Champions Trophy final: New Zealand camp deflect Varun threat

The Varun Chakravarthy factor may be weighing on the New Zealand camp ahead of their ICC Champions Trophy final in Dubai on Sunday, but their wily head coach Gary Stead chose to deflect the pressure. He admitted Chakravarthy to be a ‘big threat’ after the mystery spinner claimed a fifer during their league game and it will be up to the Chennai boy to live up to the expectations.  

“We certainly expect him to play after getting 5/42 against us in the last game. He’s a class bowler and showed his skills against us last time and he’s a big threat in the game,” Stead told the media at the team hotel on Friday. “So we’ll be putting our thinking caps on around how we nullify that and how we can still score runs against him,” he added.

The Black Caps touched down in Dubai on Thursday after running roughshod over South Africa in Lahore the day before. They will take heart from their top order’s form with twin-centuries by the classy Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra against South Africa, both being adept players of spin.

While it was the 15th ODI ton by the former captain and underlined his return to form in last few games, Rachin has established himself as a part of elite club to have scored more than a century in a single edition of the event.

There is a buzz in the wake of Steve Smith’s ODI retirement that Williamson, now 34, may also shut the door on this format though Stead refused to comment on such a possibility. ‘’He (Kane) is a special player to us. He rises to the big occasion and is an  unique individual who can adapt himself according the conditions,’’ he said.

While a lot has been said in recent times about India deriving an ‘unfair advantage’ by staying in a single venue of Dubai, the Kiwis saw little logic in harping on it. “The decision around that’s (the schedule) out of our hands, so it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai, but we have had a game here and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience.

New Zealand had to shuttle between Pakistan and Dubai for their final group stage match, the semi-final against South Africa and eventually for the final in Dubai. Stead admitted it was a bit 'hectic' but said his side was good enough to adjust to such schedules.

“There’s no doubt that coming here off playing Lahore and we had a full day of travel yesterday, then it just takes it out of you a little bit, but we've got a couple of days now of a little bit of recovery and planning and training towards the game.’’

 Stead believes that it is more about co-ordination of mind and body rather than excessive training ahead of such a big game. “When you come to this stage of the tournament, I mean, we’ve had eight teams at the start, we’re down to two now. It’s always exciting to be in this situation and from our perspective, it just comes to a one-off game now and if we're good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I will be happy,” he explained.

(With inputs from PTI)