Loss hurts but proud of the boys: Taylor
First Published : 03 Sep 2012, 20:40
Last Modified : 03 Sep 2012, 21:53
Bengaluru, Sep 3: When Ross Taylor came to address the media after the Hyderabad Test, he was sombre and serious. The magnitude of the defeat had hurt him. However, even though he was attending the post-Test press conference as the losing captain in Bengaluru, the New Zealand skipper was in a light and jovial mood. He joked with the media members and spoke about his team with pride.
New Zealand put up an immensely improved performance in the second Test and ensured that India had to fight their way to a five-wicket victory. The batsmen stood up more confidently against the Indian spinners and the bowlers, led by Tim Southee, gave the Indian batsmen a run for their money.
Taylor said he was excited about his young bunch of fast bowlers and also praised off-spinner Jeetan Patel for his ability to get better with each match.
Excerpts:
On the moment that took the Test away from New Zealand
There were a lot of moments during the game. If we’re brutally honest, we would have liked to score a few more runs in the first innings to put pressure on India. We’d like to have restricted them to a few less. I wouldn’t put it down to just one little moment. It was just that we lost the Test match over time.
On the future of his young pace attack
It’s exciting for New Zealand cricket. We’ve got a young bowler in Adam Milne who’s turning up as well. Obviously, we play half our games away – they won’t be as bouncy. But on bouncier wickets back home, I’m sure they’ll thrive.
On whether Jeetan Patel’s success in the fourth innings [he took 3/68] was because the Indian batsmen underestimated him
In the Indian side they have only two quicks, so spinners have to bowl a lot of overs. In our side we have fast bowlers so, Jeetan doesn’t have to bowl as much, but I thought he’s improving as a spinner. Spinners get better with age and he’s certainly shown that. I thought he bowled some good balls. He didn’t have that much luck. If a little bit of luck went his way, he could have had even better figures. Going forward, we’ve got a tour to Sri Lanka coming up and I look forward to seeing him there. Hopefully, he can have a big part in that tour as well.
On whether the team felt more at home on this track after coming from Hyderabad
It didn’t spin as much as it did in Hyderabad. We were disappointed with the way we played in Hyderabad. We wanted to show some fight and courage. I thought the effort from the team was outstanding in this match, but obviously still disappointed in the loss. It still hurts, but still proud of the team.
On his decision to take Patel off the attack soon after he picked two wickets
The ball was still swinging, We knew that MS Dhoni likes to play spin and we wanted to take it off from him and bowl it quick. That’s a punt you take. He played and missed a few; we could have picked him up and it would have been a different story. That was the decision that I made and you go with hunches every now and then – sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
On whether this was an important performance to restore credibility
The last match was a heavy loss. In Jamaica, they had to score a record chase to win, so I wouldn’t say that wasn’t a hard win. We had a good sniff – we just lost it in one session in Jamaica and Antigua. And here, India had to get, I think, their fourth or fifth highest run chase ever. We tried our best.
On Virat Kohli’s rise as a batsman
I’ve always followed Kohli’s progress with interest. He was young when he joined RCB and he asked a lot of questions and you could see that he wanted to be a world-class player. The biggest thing I see in him is he’s very confident and very patient. I do enjoy looking at different websites and seeing him score a lot of runs over time. He can score a lot of runs against other teams – just maybe next time not score that many against us!
On whether the bowlers lacked intensity after having India five down
I’m not sure. The bowlers tried their heart out. They bowled a lot of overs in a short period of time. You have to give credit to Kohli and Dhoni, they batted very well.
On whether being dropped from this Test suggests that Chris Martin’s career is all but over
No, I think with young fast bowlers, they need someone to learn off. There’s going to be times in the next few months where Chris will play and there’ll be times when he might not play at all. But we need someone for these young fast bowlers to learn off. He’s a very experienced person and he’s willing to give his time. He knows where he stands in the team. We have a tour to Sri Lanka coming up but also a tour to South Africa and in New Zealand where we could go in with four quicks. So he’s still got a part to play with New Zealand cricket.
