New Zealand opener Tom Latham continued his good form with the bat during the first One-Day International against India but just like the Test series, he did not get enough support from the other end. His unbeaten knock of 79 runs helped the visitors to post a respectable total of 190. In the process, he became the first batsman from his country and tenth overall to carry his bat in an ODI. But against a formidable batting lineup like India, the total was never going to be enough as they chased down the total in the 34th over. Talking to the journalists after the game, Latham said that the failure of top order cost them the match but said that his team would look to perform better from the next game.
Excerpt:
On the Dharamsala pitch and his team’s batting performance:
Maybe there was a little bit of variable bounce early on and the ball did swing about and [they] hit a hard length. Unfortunately, we lost early wickets in the top 10 [overs] and continued to lose wickets in regular intervals after that. It’s nice that me and Tim [Southee] managed to put a decent partnership and scrap to 190. If we came out, bowled well and put the ball in the right areas for long enough and got a couple of wickets you never know, but unfortunately we couldn’t get those early wickets and ended up losing the match.
On his defensive approach early on but unleashing an array of huge shots when batting with the lower order:
As an opener, you want to spend as much time out in the middle as possible. Obviously losing wickets at the other end dictated the way I could play and obviously couldn’t be as free as I wanted to be throughout the middle [overs] when I had to build a partnership towards the end with the tail. I suppose that’s the reason for batting the way I did in the middle and towards the end. If were only a couple down, I would have played a different way obviously.”
On the team season to drop Trent Boult and Matt Henry:
I think, if you look at their workload over the last couple of weeks, they have bowled a lot of overs.I think it’s important for our team that they rest and they are able to go in the next few matches. It is pretty tough for the bowlers when they play every game, especially [after] the amount of overs they bowled in the Test series. Hopefully, they are rested and recovered and when they do play they are hopefully ready to go.
On Tim Southee’s batting and the positives from the game:
Obviously, it was his 100th match and a pretty special occasion to come out and get his first fifty. The way he played, the way he counter-attacked. It was nice we managed to put a partnership on the board and get a score we could possible defend, but it wasn’t to be. Yes, we haven’t got the results we wanted on this tour so far but there is still four massive games to come. Obviously in the first one we didn’t adapt quick enough. Hopefully we can change a few things in the next couple of days. When we play our best cricket we will beat most teams in the world.