Henry lauds Kiwis' efforts

Although New Zealand lost the opening Test match in Kanpur, they won plaudits for their fighting abilities. A lot of it was on view again on Friday as the Kiwis bowled themselves into a good position to make things difficult for India.

While they were made to toil by Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane on a sweltering day, they rarely buckled and kept going at the duo to leave the Indians with plenty of running to do. Matt Henry, back into the Test side, led the visitors’ performance with a 3/35 show and the right-arm pacer was visibly thrilled.

“The way we went about our work today was outstanding,” said the 24-year-old. “We knew we had to make sure we controlled the run-rate because it is very tough in these conditions to take wickets. We knew it was important with the new ball to take advantage of it because the wicket had been under covers for a long time so that was going to be a crucial part of the game.

Building dots

“Moving forward from there it was just important to maintain those (bowling) partnerships through the middle and make sure we could create pressure by building dots. Our spinners were outstanding today. Jeets (Jeetan Patel) and Sat (Mitchell Santner) were fantastic in allowing us to build a lot of pressure and that manifested to what happened at the end of the day.”

Told only on Friday morning that he would be playing his fifth Test, Henry said he was completely prepared for the occasion.

“I knew I had to make sure I did all my preparation. I've still been doing a lot of training and work behind the scenes. Even in South Africa, where I wasn’t able to play, I was still doing a lot of work with the coaches in the nets and making sure I was ready to go if needed. We had a few warm-up games out at Lincoln, some winter training and one-dayers to keep the loads up.”

Henry lavished praise on Jeetan Patel, who landed only on Wednesday night but was in his elements, grabbing 2/66. "It is a tough ask coming in from England and only having a couple of days to prepare. He's obviously got a lot of experience and he was outstanding. He brought a lot of energy in the field and experience and confidence.

“I thought the way he played today was exceptional, the way both spinners played in tandem. They showed a lot of control and created pressure through those tough periods where it was really hot and important we could control that run-rate because we had to keep that squeeze on,” he reasoned.