Walter Upbeat on NZ Performance Despite Heartbreak Against India

Despite losing two closely fought T20 matches to India, New Zealand head coach Rob Walter has said he is happy with the way his team competed, even as he acknowledged the frustration of failing to finish the job.

The two games at Hagley Oval in Christchurch were decided by the same margin, with India winning by four wickets each time. For New Zealand, it was a second successive narrow defeat in the series.

Walter shared his thoughts in a video released by New Zealand Cricket on Sunday. He described T20 cricket as a format where the difference between victory and defeat can be extremely small, and said his side had a genuine chance to win both matches.

"It is genuinely difficult. In T20 cricket, the gap between winning and losing is very narrow. We could have won both games easily, but that did not happen," he said.

He acknowledged that New Zealand had missed opportunities that might have secured victory. "There were probably a few moments each time that we could have used to win the match. There is some disappointment, but I am very pleased with how the team has played. Before this series, we had not played much competitive cricket as a group. I feel we were excellent for around 80 percent of each game."

Walter also spoke about the small errors that influenced the outcome. He said a wicket falling off a no-ball had a major bearing on the result, and that some chances in the field were also missed. Such mistakes happen in sport, he said, and while nobody wants to make them, they can prove costly.

He suggested India might have similar reflections on their own performance and missed chances. For New Zealand, the priority was to build on the good performances already delivered and make refinements in several areas.

In the second match, New Zealand lost three wickets during the powerplay. Recovering to reach 180 from that position was not an everyday achievement, Walter said. Bevon Jacobs and Glenn Phillips were singled out for their match-shaping contributions, and he believed the score was one that could have been defended.

Walter also praised the batting unit, noting strong individual efforts from different players, and said the bowling had been better on the second day than in the first. He stressed that the team's fielding intensity and effort were beyond question, with players giving everything on the field.

He pointed out that conditions changed between the two matches at Hagley Oval. Batting was tougher in the second game, with the pitch surface and the start to the innings differing from the first. Walter added that both sets of bowlers may have improved after learning from the previous night's contest. "It was a bit tougher to bat, but it was still a fantastic game of cricket."