JOIN US“We want to reflect on the positives and where we've been in terms of the tour of Bangladesh,” the Kiwi skipper said. “We're happy with that and content, but not satisfied that we couldn't finish the job. There were a lot of factors for that – the wicket, the bowlers not being able to penetrate on the last day and the fact that we had very limited resources.
The key for us is to now take the same performance to Hyderabad. “We talked long and hard this morning about how the first session was the key,” Vettori added. “We had to take early wickets and we had to do that through some discipline. I thought we were disciplined, but we just didn't have the penetration we needed. Chris Martin said he couldn't feel his legs in the second session. He was hanging in there. On that fifth day, you want a couple of guys to have short, sharp spells. Unfortunately, the nature of that wicket and our limited resources didn't allow us to.”
Wholesome in his praise of Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman, Vettori remarked, “Harbhajan played exceptionally well. He's a good attacking batsman and he knows his areas. Some of the shots he played were outstanding and put us back under pressure. Laxman and Harbhajan put a wall up against anything the wicket threw at them. The key in those situations for batsmen like Harbhajan is not to become defensive. He played his natural game and that put the pressure back on us. If he'd blocked it, we could have attacked more. But he played so well and so aggressive that he took the game away from us.”