After thrashing India by 10 wickets in the Wellington Test, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said the formula of forgetting about results and getting the simple things right helped the hosts to outclass the world's top-ranked Test side on Monday (February 24).
The Black Caps came into the opening Test of the two-match Test series against India after a 0-3 whitewash in Australia but they outstandingly turned the things around to break the seven-match winning streak of Virat Kohli and his team in the International Cricket Council World Test Championship.
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Following the massive victory, Williamson said the formula helped them to recover from the Australia defeat and beat India in the first Test inside four days in Wellington.
After winning toss, Williamson has decided to bowl first and the Kiwis brilliantly bowled out India for just 165 runs in the first innings and then the hosts have managed 348 runs in the first inning before dismissing them for 191 in the second innings, as a result, they just had to chase nine runs for the win – which they chased down the total in just 1.4 overs to go 1-0 up in the two-match Test series.
Williamson told reporters after the match, “It’s just about stripping things back a little bit. You can get carried away thinking about results (especially) when you have a number of poor ones and sometimes they want for a good one can be a distraction to getting it.”
He added, “So it’s about focusing on the things that are important, the roles that give us the best chance of success, and if we do that the result manifests (itself). I think that’s what we saw in this game and that was what was pleasing.”
On a green Basin Reserve pitch, the skipper said: “You never felt like you were ‘in’. In terms of previously coming to the Basin it would be a day and a half and then the wicket would become quite docile and very batter friendly but (this) was a good balance between bat and ball.”
Williamson signed off by saying, “The lower order partnerships were quite important. And obviously without those, having to chase something similar (a target of about 150) would have been really challenging.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
