McCullum rues New Zealand's running meltdown

New Zealand were guilty of cracking under the pressure created by the Sri Lanka fielders, Brendon McCullum said, after four run-outs in New Zealand's innings prevented his side from posting a competitive total. Daniel Vettori, Luke Ronchi, Corey Anderson and Nathan McCullum were all run out between the 33rd and 45th overs of the innings, as New Zealand slipped from 158 for 2 to 208 for 8.

McCullum himself had almost been run out, but after he was dismissed, his team-mates failed to capitalise on the foundation laid by his 117 from 99 balls. They finished on 248.

"For some reason the pressure from run-outs does start to compound after a while, and we see some guys who are very good runners between wickets make some pretty ordinary mistakes," McCullum said. "Once you start getting run out we weren't able to start establishing partnerships, and we weren't able to get that 290-300 score which the wicket deserved."

Of those involved in the run-outs, Vettori, Ross Taylor and Nathan McCullum comprise three of the most experienced men in the XI, which made the dismissals even harder to fathom, Brendon McCullum said. "Three of them were the oldest fellers in the team as well, which I mentioned to them at half time. There was talk of who was going to be heading in what vans tomorrow to Auckland, and we reckon some of those guys will be running there.

"It's just pressure. We've been on the other side of that coin as well, when you can prey on it as a fielding team. You saw the way the Sri Lankans went from being reasonably disinterested at that point, to being the best fielding team in the world for a 15-20 over period. We let that happen. Sri Lanka started bringing their fielders in, they started getting a lot tighter, and were making a lot more noise in the field. Every run became a lot more difficult to judge."

McCullum said that while losing four batsmen to run-outs was frustrating, there was little New Zealand could do but put that period of the match out of their minds. "It's something you can't practice at training. It's a craft thing that develops when you play the game for a period of time. You can't replicate that environment or that competitiveness.

"We're normally a good team with running between the wickets. It's just like when you drop catches sometimes, it doesn't make you a bad fielding team - it's just a bad night out. I don't think we'll have four run-outs again in this series, that's for sure."

McCullum also backed Ross Taylor to regain his touch, despite poor outings so far in the tour. Taylor made modest contributions in the Test matches, and his 34 in Hamilton came from 69 balls.

"He had the last game off, and it can be difficult when you come on a slow wicket and you're trying to find your rhythm a little bit," McCullum said. "Ross just had one of those games. He's been outstanding for us in the last little while, and he's also had a little bit of a cold and flu as well, and sometimes that can affect people. He's had some time in the middle, so he'll be better for the run, and I'm sure he'll get back to the Ross that we know in the next game."

Adam Milne came in for some punishment with the ball, particularly from Tillakaratne Dilshan, who clubbed him for 54 runs off 32 balls. Milne conceded 61 runs from his eight overs in all, though he did also take the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara.

"He's one of those bowlers, a little like Mitchell McClenaghan, with whom you can sort of cope with that," McCullum said of Milne's economy rate. "You're asking him to take wickets. If the wickets don't come and you've got a good player like that on a good wicket, with a below-par total, where you have to over-attack to get yourself in the game, he's going to go around the park occasionally. I'm not too upset about that. He still kept running in hard. He still kept attacking and tried to take wickets. The batting group has to make sure we get enough runs for those guys to have an impact on the game."