An elated New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said that 260 was a good score and the total was possible due to having partnerships.
“Absolutely happy and proud. What we wanted was build partnerships. It was not an easy surface. Although you always want more, 260 was not a bad effort on that surface,” he said.
Asked why he opted to bat first in day-night matches, a choice against general trend in India, Williamson said, “Coming here, we had to decide between dew that may or may not come in versus the deterioration of the surface. The dew didn’t come in, so that perhaps worked in our favour.”
On the decisions to drop Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi, he said, “We have played on different surfaces, so that affects selection. Also it has been a long tour.
“It’s exciting to go level into the final match.”
Great feeling ‘Man-of-the-Match’ Martin Guptill said, “It certainly is a great feeling. To put up a performance myself and give the team a defendable total is satisfying.
“It came down to our bowlers to do the job, and they did. Virat is a class player and to get him early was a big step,” said Guptill.
Showering high praise on the spinners, Guptill said: “I think the way Ish and Mitch Santner bowled was top draw and absolutely world class.
Guptill said he was not aware of Williamson’s idea to bat first until he saw it. “To be honest, I wasn’t actually privy to that information. So I’ve just got to go out there and find out if we’re batting or bowling,” he said.
“I think in the end it was the right decision. I think we saw how the pitch played.”
Lower down the order, Axar Patel (38) and Amit Mishra (14) revived India’s hope but before they could convert it into a match-winning partnership, the latter was run out.
He also hailed Dhoni for his instinctive flick to run out Ross Taylor.
“Unfortunately Ross was short of his ground. You know you’re going to get a piece of genius like that, so it happens. Nothing to take away from it,” said Guptill.
