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Mohali: If coach Mickey Arthur’s demand for a self-assessment of the players in the lead-up to the Mohali Test was simple, Ed Cowan’s answer to that was even simpler.
After enjoying a pretty successful day, Cowan revealed that the most important point that he made in front of Arthur was his desire to “bat as long as possible.”
“What I said to Mickey was that I want to be accountable to bat for a long period of time and I put a figure on that, but that is between Mickey and me. That is what I wanted to be held to and I wanted to be held to a few other team things as well. My personal accountability is to bat a long time,” Cowan said at the end of the day media conference.
So then has he succeeded in achieving what he wanted after spending 295 minutes at the crease? “No, I won’t say that I succeeded completely. But I think I did play a part in the team’s cause,” Cowan replied.
But with edges flying unattended past the slip cordon and Chesteshwar Pujara dropping a lollypop at silly point, Cowan had luck by his side. And there’s no harm in it, feels the left-handed batsman.
“I wouldn’t say that the credit to my innings goes to the Indians’ let offs… You need a bit of luck to score runs in these conditions. I didn’t have much luck in the first two Tests, so there’s no harm if I got a little lucky today,” Cowan reasoned.
On being asked about the nature of the pitch, he said: “It’s similar to the one in Hyderabad… With no grass and lots of cracks. Batting was not easy as anything that lands on the cracks can deviate either way. A bit of reverse swing was also there. It’s like, if you bowl well, it is hard to score and if you get set, it’s hard to get you out.”
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