Kolkata: Heaping praise on their “outstanding” bowling effort, New Zealand pacer Matt Henry today said that the key was to arrest India’s run rate on day one of the second Test at the Eden Gardens. India’s batting line-up failed to recover from the early blows dealt by New Zealand’s concerted bowling effort and wobbled to 239 for seven on day one of the second Test. “The way we went about our work today was outstanding. We knew we had to make sure we controlled the run-rate because it is very tough in these conditions to take wickets,” Henry, who was the top wicket-taker for the New Zealand with 3 for 35, told the post-match news conference.
That the wicket was under cover for a long time gave New Zealand a slight advantage after India skipper Virat Kohli opted to bat upon winning the toss. “We knew it was important with the new ball to take advantage of it because the wicket had been under covers for a long time. So that was going to be a crucial part of the game. “Obviously coming over here you probably don’t expect conditions like that at the start of the day, so we knew we had to make the most of that, especially being put in with the ball. It was always going to be tough work through that middle period when it would become a good surface,” he explained.
“We had to find ways to put pressure on when we weren’t taking wickets and as a bowling group that is a box we ticked today,” the 24-year-old said. A disciplined New Zealand impressed on a hot and humid day, with only Cheteshwar Pujara (87) and Ajinkya Rahane (77) spending some time in the middle. Henry said the key would be to maintain the tight bowling partnerships tomorrow as well. “We have to make sure that we create pressure by building dots. Our spinners were outstanding today. Jeetan (Patel) and (Mitchell) Santer were fantastic in allowing us to build a lot of pressure and that manifested to what happened at the end of the day.
That first hour on Saturday is crucial. “We just have to keep applying our work and still be patient and do our jobs. It is going to be an important session for how the game unfolds,” said Henry. The Kiwis had a fine start as they knocked off three top batsmen by the first 50 minutes including Kohli, whose rare lean patch continued as he got out to a reckless shot way outside the offstump. Asked about the plan to get the best Indian batsman out, Henry said: “He is obviously a world-class player and you have to very patient with those kind of guys.
Every bowler has an individual plan of how he will skin the cat and the way Boult bowled to him was fantastic and he eventually got the result. “It was important to make them play. It wasn’t really rocket science. It’s the same thing at home, new ball offering a bit of bounce you’ve got to make sure if you miss you miss full so we are getting them driving and hitting in the areas we want them to hit.”