‘Mismanagement of the mental game’ behind Black Caps’ ODI slide: Greatbatch

AUCKLAND - New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch reckons that lack of ‘mental hardness’ is a key part behind the Black Caps’ recent embarrassing slide in one-day cricket.

The New Zealand team, which was thrashed 0-5 in a one-day series against India, has equalled their second worst one-day run of 11 straight defeats.

Greatbatch put the problems down to players’ inability to make good decisions consistently over a sustained period.

“The decision-making that these guys have to make - along with the opposition - every ball, batting, bowling or fielding, we did it in pockets,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Greatbatch, as saying.

“You can have the odd bad period, but you can’t have continued bad phases in a game, whether it’s losing wickets early or starting badly with the ball. We tended to have a cross-section of the above. It’s mismanagement of the mental game,” he added.

The New Zealand team was earlier beaten 0-4 in a five-match ODI series by Bangladesh in October.

Their last win came in the first match of a Sri Lanka tri-series, against India, on August 10. (ANI)