Gambhir turns up heat on hosts

by S M April 06, 2009

"We don't need two days. If we can't get them out in five sessions then we don't deserve to win this Test match," said Century-maker Gautam Gambhir.

"We've got the quality in this side, we've got the pace battery and the world-class spinner who can get them out.

"If we can get them out in less than three sessions (as they did in the first innings) then five sessions is a lot of time for them to handle.

"Six hundred runs, psychologically, New Zealand will only be looking to survive rather than chase. Once they get into that mindset it's never easy for any side to survive for five sessions. New Zealand will have a lot of trouble with the kind of attack we've got."

"We wanted to play New Zealand out of this Test match and it was very important for us to have partnerships so that's why I changed gears," he explained.

He said: "They way I was hitting the ball, the way I was seeing the ball I was very happy. But I just missed it and played a very bad shot and I was disappointed because I wanted to get a double hundred."

"The history of the game would suggest it's unlikely that we're going to win this game but should we get into a position where we get into the last day with six or seven wickets left, and we're in a position to chase down a large score, then we'll do it," New Zealand coach Andy Moles said.

"But it's all about getting into that last day with lots of wickets in hand. Certainly this one is shaping up to be a battle to save the Test match."

"Yesterday (Saturday) we batted poorly," he said. "There was some reasonable bowling but I don't think it was impossible to play against the attack.

"Zaheer Khan bowled very, very well but it's not illegal to swing the ball and bowl good areas. We batted poorly and we need to make sure we get out there second time around and play as we can."

He continued: "We have to do the basics for longer. In this game we haven't bowled in pairs for long enough and we have certainly haven't batted in pairs for long enough. We have to get back to the basics."