Heaping praise on Brendon McCullum and B J Watling for their spirited batting in the ongoing third Test against India, New Zealand’s assistant coach Bob Carter said on Sunday that their effort has given the home team “a lot of heart” to fight the tough battle of survival in the match.
“After the first hour or so, the mood wasn’t good. But with the wonderful partnership between BJ and the captain, it has given us a lot of heart to take into tomorrow,” he said. “The key for us was to have a partnership. We were really struggling in the morning. This was a real test of us today and tomorrow is the same — Test of our batting to see whether we can put a score on the board in order to put India under pressure.
“They are a fine team, they are going to come out and bowl well again tomorrow. We know we have got a challenge on our hands, and it is something we are really looking forward to,” he added. In the morning session, New Zealand were reduced to 87/4 at one stage and then lost a further wicket in the post-lunch session, but McCullum and Watling resisted the disciplined Indian bowling after tea, to take the match into a fourth day.
“Brendon has now combined a lot of his game with defence. Today was a tough day of Test cricket. They didn’t give us anything and they bowled well since they bowled in the second innings in Auckland. They bowled very well in this game. Brendon has really shown his defensive game is to come forward.” “And as well as he still likes to attack. Going from 94 to 100 with a six certainly caught me by surprise. I think he is growing in stature as a Test player and I would like to see him play a lot more,” said Carter.
“In the first innings, you saw again how well India bowled. We did well to get 192 in the end. They came at us hard today. No one was really playing loosely, they earned their wickets well. It was a great day of Test cricket,” he added. Carter said he wants his batsmen to carry on for at least two more sessions.