Chennai, Dec. 10: Reading wickets can be a tricky business but the strip on which New Zealand succumbed to their lowest ODI score against India was not unplayable by any stretch of imagination. It did not take great cricketing acumen to figure that this particular pitch would turn and only if Daniel Vettori had given his side second use of the track, they would have found themselves batting on a more settled surface.
“Things did not go well for us from the start. The pitch did deteriorate a bit and we failed to build partnerships and were left to bat without a clue,” admitted Vettori after the eight-wicket defeat here on Friday. “It was a tough pitch but we should have scored more than what we finally ended up with. Our batsmen never got starts,” said Vettori.
There was not one batsman who fell to an awkwardly rising or turning delivery. Committing to the front foot or playing back to a fullish length was not the ideal way to tackle the spinners. “It was a turning track without doubt and the first time they got to see one on this tour. It was also an excellent effort from our bowlers,” said India skipper Gautam Gambhir.
The track was not a batsmen’s paradise but New Zealand clearly lacked the application to fight it out. The last seven wickets went down for 32 runs, though Scott Styris and Jamie How did show that scoring at four runs per over was possible.