Chennai, Sep 11: The Black Caps are a happy lot after registering a T20I win against India ahead of the 2012 ICC World T20. The Kiwis held their nerve and fought tooth and nail to beat India by one run at Chepauk today.
In a brief chat with bcci.tv New Zealand opener, Martin Guptill, reflected on today’s match and lauded the efforts of his teammates, Brendon McCullum and James Franklin. He also spoke about the importance of keeping up this winning momentum going into the ICC World T20 in Sri Lanka.
Excerpts:
On how it felt after winning a match after the whitewash in the Test series
Yes, absolutely it felt good. The boys played pretty well tonight and we fought right down to the last ball and it was close game in the end.
On whether they felt that they were a few runs short when Virat Kohli and co were at the crease
No, not really. It was a good batting wicket if you got your eye in. Brendon [McCullum] played a fantastic innings for us and then Virat played very well for India as well. You have to give yourself time to get in and you will score runs.
On what was discussed when James Franklin came to bowl the last over to two set batsmen in Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni
I am not quite sure as I don’t talk about bowling plans and all that, but James bowled very well and he took Yuvraj’s wicket. If Yuvraj would have stayed, it could have been a different game; but James bowled very well.
On his batting form
I am feeling good at the moment. I had a great training yesterday. Today was an unlucky day. But it is the kind of game whether you score runs or not, especially in the Twenty20 format. So, I am not going to take it too hard and come out firing in Sri Lanka [during the ICC World T20].
On winning a game ahead of the ICC World T20
It is good to have a bit of momentum going into the Twenty20 World Cup and the guys are doing great at the momentum. So we just got to keep that up and keep being happy with the way we are playing. And if we can do that, we are going to do well in Sri Lanka.
