Brendon McCullum
Brendon McCullum talks about the disrupted days play, his form and Daniel Vettori leading from the front.
On losing 54 over with rain…
“It is disappointing but I thought we did really well to get into the position we are in and you cant do much about what happens overhead so there is still three days to go in the game and we have got a good sizeable first innings total so if we bowl well then hopefully we will give ourselves a real opportunity.”
On setting up for a win…
“I guess it all depends on how we bowl. A little bit of cloud cover wouldn’t go astray as well and we do get an opportunity, I think in the wickets, its pretty good its certainly does have a little bit in it if you do bend your back so we do have an opportunity there. We have obviously got to strike pretty early to give ourselves a real strong chance but we have got the bowlers to do it so hopefully we can.”
On batting tomorrow…
“I guess it sort of depends on what is happening overhead but I think the situation that we are in at the moment is pretty good position so we probably don’t want to waste too much more time.”
On his innings today…
“It would have been nice to have gone on and scored a hundred at my home ground but it wasn’t to be. I thought it was a pretty good ball that got me out and people are allowed to bowl good balls every now and then as well.
It was good in terms of the partnership we put together, I thought we were in a pretty dicey situation at 210/6 so to be able to combine in that sort of partnership and get our team through to four sessions was something that we aimed for at the start of the game and that we managed to do that was very satisfying.”
On his more watchful batting performance…
“Dan was scoring quick enough plus the fourth session responsibility. I guess that was very much in my mind but I just didn’t think it was the kind of wicket you couldn’t play too many cross bat shots as a right hander. It didn’t quite have that true bounce feel to it. I tried to adapt that sort of mentality of trying to play as straight as I could and whilst it wasn’t exactly entertaining but I guess it managed to get a score on the board for us.”
On partnership with Dan Vettori…
“It was a good partnership. I think Dan and I generally bat pretty well together. We run well which tends to put some pressure on the opposition as well and we can obviously turn over the strike pretty well so left hand-right hand combination. I guess the areas that we hit as well can be quite hard to defend against, so we do bounce off each other pretty well when we do get going.”
On the bowlers…
“I thought Umar Gul’s spell whilst he got the wicket just before lunch, was his best of the game. He certainly had a little bit more gas on and managed to get a little bit more bounce too so I thought that was a really good spell but we were thinking if we could get through to lunch, half an hour after lunch, then the bowlers would obviously be coming back into their fifth spell so they might be a little bit tired and we might be able to up the scoring then. But that wasn’t to be and obviously with the rain as well it probably freshened their boys up a bit too. The guy is a good bowler, he can bowl some pretty heavy balls and he certainly can be quite dangerous so I was pretty fortunate to get away still standing.”
On Vettori’s performance…
“He is happy with the position we are in. He is obviously happy with the contribution he has made but I guess he is disappointed to miss out on what would have been a brilliant test hundred. And also the fact that we came off two balls later obviously won’t please him too much but I haven’t had too much discussion with him so far since he has come in.”
On Vettori carrying a few injuries…
“He is courageous. He has obviously got a lot on his plate and he’s managing it incredibly well. I think his ability to separate each role, each job, his team responsibilities and his own responsibilities - I think he is doing it incredibly well. He is certainly leading from the front and not sure how his body is, I imagine it’s a bit battered and bruised but I did see he had said something the other day he is not quite fully fit but he is fit enough so its great from our perspective. He has that’s sort of attitude and desire to lead us in any situation.”
On recent speculation about his form…
“If you don’t get the performances then everyone is under the spotlight. I felt like I wasn’t hitting the ball particularly well but I was managing to get some good starts and I was never able to get that major contribution that you crave when you are struggling a little bit. I guess I came away and worked with some guys who I had worked with previously and who kept it really simple with me and just tried to get back to the absolute basics in my game, which is watching the ball and not predetermining and just use my feet and pick up the length quickly. Real basics that sometimes you miss when you are searching for that big score for your team and thankfully I had some people around me that knew the basic ways to get me back into the enjoyment of batting as well. I think it was becoming quite a tough period when I was out there batting. It certainly wasn’t the style of cricket that I liked playing but thankfully I have managed to get a couple of scores on the board and hopefully it’s a platform for the rest of the year.”
Being back at home in New Zealand…
“It’s great, you know the hotels that you are staying in, you know the places your going to eat, the training facilities, the grounds that you play at, you have got friends in each city as well. Definitely it does help to have that familiar surrounding and to be able to call upon some of the fond memories you have had at those places as well certainly helps to build your confidence up. I know everyone leading up to this test match was very excited about being able to kick off the Summer again after being on the road for a long time.”
