World Cup-winning coach Darren Lehmann has defended wicketkeeper Brad Haddin's behaviour against New Zealand in the World Cup final last Sunday and admitted Australia planned a "really aggressive" approach to the match.
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Haddin has come under scrutiny for his actions in the final, including vocal and demonstrative behaviour after taking wickets. New Zealand's Martin Guptill, Grant Elliott and Dan Vettori each received send-offs, with Haddin involved in confrontations with Guptill and Elliott.
Haddin previously said the Aussies targeted the Kiwis for being too "nice".
"They were that nice to us in New Zealand and we were that uncomfortable," Haddin told Triple M on Monday.
"I said in the team meeting: 'I can't stand for this any more. We're going at them as hard as we can.'"
Speaking to radio station 5AA, Lehmann said the aggressive tactics were used to throw New Zealand off and noted the lack of ICC code of conduct reports from the match.
"He's [Haddin] copped a bit, hasn't he?" Lehmann said.
"We like to play our game, no-one got reported out of the game, so we must have played it fair. It was a little bit disappointing, but people are entitled to their opinions and you're going to have good and bad times.
"You accept that and you move on.
"We're happy with the way we played obviously. We knew we wanted to be really aggressive against them, and look, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
"You're supposed to enjoy it, enjoy it in the right way and look after yourself and look after everyone else, that's the main thing. Everyone's entitled to their opinions."
Fairfax Media