Jeetan Patel lashes out at under-cooked pitch

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Friday was a bitter-sweet day for New Zealand. While their bowling performed much better than they had yesterday, their batsmen collapsed in a heap to leave the team in plenty of trouble at the end of the second day.

“We bowled pretty well to take the last five wickets while giving away just over 130 runs,” said Kiwi off-spinner Jeetan Patel, who scalped 4 for 100.

But 438 is a pretty big score. “We gave away too many runs yesterday and it was disappointing to lose so many wickets so early. India bowled some good balls to get those wickets.”

Patel reckons the pitch played a major role on the second day, which saw a total of 10 wickets go down for 237 runs. “The pitch changed slightly since yesterday.

The bounce is lower than it was and there’s a little bit of turn, probably a bit earlier than expected, but such is the nature of an under-prepared wicket.”

Patel can be reasonably happy with his performance, especially as the last time he turned out in cricketing whites for his country was in November last year.

“It feels good to have performed in my comeback Test. I’m glad I’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to represent my country,” the offie said. When New Zealand started their innings, all the damage was caused by the spin duo of R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha.

Patel admitted that while he too would have liked to strike up a bowling partnership with another spinner, he did combine well with the pacers.

“I certainly would have liked to have another spinner bowling in tandem with me, but the other bowlers did really well. I probably wouldn’t have gotten as many wickets as I have if they hadn’t bowled as well as they did,” said Patel.