Brendon McCullum
The BLACKCAPS wicketkeeper-batsman talks saving the Test match, Indian strategy and team confidence.
On if they can still save the Test...
"That’s what we’re going to believe we can do. We haven’t found ourselves in the ideal situation but tomorrows an opportunity for the guys to stand up and show some character and if we can get out of this Test match with a draw, whilst its not the desired result, and we know that we wont win or even level the series we know we have shown some good character and that should hold us in good stead moving forward."
On today’s performance...
"Disappointing again, obviously the first innings being bowled out for 200 left us in a pretty tough situation in the game and I guess for the top order they will be bitterly disappointed they missed out again today. In saying that we’ve got a partnership formed last this afternoon hopefully with a couple of batters still to come we can try and get out of this."
On if they worked out the Indian’s strategy after tea...
"No we didn’t work out their strategy after tea or this morning but I guess when you’re in front of a game you can play with different kinds of game plans and whether they were trying to prise a wicket out of us or lull us into some false sense of security maybe that was their plan but its not the plan we thought they were going to come up with after tea."
On in hindsight, should they have batted first?...
"It could have been in hindsight. You always look back at things you may have done or not have done differently. For us, we were under the illusion this wicket was going to give us some bounce and hopefully that was going to give us the best opportunity to win the Test match. I thought we bowled really well in parts during the first day. We got them in a situation were we could have capitalised but for one reason or another we weren’t quite able to finish them off, whether that’s fatigue from the last game or we just weren’t quite accurate enough I’m not sure but I certainly wouldn’t lay any blame on the bowlers. I think the work they’ve done over the last two Test matches has been outstanding against a high quality batting opposition and they’ve certainly tolled away and tried their hardest out there."
On the Indian team declaring...
"I guess I was a little surprised. I thought they may have wanted to try and give themselves an excess of 80 overs and if it had have gone the full duration to maybe be able to pick up a second new ball later in the day but as I said before if you’re that far ahead in the game you can try different strategies and for one reason or another they decided to bat on this morning. Whether that was to give themselves and their bowlers a bit more of a rest or whether it was to play some mind games with us in terms of expecting us to be out there early on in the session I’m not too sure."
On the team’s confidence...
"You are always going to talk up your own team and from our perspective we have got to try and last five sessions and that’s been our goal and its good for them. They’ve got their confidence in their side and for us we’ve got to learn to be that confident and learn to bat five sessions and if we can do that I guess we’ll grow our confidence and ability."
On the weather forecast for tomorrow...
"I’ve been keeping a little eye on it but you can’t pray for rain or expect rain to get you out of a tricky situation, I think for us if we wake up in the morning with a big blue over head then we’ve got a fight on our hands and that’s something we’ve got to stand up to and hopefully we can grow in character by getting out of this one."
