Daniel Vettori
The BLACKCAPS captain talks about the Basin Reserve wicket, team selection and leveling the series.
On how the preparations have been going for this Test…
“Firstly there was a bit of rest involved, we gave all the fast bowlers the last two days off to make sure they bounce back pretty quickly, but apart from that its been pretty regulation in terms of a build up for a test match. There’s been a lot of talk about this Test match and how important it is to win the game and draw the series and how were going to go about doing that. A lot of that’s dictated by the wicket that we face and even the overhead conditions tomorrow morning but obviously we need to bowl India out early on to give ourselves a chance to set up the Test match.”
On if this is a traditional Basin wicket…
“I’ve never seen the Basin looking like this in my life so I’d say its not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good Test match wicket. We’re really going to have to wait and see because I haven’t seen the Basin look as brown as this, or as dry as this ever before.”
On how difficult that makes things…
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“Like I say, because I can’t get a read on it, it’s hard to say how we’ll play. Jeetan said he’d played on a wicket similar in the last game for Wellington and he said he’d had a bit of a bounce in it, it didn’t do too much and was a pretty good batting wicket as the game went on. You normally expect the Basin to have something in it, it settles down, days 2 and 3 are really good batting days and later on you get a bit of inconsistent bounce. It doesn’t normally turn here so that’s my underlying expectation but this might suit us in a better way you see.”
On the line up…
“I suppose we’ll go through all permutations of that but I’ve actually been impressed with the way James has bowled, he’s been unlucky and the fact he hasn’t taken wickets I know has disappointed him but talking to the guys behind the stumps they’ve been impressed with the way the balls been coming through and that’s quite an encouraging sign. I would say he will make the team, its just we’ve got to figure out the rest of the balance and once again Jeetan Patel bowled exceptionally well in the last Test. Like always, it will normally come down to him or the extra seamer.”
On the mentality for this Test match…
“I think we have to go a mentality which isn’t always a line of thinking we usually have, but I think we realise a 1- all series would be great result for us so any opportunity we can to win the Test match I think we have to take and if that means putting ourselves under pressure with a loss, then yes I definitely think we’ll go down that road.“
