IND vs NZ | Timing of my dismissal was wrong, rues Hanuma Vihari
Hanuma Vihari, who top-scored for India on Day 1 with a well-compiled 55, admitted that his dismissal, which came on the stroke of tea, came at the worst possible time for the team. India, after losing Vihari in the 54th over, lost their next six wickets for just 48 runs, suffering a major collapse.
After losing Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in the span of eight overs, it looked like India were headed for a Wellington-esque collapse on Day 1 of the Christchurch Test, but an uncharacteristically aggressive onslaught from Hanuma Vihari put the visitors on top for a brief while. Vihari, in his 81-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara, took the attack to the New Zealand bowlers and raced off to his fifty in just 69 balls, negating New Zealandâs short ball ploy with cuts and pulls.Â
However, he fell just on the stroke of tea to the bowling of Wagner and a major collapse ensued post his dismissal as the visitors added just 48 more runs before being bundled out by the Kiwis. Vihari rued the timing of his dismissal and admitted that it came at the worst time possible for the team. The middle-order batsman, who batted with a strike rate of 78.57 today, further stated that it was his personal choice to bat aggressively and asserted that he will continue to do the same in the future.Â
"It was a wrong time to get out obviously, just before tea. We had a good session. We scored around 110 runs and lost just one wicket prior to that. I was batting positively but I thought I played one shot too many but that's the name of the game - sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. Today it did not go my way, but I'll look to play positively again when I get a chance,â Vihari said in the post-match press conference.
"It was a personal decision to play positively. Obviously as a team we wanted to show intent than what we did in Wellington. The wicket was much better here, obviously, and it was a personal decision to put the short ball away and put pressure on the bowlers. It didn't come off quite well today, but I'm sure we can do that when the next opportunity comes."
For a vast majority of his innings, the 26-year-old was seen cutting and pulling the ball aerially, taking the attack to the Kiwi bowlers everytime they resorted to the short ball plan. Vihari, who was seen practicing hitting short balls in the net with batting coach Vikram Rathour prior to the dayâs play, revealed that he looked at short balls as scoring opportunities. He further asserted that he took the positive approach in order to take pressure off his partner Pujara, who is not the quickest of batsmen in the world.
"We knew that New Zealand will come up with the short ball ploy at some point in the game and so I was preparing for it (beforehand). I was looking at it like a run-scoring opportunity. Pujara was batting at one end, so I wanted to take the lead and play positively. He is someone who takes a lot of time, we know that. So I didn't want to consume more time and put the pressure on Pujara or on our innings, as a whole. Because if you don't get the scoreboard moving, we'll get stuck like we did in the last game, that's why I decided to play positively and take them on."
New Zealand ended Day 1 on 60/0, getting through to stumps unscathed, but Vihari stated that the Indian bowlers were unlucky to not reap rewards for their hard work late in the day. The middle-order batsman, however, is confident that the Indian bowlers will excel on Day 2 should they stick to their plans.Â
"Although they got to 60/0, I thought the scoreboard doesn't really reflect the way we bowled. I thought we bowled in great areas and there's also some help from the wicket. With the new kookaburra ball, you tend to find some help, it might ease on later, but as a bowling unit, we will stick to our plans - we will have different plans according to the wicket and the batsman. We'll stick to it and hopefully we'll get a few breakthroughs early on."