New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lauded the efforts of his bowlers after they were able to defend 242 and level the five-match series against India in New Delhi on Thursday.
Tim Southee picked up three wickets for the visitors, but the best bowling performance surely came from Trent Boult, who ended with figures of 2/25 from his 10 overs.
“We were able to pick up wickets, some of which were quite fortunate. Creating a bit of pressure on that sort of surface was the key. Boult led from the front. I think the bowling was huge for us,” Williamson said.
“Probably, we were below par but knew that on this surface we had enough to put on a squeeze. It wasn’t easy with the dew, but the left-arm spinners did a good job. There wasn’t much turn as well, but they were great for us. They (spinners) allowed the seamers to be the aggressors. Seam bowling was tough to face on that surface.”
I must confess I didn't think New Zealand would defend a gettable score so well
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 20, 2016
The 26-year-old was named the man-of-the-match after scoring a century earlier on in the day. He mentioned that the Kotla wicket wasn’t the easiest to bat on, especially at the start of an innings.
“(I) just want to contribute to the team’s performance whether it’s less than a hundred or not. At times, there was frustration. It was a good surface, but it was tough to increase the scoring and tough to start,” said Williamson.
On the other hand, Indian captain MS Dhoni felt the failure of the Indian batsmen to get big scores individually was the key reason behind the loss.
“This was one game where we kept losing wickets. That was something that hurt us. It wasn’t the run-rate which pushed us to play big shots. It’s a day when any of the batsmen could go on and say that ‘it could have been me’. It’s very crucial when you’re chasing that you play 50 overs,” Dhoni said.
