Team India pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah has said that all the batsmen did try their best and gave the effort to play more shots against New Zealand so that they could post some more runs on the board and help the bowlers. However, he also added that the approach did not work out well and it was difficult to bat also.
Put in to bat first, in Dubai on Sunday, India could only put up 110 for 7 in their 20 overs. And, New Zealand chased down the total in 14.3 overs with 8 wickets in hand. While speaking after the match, Bumrah explained their approach towards the game as well.
At a post-match press conference, Jasprit Bumrah said: “We knew that, in the second innings, dew does play a massive factor. As a batting unit, we tried to give ourselves some cushion. We wanted to get some extra runs that could give us the advantage in the second innings. In the process, we played a lot of attacking shots and that didn’t come off today. But that was the approach as a batting unit. In the second innings, batting does get easier, so we wanted to give that cushion to the bowlers.”
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Jasprit Bumrah, who was the only bowler who scalped 2 wickets and ended up with the figures of 2/19, added that batting became easier in the second innings as well. He stated: “When we bowled length balls in the second innings, it wasn’t holding in the pitch. But, in the first innings, as you must have seen, the pick up and pull shots weren’t coming off and shot-making was really difficult.”
He further said: “We had a discussion over the fact that in the last game as well the wicket got better in the second innings. That’s why we wanted those extra 20-25 runs so that we could cover for the change in conditions and bowlers could get some margin. The toss became a very crucial factor and that’s why we were keen on scoring as many as we could.”
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However, India’s batting unit failed miserably and they were at 70 by the 15th over. Later, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja’s cameos ensured they post 110 runs as well. India will now take on Afghanistan on November 3.
“Absolutely, sometimes you need a break. You miss your family sometimes, you have been on the road for six months. All of that, at times, plays on the back of your mind. But, when you are on the field, you don’t think about all of those things. You don’t control the scheduling. Obviously, staying in a bubble for such a long period of time does play a role on the players’ minds. But this is the time we are living in, there’s a pandemic going on. We try to adapt but sometimes bio-bubble fatigue does creep in. It is the way it is, you cannot control a lot over there,” Jasprit Bumrah concluded.
