Brendon McCullum disappointed with his team’s batting performance – Cricket news
Disappointed to have lost the first Test of the two-match series against England at Lord’s, Brendon McCullum, the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 captain, believes that Tim Southee, his premier fast bowler, deserved more than what his team gave him in the last innings.
The visitors needed 239 runs to win in the last innings of the match and the sporting pundits expected a close contest. However, the Kiwis’ batting line-up fell like a house of cards in the last innings of the encounter and bowled out for merely 68 runs
in only the 23rd over of the innings.
Prior to that, Southee had bowled out of his skin in England’s second innings. The right-arm seamer grabbed six wickets to restrict the home team to just 213 runs to keep the Black Caps’ hopes alive in the fixture.
While speaking to the post-match presentation ceremony, the wicketkeeper/batsman admitted that the batsmen ruined the efforts of Southee, who deserved to be on the winning side. McCullum was all praise for the English seamers, who never allowed the New Zealanders
to settle down in the last innings.
“The way England bowled was outstanding and created an element of panic,” said McCullum. “During those first couple of days we had periods of domination. I'm proud of the guys to get us into a position to chase 240, it shows how far we've come but we still
have a way to go. Tim Southee deserved more than we gave him today.”
On the other side of the coin, Alastair Cook, the England captain, is over the moon to have taken an unassailable lead in the series, despite the failure of his batsmen to live up to the expectations in both innings. The left-handed opener was is delighted
with the performance of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who picked up 15 wickets between them in the match.
Cook mentioned, “We wanted a few more runs this morning but the way Broad and Jimmy bowled was outstanding. Broad has all the attributes to be a world-class bowler, when he gets it right, like today he's very hard to face.”
The last Test begins from Friday at Leeds.
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