New Zealand all-rounder Brooke Halliday said getting accustomed to the heat is the top takeaway from the three-match ODI series against India in Ahmedabad last October and her ongoing two-week training stint at the Chennai Super Kings High Performance Centre (HPC) here.
Halliday is part of ten New Zealand women players training here in preparation for the upcoming women’s ODI World Cup (September 30 to November 2) in India and Sri Lanka.
“It’s really hot over here. It’s probably the biggest thing—the biggest adjustment coming from New Zealand is probably that heat and how you deal with that, both from a batting and a bowling point of view.
“If we’re in New Zealand right now, it’s probably around 10 degrees. And here it’s very hot. So, just being here for two weeks, I’m sure the body is going to appreciate that kind of adjustment to the heat. And hopefully, it means that again when we come back in October, that period of adjusting won’t be as long,” she said at the CSK HPC ground on Saturday.
FILE PHOTO: Halliday finished as the top run-getter in the ODI series in Ahmedabad last October, scoring 133 runs across three matches.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI/ The Hindu
FILE PHOTO: Halliday finished as the top run-getter in the ODI series in Ahmedabad last October, scoring 133 runs across three matches.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI/ The Hindu
“Then, the second part of it would just be the conditions. It’s amazing that you guys have so many different kinds of pitches. Just in the last seven days, I think we’ve kind of batted on four or five different kinds of pitches that do something slightly different.
“It means that when we come to India and play cricket, we have to learn how to adjust and adapt quickly. It’s just been quite cool to be able to come here now twice in twelve months,” she added.
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Halliday adapted to the conditions sufficiently for her to become the top run-getter in the ODI series last October. The left-hander scored 133 runs at 44.33 across the three matches.
Talking about the differences between playing spin in New Zealand and India, she said: “The biggest thing is the turn. You probably get a little bit more turn here, and then the second part is the slowness. New Zealand is probably a little bit more skiddier. It means that as a batter, you probably have to pick your shots and figure out what your game plan is, depending on which way it turns.”
The 29-year-old has been specifically focusing on batting against leg spin in training. “It’s trying to figure out how you want to play a certain spin and then take it into your game plan for the World Cup. So, for me, it might be with leg spin – figuring out how I want to exactly play leg spin. And it means that when we come to India, I won’t have to adapt as much, and I’ll just know exactly how I’m going to play,” she said.
