Photo Credit: BCCI
New Zealand’s bowlers stuck to their task in restricting India’s batsmen after an even first day of the ICC World Test Championship Final according to right-arm quick Kyle Jamieson.
The 26-year-old was particularly miserly, taking 1/14 from 14 overs as India finished the day on 146/3 from 64.4 overs.
Jamieson had broken a promising opening partnership between Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, the pair adding 62, and was generally satisfied with the performance of the Kiwi bowlers on a day that was disrupted by bad light.
He said: “It’s probably pretty even at the moment. It was a pretty good day of Test cricket. The disruptions didn’t help some of the momentum we were trying to get and that we had at periods of time.
“They played really well, they put away the bad balls when they were there and they were really patient outside off. Our plan was to stick around there and credit to them, they played pretty well. But I think we were able to keep things relatively restricted and grabbed three important wickets as well.
“It’s obviously pretty crucial to try to keep the ball in reasonable areas for long periods and those runs are there, but it was just good to halt the momentum a little bit. How we did that as a bowling unit throughout the day after they started pretty well, was pleasing and it kept things in the balance very nicely.
“We know they are a quality line-up from one to 11 and there is a reason why they have been one of the top teams in the world for a very long time. For us, as a unit, it was about keeping the ball in the right areas for long periods and I think we were able to do that for the most part today. We’ll certainly take a lot of confidence out of that moving into tomorrow.”
After the opening stand of 62, India lost three wickets for 26 runs before a second important partnership of the innings from Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, the pair ending the day unbeaten on 44 and 29 respectively in an unbroken stand of 58.
India batting coach Vikram Rathour was pleased with the way his team kept plugging away after being put into bat in difficult conditions.
He said: “A lot of discipline was shown today but there was a lot of intent to score runs as well. So it’s a reasonable day that we had overall.
“(Kohli and Rahane) batted well, I would give a lot of credit to Rohit and Gill as well because they started off really well. They were challenging conditions when we started. It was a fresh wicket, we lost the toss and it was overcast all day, so credit to all the batters. They showed a lot of restraint and a lot of discipline. We handled it pretty well.
“We need to be looking to score runs wherever we can, if you get a loose ball, you need to make it count. I think we could see that throughout the day, although we showed a lot of discipline, I think we looked to score runs whenever there was an opportunity and that was good to see.”
