New Zealand captain Tom Latham hailed the team’s collective effort after their memorable 2-0 series win against the potent Indian team at the Maharashtra Association Cricket Stadium, Pune on Saturday. The Kiwis registered a 113-run win while defending the target of 359 runs to clinch their first Test series win on Indian soil.
The visitors came up with a collective show as everyone chipped in when it was required. New Zealand were able to tick the right boxes with both bat and ball and they certainly outplayed India in all three departments of the game. Latham was also able to lead from the front as he scored a vital knock of 86 runs in the second innings and helped his team strengthen their lead.
Furthermore, Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips scored crucial knocks of 41 and 48 runs respectively to take New Zealand’s lead past 300.
Tom Latham said in the post-match presentation, “Really special feeling. Proud to be in this position. Whole team effort and a clear example of everyone pitching in when they needed to and everyone standing up at different times. When you come over here you want to compete and put your best foot forward. What we did last week, we played fantastically well. What we spoke during the week was making sure we stay level and stay where our feet are, and focus on this game. Putting runs on the board at the start was really important.”
Meanwhile, Mitchell Santner was the star of the show for the Kiwis as he bagged a total of 13 wickets in the match. Santner was the chief destroyer in the second innings as he returned with figures of 6-104. Latham showered praise on the left-arm orthodox spinner for delivering the goods.
Latham said, “Have to mention Mitch Santner. In that first innings, he was fantastic. Has been around the group a long time, and to finally get a break and bowl the way he has – credit has to go to him.”
Before arriving in India, New Zealand suffered a 2-0 loss against Sri Lanka and they were the underdogs against Rohit Sharma’s team. Latham feels they didn’t play that badly against the Island country and wanted to stick to their plans.
Latham concluded, “I actually think we didn’t play that badly in Sri Lanka. Obviously you look at the result – 2-0 down – but I thought we did a lot of good things. Coming here, it was about trying to stick to our basics and play the long game. Both surfaces have been different, we’ve needed to adapt and we’ve done that very well.”
The third and final Test match between India and New Zealand will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai from November 1 onwards.
