Lucknow : New Zealand’s off-spin all-rounder Michael Bracewell, who picked up 1/13 in his four overs during the visitors’ six-wicket defeat to India in the second T20I, felt that the hosts were too good on a pitch which suits their style of play.
He added that the pitch at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow wasn’t necessarily a bad advertisement for T20I cricket, while pointing out that having variety in pitches around the world is a good thing.
“No, I think it was cool to play on a different wicket, and as I said earlier, it’s one of those ones where if you play on a wicket like that all the time or if you or if you play on a wicket that’s flat all the time, then you don’t get a true test of your skill.”
“So, I think a variety of wickets around the world is a positive thing and India were just too good on a wicket that probably suited their style of play and obviously growing up playing in those conditions as well.
So, it’s one of those ones where you expect different wickets around the world and we can’t complain; it’s exciting to try and figure out a way to play on these wickets,” Bracewell said in the post-match press conference.
In Sunday’s T20I at Lucknow, the spinners from both teams bowled 30 out of the 40 overs and no sixes were hit by batters from both sides as India chased down 100 with a ball to spare after keeping New Zealand to 99/8.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted he was trying to find spinners in his eleven to make India work hard for their runs. “It was obviously a great game of cricket.
To get it so close was a pretty good effort from the boys. If we got an extra 10-15 (runs), it could’ve been the difference, but I think the calmness of Hardik and Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) to get them over the line was pretty good.”
“I was trying to find them (spinners) from everywhere. I was asking Lockie (Ferguson) if he could bowl some off spin but yeah I think you don’t often see more than 12 overs of spin out there.
I think maybe we bowled 16 or 17, so it’s definitely something different.” With the three-match series now levelled at 1-1, India and New Zealand will play the decider at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.