Poor shot selection hurt India on the opening day of the second Test against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, and top-scorer of the innings, Hanuma Vihari, admitted as much.
As a result of some reckless batting, India’s first innings ended on 242 despite there being three half-centurions. Prithvi Shaw (54) and Cheteshwar Pujara (54) hit contrasting half-centuries to take the fight to the rival camp.
However, Vihari’s (55 off 70 balls) dismissal at the stroke of tea tilted the scale in New Zealand’s favour as they gained a clear upper-hand by stumps.
Kyle Jamieson (5/45) in an inspired post-tea spell blew away the middle and lower-order to finish with his maiden five-wicket haul in only his second Test. The hosts ended the day at 63 for no loss with both the Toms — Latham (27 batting) and Blundell (29 batting) — hardly troubled by the Indian pacers.
Vihari said he wanted to attack so that Pujara could play his natural game.
“The pitch didn’t do as much as we expected. They bowled in good areas and knew what to expect from this track. Prithvi set the tone, Pujara spent time. All dismissals happened at wrong times. None of the dismissals were because of the pitch. Mostly it was because of batsmen’s error. The pitch was fair,” the middle-order batsman said.
Vihari looked in command while playing the short ball and he said leaving them would have also hampered Pujara’s natural game. Both of them playing a defensive game in the first Test in Wellington cost India dearly.
“As Pujara was playing at one end, I wanted to take the lead and play positively, because he is a player who will play for a lot of time. We know that.
“So I didn’t want to take time and put pressure on Pujara or on our innings because if you don’t keep the scoreboard moving, you will get stuck like in the last game,” Vihari explained.
He, however, regretted getting out at the wrong time as his dismissal triggered a collapse in the final session.
“To get out just before tea, it was the wrong time… we had a good session. We scored 110 runs and lost only one wicket prior to that. I was batting positively but I played one shot too many.”
Vihari clarified that going after the short ball was his personal decision. “As a team we wanted to show more intent. The wicket was much better here and it was a personal decision to put the short ball away and put pressure on them.
“It didn’t go our way on a couple of occasions. I am sure when we get the opportunity again we can do it.”
Vihari also predicted that the pitch would flatten out eventually. “I played an India ‘A ‘game here and that’s what I was communicating to my teammates, that it doesn’t do much after the first session and it really flattens out after that. “It will slow down on day three and four. It’s a fair wicket,” he assessed.
Lauding Jamieson for his five-wicket haul, Vihari said it was well deserved. “He will get much more bounce than the other bowlers and that extra bounce is a factor on these kind of pitches where it is bouncy and much more spongy.”
