket.
England and Australia could have easily been in this final series, but they were not; And the next T20 World Cup will be there.
This is going to be the cracker of the World Cup. I personally feel that India is going into the World Cup as the favorites but any team, any day, can beat anyone. We have seen teams in the past go to the World Cup with that favorite tag. So this is going to be another exciting World Cup where any team can go ahead and win the title. New Zealand’s T20 team is also quite stable. So they will definitely come with a lot of confidence to do well in that tournament.
Virat once again missed out on winning his first ICC trophy as captain. Some people think that Virat should give up his captaincy roles and focus only on his batting and Ajinkya Rahane should be given the Test captaincy and Rohit Sharma should be given the limited overs role. Your on that…
Really good question. Given the success of the Indian team, it is very difficult to answer. Yes, they lost this match (WTC Final). Before the WTC final, India was the top-ranked team. In a span of two years, he played the most consecutive cricket. He won the most matches. They clearly won that series in Australia, with a stellar series to follow. They have had a great deal of success.
So looking at Virat in this one match that he has lost and unlike the success he has had as a captain in the championship, I don’t think he (should change the captain). I think it would be a knee-jerk reaction. The only thing they’ll potentially be looking at is whether they think they need to step down, do they think it’s too much for them, too much cricket, and does it take them mentally? Burning and putting a burden on the team. I don’t think it is from a performance perspective. But should they feel like it, then I think it will be something that they need to look into and give a chance to someone else.
But from New Zealand’s point of view, India did so well in this two-year period, and they have lost a huge game of cricket, just one game of cricket. But it is just a game of cricket. So I think after going through my experience of being a fan and going through some of the misery of losing the World Cup final, India will overcome it. I am sure of it and they are not far from getting that monkey off their back.
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