Matt Henry comes trumps with final-over mastery as he was clear on not going to the yorker in the three-run win.
Risk-taking Matt Henry comes out on top with death-overs wizardry.
Matt Henry, who helped New Zealand win the men’s T20I tri-series title in a thrilling last-ball match in Harare, had a clear strategy: take some chances and avoid going after the yorkers for all six balls.
With six wickets remaining and South Africa needing seven runs off the last over, Henry was at the top of his game. However, Henry took two wickets and gave up just three runs.
“The thought process was making sure that there were tough options [for the batters]. If you go to yorkers too early and you run two, it’s hard to kind of keep six [balls] out,” Henry said after New Zealand’s three-run win. “So, we just tried to be positive and to take an element of risk of the death that doesn’t always come off but that was good.
“With not too many to defend, I probably made it a little bit clearer in terms of, having probably taken a few more risks, and making sure that it either was a dot ball or a wicket. Just making sure I was nice and clear at the top of the mark and executing what I wanted to do, and thankfully executed the plans nicely and catches stuck, so that was good.”
There was drama in the final over. While the one lost opportunity did not cost New Zealand anything, a pair of athletic catches sealed their doom. Brevis attempted, and nearly succeeded, to pull a bouncer over the deep midwicket boundary on the second ball. However, Michael Bracewell gave New Zealand the advantage by timing his jump and maintaining his balance to finish a juggling grab.
“I was hoping he was going to catch it,” Henry said of Bracewell, “it was a really good catch. When you’ve got Bracewell out there on the boundaries, [he is] one of the better fielders going around. So [I had] a lot of confidence, just hoped that one did his job. These guys, they take more catches than they drop, so I wasn’t as worried [about the dropped catch]. I was more just focused on what I could do. [It was a] tough chance, and not many people probably get to that to create a chance. He’s an unbelievable fielder.”