"It's really important to make it 4-0," captain Brendon McCullum said, shortly after wrapping up the series. "That's what we will strive for," he added, looking forward to the fifth and final ODI in Wellington.
"But we won't let the opportunity to really enjoy what we have achieved pass us by either. I think it's a hell of an achievement, what we have done tonight. We will worry about the next couple of days tomorrow when we wake up. We are obviously delighted at the moment," he said.
The Kiwi skipper, who hit form with a belligerent 49, is more than happy with the way the last 13 months have turned out. "We are proud of what we achieved in South Africa and England, in the one-dayers. But this one is big. They were the No. 1 team when they arrived here and their batting lineup was so dominant. To have tipped them up and sitting after the fourth game at 3-0 is a pretty good achievement for us."
Explaining the key to the series' win, he pointed out how they managed to reach a position of dominance. "Kane and Ross... the way they played throughout the series has helped us get to the 35-over mark in a top position.
Sometimes, we may not have capitalized. But the way we played to get to that point has been high class. They are allowing us as a group to set big totals when batting first and, as we saw tonight, chase down a big total in tough conditions."
Man of the match Ross Taylor felt that the key was to get through the initial overs bowled by the spinners without too much damage. "I don't think we laid a bat on ball in those first couple of overs. In the past, it has never turned so much and you just lunge on the front foot. So we tried to play off the back foot as much a possible and play into the gaps. Kane is a very good player of spin and we knew that if we could negate them, we could put pressure on their fifth and sixth bowlers. That's what we did. Jadeja bowled very well. On another day, he could have got a couple of wickets," he declared.
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