‘McCullum’s wicket turned the game’

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New Zealand’s woes with the bat continued on Sunday when they slumped to an innings defeat against India. Despite batting better, New Zealand only bettered their first innings performance by four runs.

“Yeah, it’s disappointing to lose the way we did. To get bowled out for around 160 in both the innings was upsetting. But we have three or four days to get our act together for the next match,” skipper Ross Taylor said.
“We will be looking at the mistakes we made here and make sure we don’t repeat them in Bengaluru.”
Taylor however said they had a few things going in their favour in the match. “Trent Boult played really well, as did McCullum in the second innings. It’s a two-match series, so we still have a chance to draw level.”
The Kiwi captain had words of praise for spinners R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, who accounted for a whopping 18 wickets in the match.
“Ashwin and Ojha bowled extremely well. They were also helped by the fields set by their captain. When you’ve got a team following on and with a huge total on the board, a captain can afford to set attacking fields.”
Taylor admitted the wicket of Brendon McCullum, who stitched a handy partnership with Kane Wiliamson, was a turning point.
“Well, yeah. He had been really playing well at that point. It was unfortunate he was given out LBW despite getting an inside edge, but there’s no DRS and the umpires are human and make mistakes,” said Taylor with a shrug.
Asked whether the ICC should make the DRS compulsory for all teams so as to ensure the same rules apply for all, Taylor’s reply was profound in its brevity. “You must ask Dhoni about that.”