AUS vs NZ | Have to be ruthless, need a bit of luck against Australia, reckons Neil Wagner
New Zealand quick Neil Wagner feels that one needs to be ruthless while facing a quality batting line up like Australia’s as he believes that their plans were pretty solid. Wagner, who bagged 4 wickets, admitted that the Aussie batsmen were always one step ahead of them and deserve the credit.
New Zealand won’t be very happy after what panned out to be a day of utter Australian dominance as the hosts amassed a mammoth first innings total of 467. Big knocks from Travis Head (114), Steven Smith (85) and skipper Tim Paine (79) propelled the Kangaroos ahead as the Kiwis failed to break in until it was too late.
Neil Wagner lead the visitors’ bowling attack with 4 wickets as he removed the 3 top scorers of the Australian innings to restrict them under 500. Wagner believes that their fighting alone wasn’t enough as luck didn’t favour them. The Kiwi quick couldn’t help but hail the hosts for their great display of batting.
"Pretty tough day. We put in a lot of hard work yesterday and were hoping for some rewards early doors and there wasn't any. We kept fighting and I think that's one of the personalities of this team, we kept giving everything. The opportunities didn't really always go our way. Finally, we created something, thought we might have a bit of a gap and then two guys [Head and Paine] came out and played really well. It's one of those things," Wagner was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
"Full credit to the Australian batsmen. They've almost been a step ahead of us in some ways. Showed a lot of patience, some clear plans and they kept doing that through the whole innings.
Wagner pressed on being on the offensive all the time to dismantle a quality batting line up like the Kangaroos. The Kiwi bowler who has been in tremendous form lately believed that their plan was pretty solid.
"I think we created the pressure and it just didn't happen. Sometimes it can be frustrating and you leak a couple of runs. I thought our plans were pretty good. You've got to be ruthless against a quality batting line up. I guess you've got to be better for longer and you need a bit of luck and we didn't really have that," he added
New Zealand reached stumps at 44-2, with Tom Blundell (15) and captain Kane Williamson (9) losing their wickets.
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