NEW ZEALAND TOUR OF INDIA, 2017

We were under pressure from the word go: Williamson

by Kritika Naidu • Published on

Kane Williamson admitted that New Zealand's fielding let the team down in the first T20I © AFP

Mitchell Santner had bowled a brilliant opening over at the Feroz Shah Kotla, conceding just the two runs after New Zealand won the toss and opted to field. Trent Boult then charged in from the other end and bowled one short and wide that tempted Shikhar Dhawan to go after it. Dhawan cut, but it flew straight to Santner at cover point at head height. He got both hands to it but couldn't hold on; it was a chance that should have been taken. Dhawan went on to make his highest T20I score thereafter as he was dismissed in the 17th over for a 52-ball 80. Rohit too was dropped by Tim Southee and marched along to score 80 as New Zealand were deflated.

New Zealand, a team that prides themselves on their fielding - and it being one of their stronger suits in the shortest version of the game - were disappointing to say the least. One drop turned into three for the night and a lot of misfields let to leakage of runs and brought the morale of the side down, which the Indian batsmen took full advantage of. Dew would have been a factor that was taken into consideration before opting to chase but it couldn't have been an excuse. At least not for Kane Williamson.

"The conditions are tough to prepare for exactly but given the experience within our side, we're certainly not using that as an excuse," said a disappointed Williamson on Wednesday (November 1). "Most of the time when you come here and play in the evening, there's dew as there is on a number of other grounds that guys have played at. Not going to sugarcoat it but we were below par and came up against what is a very good Indian side that played very well in all the areas.

"Like I mentioned, we were outplayed in all the areas, fielding included, which is something we pride ourselves on and something we need to be much better at in Twenty20 cricket. That made the difference as we saw today that proved to be vital in a lot of ways. Guys went on to score big scores for their side in the Indian team and 200 on that surface was a very big total," he conceded.

When New Zealand came out to bat, Ashish Nehra was given to bowl the opening over. In a similar move to what New Zealand had adopted, Yuzvendra Chahal was brought in from the other end. The difference between the sides on the night lay right there. Off the third ball of Chahal's over, Martin Guptill went after a lofted delivery which soared up. But Hardik Pandya, running across from long off, made good ground and plucked out a stunner full stretch. Fellow opener Colin Munro fell two overs later and from there on, New Zealand were already playing catch-up.

"We were under pressure pretty much from the word go. Losing early wickets puts you on the backfoot and on the surface, there it was stopping and turning. Trying to accelerate the run rate when you are under pressure is not an easy task. That was the nature of the batting innings. We were never able to get momentum in our batting against them to try and get close to the total. Every time we attempted to increase the run rate, we lost wickets. A lot of it is our fault and then India bowled very well as well so the combination of that certainly didn't allow us to get close to the total."

While the Indian spinners applied the brakes on New Zealand's scoring with four wickets and not many runs conceded, the pacers were a tad expensive in comparison with Jasprit Bumrah going for 9.25 an over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 7.67 in his three and Nehra 7.25. New Zealand's pacers, meanwhile, had a forgettable day in the office with Trent Boult being taken for 12.25, Tim Southee for 11 and Colin de Grandhomme for 11.33. Their spinners were economical but being contained for eight overs in twenty wasn't enough as India zoomed through to 202 - their highest against New Zealand in T20Is.

"They're both very good bowlers (Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar). Because they got off to a good start, we were on the backfoot. The surface was seaming around, offering a bit to the seamers, but we had to have a defensive approach to try and combat their aggression because they were putting us under pressure. I guess the other side of that coin is when the bowling side is on top and they're able to hit the wicket and use the surface like we saw Bumrah and the others in their bowling attack, which was very difficult. That's Twenty20 cricket. You do need to be aggressive to try and take on bowlers and we've seen Bhuvi and Bumrah throughout not just the one-dayers, but for a long time in the IPL. I've been fortunate to play with Bhuvi and against Bumrah and they're the most consistent bowlers in world cricket.

"It's also sort of the nature of T20 cricket. It's such an aggressive format that no matter who you are, you can go for a few runs. It is fickle in terms of the results and how guys approach it. Batters need to be aggressive. If they come off, then the bowler sort of loses it like we saw tonight. India batted very, very well and put our bowlers under pressure. But both of those bowlers (Boult and Southee), as we know, are very good operators and will look to make amends going into the next game. Not just them, all of us want to be better in all three areas of the game," Williamson concluded.

© Cricbuzz

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