'Maybe there is a witch out there': Black Caps puzzled by fielding woes

Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips starred with the bat while Adam Milne impressed with the ball as NZ beat Bangladesh.

Twenty20 tri-series final: Black Caps v Pakistan. Where: Hagley Oval, Christchurch. When: Friday, 3pm. Live coverage: Spark Sport, live updates on Stuff.

Perhaps a witch is lurking over the Black Caps, turning their once outstanding fielding unit into a bunch of bumblers.

That was Glenn Phillips’ first thought after yet another shoddy performance in the field at Hagley Oval on Wednesday.

It didn’t stop the Black Caps notching an emphatic 48-run win against Bangladesh, but the continued fielding mishaps during the T20 tri-series is a concern ahead of the looming World Cup in Australia.

“I mean, maybe there is a witch out there,” Phillips said, searching for answers ahead of Friday’s final against Pakistan.

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“I guess we are professionals, and we try to do our best no matter what, and I guess some people out there don't necessarily see it that way, they see it as an easy game and that it's an easy fix, which it isn't.”

The Black Caps put down three chances, failed to get a hand on one which went straight up, and again leaked runs along the deck on a day the best catch was taken by a bloke on the embankment.

Phillips, typically one of the team’s slickest operators in the field, was involved in two of the incidents, including putting down Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan in the deep.

Joe Allison/Getty Images Black Cap Glenn Phillips fires a ball to keeper Devon Conway against Bangladesh in Christchurch on Wednesday.

He didn’t pick the white ball up in the cloudy sky, and thought it was destined to settle on the embankment after he heard it rocket off the willow. By the time he picked it up, he explained, he wasn’t aware of where the boundary was.

“Absolutely no excuse for dropping a catch. Dropping a catch is dropping a catch, but understanding that things like the wind, the colour of the sky, all of those things play into every single catch. There is no necessarily one size fits all,” he said.

“We're all trying to make the best decisions possible, and unfortunately I dropped that one, and I dropped one the other night, but I got back on the board, as everyone else is trying to do.”

Phillips also explained the debacle in the opening over of Bangladesh’s chase, when Najmul Hossain Shanto skied a Trent Boult delivery, only for Phillips, captain Tim Southee, Boult and keeper Devon Conway to watch it land safely.

All four showed interest in catching it when it soared into the Christchurch sky. So, who called for it?

“What actually happened is Devon called it,” Phillips said. “We were all very confused as to how Devon was going to make that much ground, yet I saw him running out the side of my eye. I think Trent was probably closest to it, but Devon had overcalled us all.”

Phillips felt Conway, standing well back to Boult, underestimated how much ground he had to make up when he called. But he also shouldered some blame.

“You could probably argue we could have called him off the catch, any one of the three of us. But, I guess at the end of the day we’re trained to understand that if the keeper decides he wants it, it’s his ball...and he’s allowed to make mistakes, too.”

Andrew Cornaga/Photosport Martin Guptill takes a catch to dismiss Bangladesh’s Litton Das in Christchurch on Wednesday.

Southee, who has arguably the safest hands in the team, put down Shanto at mid-on a little later, before sub-fielder Blair Ticker leaked four runs through a misfield, and put down Al Hasan.

None of the gaffes cost the Black Caps, unlike the chance Phillips put down against Pakistan last Saturday, when he hashed the regulation chance captain Babar Azam offered at cover.

On 27 at the time, Azam went on to plunder a match-winning 79 from 53 in the Black Caps’ only defeat of the series

The following day, Jimmy Neesham and Adam Milne coughed up chances they’d be expected to swallow against Bangladesh.

“Absolutely,” Phillips said of the mistakes being better timed now, rather than across the ditch when more is at stake.

“When you've got momentum going your way things like big one-handers will be sticking. But, at the moment, we've got to try and combat the momentum one way or the other.

“We're just coming at it as hot as possible. If we're going for those 50-50 balls carrying on going forward, I think we'll put ourselves in good stead to be able to take those opportunities as the World Cup comes. It's not a perfect scenario at the moment, and no one is trying to drop catches or misfield.”

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