India Series Preparation On Black Soil Wickets Made Difference: Finn Allen

Kolkata: Explosive New Zealand opener Finn Allen, after taking the Kiwis to the T20 World Cup final with a nine-wicket win over South Africa here on Wednesday, said a five-match series against India on similar black-earth surfaces ahead of the T20 World Cup would be invaluable. Allen lit up the Eden Gardens with a stunning 33-ball 100 not out, tantalizing the South African attack with towering sixes and magnificent boundaries as New Zealand chased 170. Just 12.5 overs sealed a nine-wicket win with 43 balls to spare.

“It was an extremely impressive start from our bowlers; they set the game up for us, for sure,” Allen said in the post-match media interaction.

“On a surface like this, if you can get the wickets forward and create pressure, the batsmen’s life becomes a lot easier.”

The swashbuckling right-hander underlined the importance of the India series ahead of the tournament.

“…this just shows the importance of the India series that the boys played before the World Cup. Five matches on black clay… you can’t repeat that kind of preparation,” he said.

“We’ve learned a lot as a group. We’re rising to the challenge as a team. In these important games, we’re ready to sacrifice ourselves and stay in it until the end. The boys with the ball did that specifically today and really set the tone.”

Allen will return to the venue as part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad after being snapped up for Rs 2 crore in the IPL auction.

“I’m pretty happy to be hitting this wicket a little more often… This is my first time playing in Kolkata. My last game on black soil against India gave me the right perspective of what to expect. That really helped coming into this match.”

The opener, who scored 80 in his only game for New Zealand in the 1-4 series defeat against India, said the learning curve was steep but rewarding.

“You learn your lessons quickly in international cricket. We didn’t get the results in that series but we gained a lot of confidence competing in those conditions.”

Allen also paid special praise to his opening partner Tim Seifert, whose 33-ball 58 ensured South Africa never regained control.

“He kept pushing the boundaries… he’s been doing that all tournament long. He’s in incredible form. He’s an incredible player and he’s showing the world what he can do,” Allen said.

“It makes things easier for me. Sometimes I feel like I have the best seat in the house watching him go. It’s a lot of fun to bat with Timmy when he’s in that mood.”

South Africa beat New Zealand in the group stage and reached the semi-finals unbeaten, but Allen said the Kiwis had learned lessons from the defeat in Ahmedabad.

“We took a close look at the first game they played against them,” he said.

“They’ve been outstanding throughout the tournament and backed up their performance. But playing them before gave us some insight into their plans and we tried to use that to our advantage.”

“We hope as a nation that everyone gets behind us and rallies around us on Sunday. Finals are special… you don’t get many chances against them,” he said of Sunday’s final.

Not drowning, but a snot: Shukri Conrad

For South Africa, it was another painful exit in the knockout stage, but head coach Shukri Conrad refused to call it a stranglehold.

“I don’t know if tonight was a drowning or not. I thought it was a fucking blow,” Conrad said bluntly.

“To be able to choke you have to have smelled it in the game. We didn’t have any sniffing. In South Africa we would say ‘we were made fun of’.”

He later used a distinctly South African phrase to sum up the defeat.

“Tonight, we literally had a ‘snotklap’, which is an Afrikaans word for a real hiding, a slap you don’t see coming. That’s what it felt like,” said Conrad, who sparked controversy during last year’s Test series in India with heated comments asking the Indian team to “slow down”.

He also admitted that New Zealand outperformed them in all departments.

“I thought New Zealand were excellent. They used the conditions very well, especially with their spinners up front. We never went out of the blocks,” he said.

“We picked a really bad night to have an off day. Maybe it would have been nice to win the toss but that’s no excuse. We didn’t put up anything close to a competitive score.”

He brushed aside suggestions that playing most of their previous matches in Ahmedabad left them unprepared for a different venue.

“There’s always one thing you can point to: playing all our games in Ahmedabad, coming to a new state… but that’s not why we lost,” he said.

“They stifled us early, never let us gain momentum and closed the door every time we tried to rebuild. We weren’t good enough and they were perfect.”

Despite the crushing defeat, Conrad took pride in his side’s seven-match winning streak en route to the semi-finals as they became the only team to remain undefeated in the last four.

“We did a lot of special things in this tournament. I’m incredibly proud of these guys,” he said.

“Given our pre-World Cup form, not many people gave us a chance at the semi-finals when we left home. But that’s no consolation at the moment. You’re judged on World Cups and winning them.

“The boys are suffering, as they must. But we have played some outstanding cricket this season,” he signed off.