AUCKLAND: Martin Guptill feels it got difficult for New Zealand to score off Jasprit Bumrah in the death overs coupled with the sluggish wicket at Eden Park, as they lost by seven wickets in the second T20 international here on Sunday.
Guptill scored 33 off 20 balls but Indian bowlers kept them in check as they could manage 132/5 which India chased down in 17.3 overs.
“Lot of swing and misses. We were trying but we were facing one of the best death bowlers in the world (Jasprit Bumrah). It is tough to get him away at the end.” The opener felt that India once again out-batted them on a difficult track,” Guptill told reporters after the match.
“They played very well, as hard as they did the other night. They built partnerships to put pressure on us. We were not able to do that and got out-batted tonight. India have got some great players and match winners. It is hard for the boys to go out there and try their best. Sometimes you come up short,” he said.
“It’s just one of those grounds where it is very hard to defend. We have seen it in a number of games. We got 240 versus Australia and we lost. It is just hard to defend runs on here and we bat first a lot here. We put up totals a lot of the days and other days we might have done it, but on this particular day we were not able to pull through,” he added.
He also said the pitch was getting slower as the match progressed. “We certainly felt that the pitch was getting slower and slower when we were batting. It got harder and harder to bat as the game progressed. We needed one of the top three-four to bat majority of the innings. We weren’t able to get partnerships to add up the total.
“It was a slightly different wicket. Earlier on, it was coming nicely. Colin (Munro) and I were off to a reasonable start. We lost momentum, thereafter, the sixth over, and we had to sort of rebuild from there,” he said.
“We probably knew we were light on runs. But we had to try and defend that, and get early wickets upfront. Thought the bowlers did well in the front six overs, we needed more wickets after Virat got out. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul batted very well and we were not able to break that partnership,” he added. IANS
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