Indian spinner R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha scalped eighteen wickets between them in the first Test in Hyderabad and proved to be a thorn in New Zealand’s flesh during the course of the four days the Test lasted.
The duo might continue to hound the Kiwis when the teams meet for the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy stadium from Friday given the pitch’s history in assisting spinners.
New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor was wary of Ashwin and Ojha but said that the young team was working on how to handle the two.
“It’s never easy when you lose a Test by over an innings,” said Taylor referring to Hyderabad drubbing. “We need to forget about it as quickly as possible. We’ve spoken amongst the group and we are finding ways of playing Ashwin and Ojha.
We have to be brave and courageous and attack them. Hopefully, we can put the pressure back on them. When we attack them, there hopefully won’t be many men around the bat, and that reduces the pressure on our batsmen,” explained the 28-year-old, adding there won’t be any changes to the side for the final Test.
“We’re still in the series. We have not won many Tests in India but we need to be brave
and courageous in the way we go into this Test. We have nothing to lose,” Taylor emphasised.
Taylor hoped that the greenish tinge would remain but insisted that the team was not going to get carried away by what they have seen until now.
“I think it’s still too early to gauge the pitch. It is quite hard from what we have seen so far. The wicket in Hyderabad felt quite hard as well, but it was just the first two centimeters, underneath which felt soft. There has been a lot of rain here so we’ll have to wait and see how much sun it (the pitch) gets. But there is always a bit of bounce and turn here. Looking at the honours board upstairs, there aren’t many people who have scored runs in September,” Taylor added in jest.
Further explaining, Taylor said: We’ll have to wait and see tomorrow. A couple of hours of sun will brown the grass off. It might be overcast for a couple of hours as well so the groundsmen may take off a little bit of grass. I don’t want to get too carried away until I see the pitch tomorrow.”
Ind-NZ stats in Bangalore
* Played: 2
* Year: Nov 12-17, 1988 and Oct 18-20, 1995.
* Result: India won both the matches by 172 runs and 8 wickets respectively.
* Highest Total: India: 384/9 decl in 142 overs. New Zealand: 233 all out in 73.2 overs.
* Lowest Total: India: 141/1 declared in 28 overs. NZ: 145 all out in 64 overs.
* Highest Individual score: India: Navjot Singh Sidhu: 116. NZ: John Wright: 58.
* Best bowling in an innings: India: N Hirwani: 6/59. NZ: Richard Hadlee: 5/65.