Rahul Dravid
The Indian batting stars talks about the Indian innings, the pitch and playing domestic cricket in New Zealand.
On their position at the end of the day…
"In terms of runs I think we did well. It was a hard fought day. There was something in the wicket right through the day if you pitched the ball in the right areas. We’re pretty happy with the score. There’s a lot of time left in the test match. Four wickets down mean that we have our noses slightly ahead. Sachin is still batting really well with Yuvraj [Singh]. Dhoni [Mahendra Singh] and the lower order can bat. We probably would have liked to have lost one less wicket to be an ideal scenario for us but having said that we are happy with the position. Hopefully we can build on it tomorrow in the first session, get a lead and put pressure on them in the third innings."
On the slow run-rate…
"There was something in it for the bowlers through the day. The ball kept swinging a little bit and when you bowled in good areas it wasn’t that easy to drive on the wicket. It kept the bowlers interested and when you were batting you never really felt like you were in. You had to work hard for your runs but I’m glad we did that. It think we saw through some difficult periods and there was some good quality batting."
On the batting so far …
"Gautam [Gambhir] batted well up front and Sachin [Tendulkar] played really well towards the end to what I think is a good position. We’ve got our noses ahead and now need to capitalise tomorrow morning."
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On his own batting display …
"I felt good today, felt really good. I thought my feet moved well, I got into good positions right through the day, scoring at a fairly decent clip. Like I said it was one of those wickets were you never felt like you were really in and I got a fairly good one. Even after the ball was nearly 60 – 65 overs old it was still seaming a little bit. I got a good one by overall pretty satisfied. It would have been nice to go on and get a big score. It would have helped the team and to be not out at the end of the day would have been great but I felt good about the way my balance was, my body was and the way the feet were moving today."
On the kind of lead India have in mind…
"The more the merrier really. I don’t think there’s a number in place at the moment."
On looking ahead to day three …
"I think the wicket is going to remain the same throughout. You are always going to be in game if you keep the ball up. If we can get 150 ahead it will be fantastic. That would be an ideal scenario for us. Having said that, we have to do the basics right and not worry about the runs. Get through the new ball tomorrow and Yuvraj and Sachin have a job to do for us."
On the Seddon Park pitch so far…
"What I can remember of it even in 98’ it started off by doing a bit then settled down to become a really good batting wicket as the test went on. In 2003 it seamed a lot and 150 seemed like a good score, 120 was a good score. This ones been a good even wicket. There’s something in it for the bowlers as well as something in it for the batsmen if you play well. You can still score runs like Jesse [Ryder] showed and Dan [Vettori] showed and some of us showed in our innings."
On playing domestic cricket for the State Canterbury Wizards…
"The fact that we got here early made a difference, no doubt about it. Playing the game at Rangiora for Canterbury was good. It gave us a chance to get used to the conditions rather than coming in cold."
On the rest of the test match….
"Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s take is a session and a day at a time. We got our nose ahead on day two. We’ll try to win a few more sessions and then think about it day by day."
On the BLACKCAPS performance…
"They are a good side and have shown that they bat deep and play good cricket."
