BJ Watling got a real taste of batting in Test cricket as he piled on runs for New Zealand and agony on India with his captain, Brendon McCullum. The duo put record-breaking 325 runs for the sixth wicket to rescue New Zealand from a precarious 94 for 5 to a dominating 571 for 6 at the end of the fourth day at Basin Reserve.
Watling, who contributed 124, described the marathon effort as a grind he was proud of. "It was just a grind,” he said. “We just took each ball at a time, each over at a time, each hour at a time.
"Each session was just about starting again and keeping the partnership going and trying to get as many runs and take as much time out of the game as possible.
"They came at us hard and we weathered the storm and then got a few runs away and just kept trying to take them as deep as we could. Definitely proud of the way we went about things today," Watling said.
As the Kiwis enjoyed a highly productive day, the Indians were a tired bunch, having spent 189 overs in the field. Opener, Shikhar Dhawan, admitted it was a rather long day on the field for him and his mates.
"The first two days we dominated the match and today it was a totally different day," he said "It was a long day for all of us. We came with the mindset we were going to get them all out and chase whatever the target but it didn't go our way. McCullum and the other batsmen batted beautifully. We have to take it in our stride and be ready for tomorrow."
New Zealand’s lead has already swelled to 325 with four wickets in hand. But Dhawan hasn’t given up hopes of a series-drawing win.
"The wicket has improved, it got a bit slower and of course we're going to bat tomorrow,” he said. “They're going to put us in to bat and tomorrow morning we will (look) forward to getting them out and then whatever the target is, we will play accordingly and according to the situation."
