Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has recently shared his views on India’s eighth wicket defeat to New Zealand, saying that it was one of those few occasions where “nothing works out even if you try”. Considered as one of the pre-tournament favourites, India faced two back-to-back matches against Pakistan and New Zealand. Notably, only two teams will qualify from each of the two Super 12 groups for the next round as well.
“It was a difficult day for our team but these kinds of days come sometimes, when even if you try, nothing comes out. Nothing much to talk about honestly. I just hope in the coming days, our team will show something great in this tournament,” Sachin Tendulkar said.
He continued: “I felt India was playing a catching-up game, the way New Zealand were dominating, it was a difficult time for our batters because they could not get those easy singles which forced them to play big shots. I don”t think there was that penetration in our bowling.”
He also opened up on New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and called his tactics as top-notch and said that he must have come with a lot of planning against India.
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“From ball one, his field settings and bowling changes were top-notch. I felt his planning must be very good. In the first six overs, we were 35 for 2. In that, 20 runs came from five overs and one over from Adam Milne yielded 15 runs. For me, the crucial phase of the game was after six to 10th overs. There were 24 balls there, we scored 13 runs and lost one wicket. According to me that was a critical phase in which we missed out on capitalising. Because I know if you lose wickets quickly, then batters think of making partnerships. But those easy singles were not available and that forced our batters to play big shots. Rohit was out while doing that, Virat was out like that,” said Sachin Tendulkar.
However, the batting maestro also opened up on another successful tactic of the New Zealand team while bowling to Pant, which he referred to was similar to the one they did during the 2019 (50-over) World Cup.
“Pant came and the fast bowlers came immediately and when spin attack came, immediately the end (of spin bowling) was changed. Again a smart move,” he explained. “I remembered the 2019 World Cup, when Mitchell Santner came to bowl to Pant, he was bowling from the longer end so that when Pant attacked towards mid-wicket, it would be towards the longest boundary of the ground. It happened the same way yesterday also.”
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Sachin Tendulkar also praised the leg-spinners who are mixing up deliveries like googlies, top-spin, flippers and normal leg-spin as they were all tasted success in the recent past against India as well.
“If I have to speak about spinners, Ish Sodhi was very effective yesterday and along with him Mitchell Santner also did bowl well. Both combined gave just 32 runs in 8 overs, and that is very impactful performance. We have to do better in these areas. When India started bowling, with the kind of small total you need to take three wickets to remain in the game. We did not concede too many runs and took one wicket (in powerplay) but it was not impactful bowling,” concluded Sachin Tendulkar.
